Both my local repair shop and the Toyota dealership are promoting pressurized fuel injector service ($50 and $89 respectively).
This procedure is news to me. Is it necessary?
I have 45,000 on an '07 Prius
Nope, wallet flush, unless you have specific fuel-injector-related problems. Very common for places to recommend it, maximize profits.
If a car is maintained properly then I don’t think a injector flush is necessary EVER.
No, it’s not necessary. Not now, not ever. It’s a profit generator, nothing more.
If your car had plugged injector(s) it would be running funny. Then one of these cleaners may,or may not,help.
My own mechanic says that if the car is well maintained and pumps gas from a reputable supplier, flushes are UNNECCESSARY. Our Nissan has 125,000 miles on it and it it has yet to have a fuel sytem flush or injector cleaning.
Since it does not cost very much, once a year I put a can of “injector cleaner” in the gas tank.
It’s not always true that a pressurized flush is worthless and it’s also true that an injector can have a problem without it being very noticeable.
A vehicle that has an injector, or injectors, with a faulty spray pattern may appear to run perfectly fine and cleaning may cure this problem. Usually this is noticeable when the engine is fully warmed up and at idle speed, a slight (maybe even close to unnoticeable) stumble or roughness may be felt.
Deposits can also build up on the heads of the intake valve and disrupt the air flow over the valve, which can also show up as the previously mentioned stumble or roughness.
If all other components are fine and if the engine idles glass smooth when fully warmed up then I would say that the service is not needed. If it does have a subtle symptom then an injector service could help.
And you would be surprised at how many people think their engine is running smoothly when in actuality it’s not.
If your engine is starting, idling, and running fine and your gas mileage is as good as ever, you do not need this. IMHO any shop that pushes this (and many do these days) is preying on your sense of insecurity to enhance their revenues with needless work.
Remember too that gas contains detergents to keep the injectors clean and IF your car begins operating less than smoothly or your gas mileage drops, or if you get some other indication like a CEL light with perhaps a code P0100 or P0200 series fault code, you can always get the problem diagnosed and if need be the injectors cleaned. This cleaning that they’re describing is an operation that if not done will in no way manifest itself as a safety issue or reduced life or damage to the engine. It’s perfectly safe to not do it as routine maintenance.
While this may sound like advice divergent from OK4450, whom I highly respect, it’s really not. It’s more of a different way of stating his last paragraph. I simply wanted to add the parts about mileage, check engine lights, and the detergent alrady present in pump gas…biased by my feeling that if there is a problem there are plenty of opportunities for it to present itself.