Do any of you mess with any of these gas/oil additives or are they just hype? Your thoughts.....

 

don't use them, i used some for my civic and my o2 senors had to be replaced, the Z manuel says not to use them anyways

 

I wouldn't use any additives. However, a fuel injector cleaner every 8-12 months would probably be OK. Any comments from others on this?

WayneTN

 

i've used the fuel injector cleaner on my civic like 2 times in the last 2 years, then my check engine light came on, mech said it was due to low octane or fuel addivtives and civic always had 91

 

The oil addatives, particularly the teflon ones, are a total waste of money. Notice how you don't see all the slick 50, etc ads anymore? That's because the FTC took them to court over their bogus claims. Products are still on the market but they don't make all the outrageous claims anymore.

Fuel injector cleaner addatives are WORSE. They can do actual damage and very little good. I design fuel injectors for a living. They do not need cleaning and we never test any of those addatives for compatibility with our plastic parts and elastomers. No vehicle manufacturer recommends injector cleaning. Lots of aftermarket crap out there because there once was a problem with a few (GM) vehicles. Once something like this gets in the publics mind and the aftermarket sees they can swindle them it takes decades for the truth to get out. Current gasoline blends contain all the detergents you need.

Avoid anything with alcohol unless you really know you have a problem with water in your fuel. Alchohol will greatly increase corrosion and wear on many metal fuel system components. It will also permeate the nylons used for things like the coil former inside your fuel injectors and deteriorate the wire insulation. Alcohol swells the elastomers (o-rings) used to seal the fuel system which can make it very hard to remove and reinstall the fittings.

 

I use a fuel system cleaner every 3500 miles in every one of our cars. Usually use Techron. I also use an isopropyl alcohol based dry gas additive every couple of months to eliminate moisture from the fuel system. I don't use any oil additives. I used Redline water wetter in the cooling system of a previous vehicle that had a tendency to run hot.