Okay, so I am not the most mechanically gifted individual, but can hold my own with bolt ons and regular maintainance.

In dealing with the Lexus dealership regarding my mothers RX330 they are pushing a fuel system service which sounds pretty much like a waste of money.

Their exact written description from email: "During the fuel system service they do a few things. The disconnect to fuel lines, and run a concentrated chemical solution through the fuel lines as well as the fuel injectors. In addition to that, they undo the throttle body, and manually clean that out. The extra service adds a couple of hours and runs about $330 + tax."

Sounds an aweful lot like "run pixie dust and $3 worth of store-bought fuel system cleaner through the lines"....

What do you guys think? Total BS, or sounds plausable?

 

I found this. Not exactly relating to a Lexus, but probably the same idea. So it seems like it is a real procedure, but that $300+ is on the high side. Lexus markup I guess.

 

i guarnetee most of it is probably labor... b/c it's LEXUS! i have heard of cleaning the throttle body etc.. and flushing the fuel lines.... ask them to see what product they are using... find the cost of each item basically and then you can see if it's worth it... if they are changing the fuel lines sure i can understand but other than that i think you can do it yourself FAIRLY cheap maybe for a fraction of the cost ( sorry for my bad spelling)

 

is this the only thing getting serviced? or is it in for routine maintenance or something?

 

A lot of the labor may come from what it is needed to get to the fuel pump. Like dropping the tank, for example.

 

Back when I worked on cars for a living, a fuel injector service also included removing injectors, cleaning and testing to make sure spray patterns and volume delivery was correct.

What Lexus quoted you sounds like a complete ripoff for $330. You wouldn't even identify a leaking injector seal, or worse, a leaking injector...

 

its going in for its 70K service. And the fuel treatment sounded like garbage. I specifically asked the advisor if they removed the injectors and he said "no, with this system you dont even need to"

I laughed. That was 5K miles ago but you know how annoying parents are, she's bugging me about it again.

 

Manage repair shops for a living.

You can do it at home if you like.

Remove the intake ducting
Use an electronically safe throttle body cleaner and spray the **** out of the tb and plate
Force the plate open by hand (gently) and wipe out the excess cleaner and dirt
Reconnect the ducting

Go to store, buy chevron techron fuel sys treatment and add to tank

Finally - tell your mother to thank you because you just saved her 300 bucks.


In all seriousness, we have an apparatus that hooks into the intake port and delivers concentrate cleaner while the engine is running, and then we drop in an additive in the tank. All services described here by everyone is just a variation and for the most part they all accomplish the same thing. I charge my customers $159 and it works like a charm every time. Should NOT BE NECESSARY AT 70K MILES unless she's using **** gas like arco or safeway/costco gas....

Take what you will, just make sure you don't forget my wife.

 

hahahahahahaha

 

I used to work for a lexus dealer and yes they sorta do what that descriptions says. BUT, I don't think it did anything. The mechanics ran some sort of seafoam solution through a vac. line and that was pretty much it. Blew out some white smoke (which i'm assuming is the "solution" burning off) while they drove around the lot and voila, Dealership ****ing you in the butthole.

 

fuel system services are normal and should be done at least once a yr to prevent carbon build up. from the dealer its very spendy. Go to a firestone and get the same service for around $75-90.

 

We do something like that at our shop and we charge about 70 labor and parts lol

 

With the low miles, I would recommend going with a bottle of fuel system cleaner additive in the tank. When I worked in a shop we had a service to clean the intake portion of the engine too. You would disconnect a vacuum source and this apparatus would drip a strong chemical into the intake. You could tell how much was getting cleaned based off the way the engine ran and by the smoke coming out of the tailpipes. It only seemed to make a big difference in 140k plus cars.

 

How could I ever forget that night? Her and her mammy were great! Especially when the partylight candles came out and we got to do the wax drippings. bliss!

 

WTF is all of this? Fuel itself is a cleaner and you are not going to have deposits build up in open fuel lines. The only places you're likely to have buildup is at choke points like the pump, filter, injectors, or regulator (unless the lexus regulator is in-tank).

Most debris that you would possibly get is from dirty tanks at fuel stations or filling up while the station is also getting re-filled. The fuel truck causes the tanks to swirl up all the crap in the tanks, so avoid filling during those times.

Forget all that stealership crap and run a tank with Seafoam to help break up any carbon that might have built up. Then changes the fuel filter, oil, and oil filter and call it good.