Dealer trying to Sell a Service

My local Toy dealer is trying to sell me for my 21 Tundra and my wife’s 23 Highlander a fuel injector cleaning and an engine oil cleaning service. I ask why is this not in the Manual for rec service. I get a yada yada type answer. I don’t fill up at brand X gas in a town population of 50. I get both vehicles oil changed at 5k miles at the dealer. So factory oil filter and full synthetic oil. Why would I need this cleaning service? I like research and data. Will these additional services really make a positive difference?

 

I vote no. Waste of money.

 

An un-needed up sell.

 

Waste of money and risk of damage to catalytic converters in the case of an upper intake cleaning (big upsell for 1st Generation direct injected engines)

Your Tundra is not direct injected and your Highlander is D4S, which overcomes the intake deposit problems with DI engines.

Use Top Tier fuels or Techron/PEA based fuel additive for keeping your fuel system/injectors clean.

here is the website for Top Tier fuels…https://www.toptiergas.com/

Basically is a robust additive pack designed to exceed min specs for fuel quality. You can do a deep dive on that topic alone. As long as you are buying fuel from a reputable station that has good turnover of product, you’ll be okay. Running a PEA based fuel system cleaner regimen before an oil change can help minimize fuel deposits, however It may never be needed.

traditional multi-port injected engines like your Tundra spray fuel over your intake valves, effectively cleaning them in use. Direct-injected (DI) engines inject directly into the combustion chamber, which results in the intake valves accumulating heavy deposits. This turned out to be a significant problem for many manufacturers; the “fix” was routine upper intake cleaning services performed as an upsell service. All the crap cleaned out ends up in the exhaust stream, poisoning the catalytic converters. Conveniently this usually happens out of warranty and the dealer is eager to fix it for you, or even better, take your car on trade for a new one!

 

BS service for sure. Not a need if using top tier gasoline.

 

You don't.

No.

 

Wanna clean out your engine then give them the good old Italian tune up once a month on an on ramp or long stretch of road.

 

Did you see the V35-FTS teardown video from the Car Care Nut? That motor has D4S and still had significant carbon buildup on the intake valves at well under 100k miles. So I'm not so sure that the D4S system actually ameliorates the carbon buildup problems associated with direct injection

 

no, I haven’t seen that one. Will have to find it.

 

save your money and take your wife to a nice dinner instead

 

I would expect to see more deposits with a turbo engine. D4S was supposed to address carbon coking on the intake valves; curious if it’s a common issue with D4S engines or if the owner of that engine had driving habits that didn’t allow for much use of the port injectors. I’ll try to get a look at my MILs Highlander next time I work on it.

I’m also curious what products OPs dealer was planning to use, particularly the oil treatment. BG44 was the common intake/fuel system treatment 10-15 years ago. GM had their own specific upper intake cleaner. They worked when used regularly - IIRC GM recommended every 10-20k miles. But a lot of people were being sold on the service at 90-100k miles. Cats can’t handle that much contamination without damage.

Direct injectors still need attention, which is why I switched to Top Tier fuels and Techron treatments on my GM 3.6LLT. Buildup on those intake valves was pretty nasty. I just have a 4Runner and Tundra now, so no DI. But I do still run Top Tier fuels most of the time. Generally speaking, price is comparable to discount fuels in my area.