What Do You Use?

[93LSOwner]

This is an opinion and experienced based post. I love cars and like to learn about them “on of my hobbies;” but I don’t know anything about how things in the car work expect of some electronic stuff. So, some of the things that I mention might not be correct or accurate. Anyways, I just like to see what other Lexus owners think of the things that are mentioned below:

1. Fuel addictives, fuel injector cleaner or anything that would go in the fuel for any kind of job; do you put anything in your fuel, if so what do you use? And what do you think or have experienced.

• Or do you think that these things are just waste of money and only have short-term affects and in the long run they damage the engine or other parts of the car.

2. For cleaning the engine and other parts around the engine, are the engine cleaners found, in AutoZone or in any other retail store, good?

3. If you have cleaned your car’s throttle body, did you put anything in your car? If so, what? And did you use any kind of cleaners (except rages)? If so what?

4. Finally, do you put any other chemicals, for ANY kind of job, periodically or maybe just once a year in your car especially in Lexus?

[99lsguy]

93LS,

I've never used any fuel additives but I think they can help (a little).... A product called BG44 ? is a fuel injector cleaner and has reported minor success stories. It also claims to help clean the throttle body too! This is on my list for maintenence work this summer (throttle body cleaning) :D

Overall, I'm not a big fan of any of these sorts of things....but if I hear different, I would certainly follow the reccomendations of our knowledgable LOC members :D

99

[VBdenny]

93,

I usually put in a bottle of Valvoline Complete Fuel System Cleaner twice a year. Since I never have had a fuel problem I'll either say I'm lucky, or it works. I never add any oil treatments.

I don't use anything to clean my engine but Windex, WD-40, and ArmourAll

I haven't cleaned my throttle body but I probably will this summer. I will probably use some type of carb cleaner

Denny

[93LSOwner]

Denny,

Is your climate/clock LCD blacked out or had been? If not, then you are most likely a lucky man.

99 & Denny,

I'm thinking about cleaning the Throttle body soon too, but this cold weather just doesn't want to go away. I'm a little scared about opening up stuff, forget opening up things I don't even know what most of the things are and there function. The only thing I have put in my car since I bought it is Fuel & windshield washer fluid.

I'm think of asking one of our family cars' machanic to do it for me and print out the instructions from the net. One of them is Asian and knows about Japanese cars very well, so I think he is going to be the best candidate.

[VBdenny]

93,

You're not going to clean it yourself? With the Throttle Body Cleaning PPT I have from Curt Oberg, it doesn't look difficult at all.

[VBdenny]

forgot.. my climate LCD is fairly black. You can still read it a little in good light. I also plan to pull that out and have it repaired this summer.

hmmm my list is growing...

[93LSOwner]

Same here too, Jim Walker said that he won't have 93-94 LCDs until June. But I haven't contacted Mikado.

[99lsguy]

93,

Like Denny, I believe the Throttle Body Clean will only take 1-2 hours - and is a great oppurtunity to "clean" the entire engine at the same time :D

A great learning experience for sure!!

Follow Curt's step by step and should be no problem. mine is 99 LS but should be basically the same procedure.....

The "key" for most any project like this is "organizing" the way you dissasemble the components - make separate areas and keep the bolts, washers, parts, etc together for each component and you're in good shape :D

99

[SCdriver]

I use chevron techron fuel additive once or twice a year to keep the injectors, intake and valves clean. I would be careful cleaning the engine and would cover the plugs, distributor etc and check with lexus before hand as you don't want to short out any parts of the electrical system. I expect that oil additives are mostly hype but have added prolong and trufoil with no ill effects to mobil 1 oil. I find that meguires or mothers spay detailer will provide excellent maintenence between waxings. The car detail forum section gives a fine review on maintaining the finish of your auto.

[VMF]

i rarely use those fule thingies coz i think they dont help much.

i will do my throttle body when its gonna get wormer here

[VBdenny]

Hey 93,

I tried Mikados website and got a invalid message. Anyone have info?

[UCF3]

VBDenny:

Have you called them? (See the Pinned Thread, Climate/clock).

I've used fuel and oil additives before. The oil additives didn't help much, since I use Synthetic. Fuel Cleaners need to be repeated. Only way to make them work over time.

There are a lot of link on our forum that talk about cleaning out the throttle bodies. Doing a quick search will link you.

[93LSOwner]

http://www.mikadotech.com/

Thanks for all the replies, any more suggestions!

[monarch]

I've been an on-the-road salesman for 20 something years so

I've put over one million miles on 3 Toyotas. (Every Lexus

is a Toyota so don't get hung up thinking a Lexus is something

way "above" a Toyota).

So based on my experiences, my opinions are:

1. Fuel additives not needed if you use a major brand premium

gasoline and change the fuel filter every 50,000 miles.

But if you want to use an additive anyway, use genuine

Toyota fuel injector cleaner and

follow the directions carefully to avoid fuel system damage.

2. Don't wash or rinse the engine compartment with water.

Wet towels are OK, but it's too risky to spray water

around the sensitive electronics under the hood.

3. Throttle body needs to be manually scrubbed clean with

a toothbrush and some old rags soaked in carburetor or

throttle body cleaner at every tune up or whenever gas

mileage or idle smoothness deteriorates.

4. Do not use any oil or fuel additives. They're just gimmicks designed

to appeal to owners who don't understand the mechanicals

under the hood and are therefore are inclined to think

solutions to drivability problems can be found in specialty cleaners

[93LSOwner]

THANKS for all the replies guys.

Usually when a young person (under 18) buys a car, first they want to put rims on it and later more exterior/interior mods. ME, I careless about that stuff (for now), I want to have my Lexus clean as possible. I have a spring break coming up, so I won't be driving the Lexus.

My question is that, are their any other ways to physically clean the engine or clean any other things or parts that you might think a car with 146,000 miles might need.

[HRP]

Howdy,

I'm right around the corner from you in northwest Greensboro. Here are my comments:

1) I'd suggest the Autopia website for cleaning/detailing information inside, outside, and under the hood: http://autopia-carcare.com/

Check out the "Learn" and "Interact" options. Also they discuss almost anything from shoes to vacation sites, including fuel and oil additives.

2) Far more important for your car's health and longivity than additives are the common sense things like changing the oil & filter regularly (at least every 3 mos or 3k (whichever comes first) for premium motor oils, 6 mo or 5k for synthetics); buying fuel from stations with a high volume to insure clean tanks; flushing and changing fluids every year (brakes, cooling system, transmission), rotating and balancing all 4 tires every 5-6k, alignment at least once a year; checking cold tire pressure and condition frequently.

3) Keep your car clean; use UV and anti-oxidents on the vinyl, rubber seals, leather. (I'm a Zaino fnatic www.zainobros.com) A clean car is "respected" by mechanics, parking attendants, cops, etc. If you don't care about your car, why should they. A clean car has gotten me out of several traffic tickets.

4) Try to drive the car on the highway frequently(10+ miles). This gives the car a chance to "warm up", drives the water, etc out of the oil, muffler, let's the detergents and cleaners in most gasolines "do their thing". Around town "stop an go" driving is the hardest on a car. Keep the tank full, this prevents condensation from forming with temperature and humidity changes.

5) Additives: occasionally to the fuel. Check out this site for info on some additives: http://www.goldeagle.com/cartips/finject1.htm

6) Today's premium motor oils contain detergents and other additives. Today's automobile engines and transmissions are designed to go at least 150k with reasonable care. Unfortunately, the electronics in today's cars are their Achille's heel. Plus hevy family use wears out the interior. Few of us buy a "new" car because we wore out the old one.

7) Throttle body cleaning, sure, but it isn't hard or time consuming with today's products. See above "goldeagle website"

Hope this helps. Suggest you consider joining a couple of the "auto enthusiast" chat groups. Use the web, you can pick up a lot of info and help here.

Harmmmmmmmmmmmmmoniously (I'm a barbershop quartet and chorus singer)

HRP

[93LSOwner]

HRP,

First, I would like to Welcome you to LOC neighbor. You are very knowlegable and helpful, just what LOC is full of. Thank you for all the info. I see that you have a 2002 LS430, it will be a pleasure to see pictures of your car for all of us.

[SW03ES]

You can also access Autopia's articles and tutorials on www.lexuscarcare.com, our online detailing shop is run by Autopia ;)