My six month old Town and Country had its 25,000 mile check up at the dealer and they said it needed the air intake and valves cleaned, to the tune of $130. I asked how to keep from having to do this twice a year and they said use 93 octane gas every 3rd tank to keep the additives from building up. The car is rated for 87 octane. Was I taken?
I don’t understand this! I suppose the air filter should probably be changed at this mileage and one could wipe out the air duct and filter housing. For $130, I don’t think the dealer removed the cylinder head and cleaned the carbon off the valves. I really don’t understand the business of using 93 octane fuel to reduce additive build-up. In fact, I’ve never heard of “additive buid-up”. If anything, 93 octane fuel has more additives than 87 octane fuel. If the owner’s manual specifies 87 octane, this is the difinitve answer. IMHO the 93 octane, while not hurting anything, isn’t really of any benefit.
I think so.
My husband has pointed out that, as I was following the manufacturer’s published recommendations, this air intake and valve cleaning work, if it DID need to be done, should have been covered under the warranty, so to make us feel better, although it won’t accomplish anything, probably, he’s going to call the dealer and demand a refund of our money. Thanks for your replies.
Yes it sure sounds as if you have been taken. I am assumning all they did was run a can of fuel injector cleaner thrugh the car. Maybe they injected it directly into the intake thrugh one of the Vacume ports, but thats about it… Did you harm any thing no… Are you now $130 lighter, Yes… Was it necessary, probably not… Did the Dealer have a boat payment due… YUP
Unless there is an obvious performance probem you do not need these services.
This process is nothing more than running cleaner through the intake or in some cases, removing the intake for cleaning.
One problem that occurs here is that the customer deals with a service advisor or manager and the vast majority of these guys are not mechanics nor have they ever been one. Most are also not very mechanically inclined and many of them actually believe things like this are a legitimate service and the service really does some good.
A decent tech will agree that these services are a waste of money unless the vehicle has an obvious problem.