"Fuel Treatment" vs. "Injector Cleaner"

[serious II]

What is the difference between "Fuel system Cleaners" , "Injector Cleaners " and "fuel system treatments"? Is it mostly a marketing thing, or are there serious chemical differences
?.

I use Lucas UCL and am pretty happy with it. Is there any reason to use a 12,000 mile "fuel system treatment" if I use Lucas UCL? I always fill up with either Shell , Mobil , or Texaco and avoid "discount gas" at all costs. Is the Lucas UCL a waste of money?

 

[TR3-2001SE]

I think most of these treatments are not needed if you use a good brand of gas like shell. That said I had an audi that would hardly run and 5 treatments with gumout fuel injector cleaner made it run smooth as silk. I use Techron on the Honda I just purchased as I didn't have a good maintence history so wanted to clean it out good. Now it only gets shell. The new V power high test shell suppose to have 5 times the normal cleaning detergent in it. I use it in my Miata and the milage went up 2mpg.
Bottom line is use them when you have a problem.

 

[JohnBrowning]

BMW and GM have both authored papers for SAE demonstrateing that the additives in fuels are no suffcient to keep fuel systems clean! This is especialy true in N. America! Recently Toytoa added it's weight to this arguement and supports the use of fuel additives to help keep thr furl system clean.

You never know what is going in the tank at your gas station reguarless of what the sign says!! The fuel it self is basicly the same every where you go int he USA. The difference is what additives are added and how much!

You surely will not hurt anything adding 3 onces of UCL for ever 10 gallons of gas! You can use just UCL it will take car of the injectors and CC's as far as I am aware.

 

[LCD]

It is a marketing technique using all those terms. Use FP60 and take care off all those things.

 

[T-Keith]

Also I would add that fuel isn't the same in all areas. In your area Shell may be good, but in other areas it is no doubt from a different source, and may not be as good. All gas here sucks, and may get worse soon.

-T

 

[Big Jim]

Although there may be some overlap, those products are directed toward a more specific problem. The chemicals that clean injectors well may not do much to remove water from the fuel tank for example.

Some of these products are pure SNAKE OIL and others really pretty much do what they claim to do.

It does help to ocassionally run some fuel dryer through the system and it does help to ocassionally run an injector cleaner through the system. The same with a cumbustion chamber and valve cleaner. It also helps to choose something that WORKS. Therein lies the challenge, seperating truth from fiction.