Is it necessary to clean the fuel injectors?

[begins]

Hi all,

I often passed by workshops and quite a number of them would advertise Fuel Injector Cleaning services.

Is it worth doing it for my old Citroen C5? Any repercussion of doing this maintenance service?

Kindly advise me and Thank you very much.

Regards,

[Hell Razor5543]

It really depends on what type of driving you do. As long as the injectors get hot enough they remain clear, and motorway driving usually does a good job of this.

[chrisbradleyuk]

Their are many fuel additives that will 'clean' the whole system, including injectors but as have been suggested a 'hot run' will dispose of any 'clogging' if any injector after this treatment does not respond, then it needs replacing, you don't need a brand new one.

[Northern_Mike]

I've never had injectors cleaned and never had any problems with any of the cars I've had longer than 10 minutes. I usually do about 25-30k miles a year.

Sent from my GT-I9505

[Xaccers]

Only had it done on two cars, one was a 205 that started banging from on cylinder, reportedly from the injector dumping fuel rather than spraying it, and the other time was with my fist Xantia after I flooded the engine. Both times the cleaners just gave me reconditioned injectors and took the old ones off me.

[Peter.N.]

I have a 406 and C5 Hdi 8 valve, both have done around 200,000 miles and as far as I know have the original injectors/clutch/DMFs.

Peter

[Mandrake]

Is 'begins' referring to petrol injectors or diesel injectors ? There's a world of difference between them...

If it's petrol injectors then I would say unless there are actual symptoms its probably not worth doing. I just had the injectors on mine ultrasonic cleaned in search of an ongoing low power problem only to find that all 6 injectors were balanced within 1% and were within 3% of normal flow rates - so cleaning them didn't fix the issue! This was on a 15 year old 110k mile car too... so unless there are any symptoms that point strongly towards injectors save your money.

Diesel injectors I can't comment on.

[KP]

TBH some cars need it and some cars don't.

A diesel is more likely to get sooted up injectors, especially on poor quality fuel and can sometimes help to have them exchanged for known good ones.

The BMW M57 diesel engine is known for injector problems long term and getting them out can be fun, just youtube it to see the extremes some have gone to without using a hydraulic removal tools.

If an engine is getting a good hot thrash on semi decent fuel every once in a while per 1000 or so miles they should last a very long time. Pootle around with it long term and then they will soot up, just like an exhaust system on a diesel vehicle.

[Hell Razor5543]

When I got my BX the fuel economy wasn't that good. It was recommended I use an injector cleaner, and the mpg went up by 5 miles. However, as I also did a reasonable amount of motorway driving I didn't need to use it again. I used Wynnes Diesel injector cleaner.

[hawaiianblue]

The one shot tip in the petrol tank affairs are normally worth a shot once a year or so, but then a few tanks of premium petrol probably does the same.

Wynns do one in a can that you fill the fuel filter with, that seemed to make a massive difference to my parents old Xantia HDi, much more perky afterwards. It's also good for getting a car past a marginal fail on the emissions test.

The services garages offer normally pump a cleaner directly through the fuel rail, terraclean or some such is one of the brands. It's probably only really needed if the injectors are really clogged after another problem though.

[VertVega]

Is 'begins' referring to petrol injectors or diesel injectors ? There's a world of difference between them...

If I remember correct in one of his posts 'begins' has written that it's a 2.0 petrol C5 (same engine like mine).

I have never cleaned fuel injectors in my current petrol and not also in previous car Xantia 2.0 petrol which made 400k km with the original injectors without any problems