Hi CarTalk, Love your column and my 2016 Kia Sorento. My Kia dealer says I need a fuel induction for $150 at my next oil change, 60,000 miles, in about 3 months. He says they’ll flush the engine to get the carbon out. Strange.
2 years ago while wintering in Arizona a car wash/quick oil change shop tried to sell me one which I refused. When I got back to Wisconsin I told the Kia dealer about it and they said that would have destroyed the engine. You don’t need it. So now I’m confused as to why they’re suggesting it and I can’t find it on other Kia dealers maintenance schedule. Should I do it or pass on it? I put a bottle of fuel injector cleaner in the gas after every oil change per the maintenance schedule. Thanks for your help guys.
Don’t rely on the Kia dealers’ maintenance schedules. Rely on Kia’s, in the booklets that came with the car. Dealers often take a carmaker’s recommended list of services and then “tack on” extras that may or may not benefit you, but certainly benefit them.
You’ll get a wide array of opinions about extra maintenance to do, but hardly anyone here will say the dealer is the authority you should follow.
Unless your car is running poorly, I’d pass on the induction cleaning. The only reason to do it otherwise is if the Kia maintenance schedule that came with the car says to do it, and you stated that induction cleaning isn’t in there. I’d call this wallet cleaning, instead.
The engine in your KIA is a direct injected engine.
This means that gasoline and its detergents or fuel additives don’t come in contact with backside of the intake valves to remove carbon.
So to prevent this carbon from forming on the intake valves, it’s recommended that an induction cleaning be performed on direct injected engines on occasion.
SeaFoam has new product that addresses this problem, so DIYers are able to perform this service.
Tester
It’s been a while since we’ve seen common_sense_answer — their last post was in Mar '19.
THANK YA, THANK YA VERY MUCH! 
It’s fuel induction system cleaning that you were offered. Your car came from the factory with fuel induction provided by its fuel induction system.
Fuel induction refers to a process by which air, or an air/fuel mixture, is drawn into an engine.
Cleaning that system is a service performed by a servicing facility or vehicle owner.
CSA
