additives?

[blw]

My E30 cabriolet suffered from years of neglect before I bought it, and while it now drives very smoothly and gets pretty good mileage (after $4900 worth of work on a $5100 car!) I wonder if the injectors might be crusty. Would any additives help here?

[mc30707]

Have you changed the fuel filter? It made a significant difference on my 88 325IC

[blw]

Yup, all the filters were changed a few months ago, and it's only had ~1500 miles since then.

[Zoomy]

The only two additives I would recommend are

Chevron's Techtron & Redlines product.

I have seen improvements with both.

[GeoPappas]

I have heard lots of good things about Chevron Techron and have used it myself.

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

Here's a short list.


New fuel filter
Clean out fuel injectors (Ideally, remove them from the car to do it)
Check for vacuum leaks, including the valve cover gasket
Clean out idle control valve
Check coolant temp sensors
Check O2 sensor

I have tech articles for all of these if you are interested. email me if you would like to see any. jared@pelicanparts.com

As for cleaning injectors, you can use all the additives you like, however nothing will be as efeective as removing the injectors and back flushing them. Any good garage should be able to do this for you, or you can simply use cleaner and comnpressed air.

[blw]

Thanks Jared, I've already done every single thing on that list except the injectors, and at the moment it doesn't seem that there's any particular problem with the car. In fact, mileage now exceeds original specifications - I get 20 mpg city / 26 mpg hwy vs original specs of 19/23. It's just that since I had to do everything else, I figured that the injectors might be a bit dodgy, and I am wondering what the cheapest way to do "something" about it short of taking them all out. (I don't do it as I am only near the car a week a month, typically not including weekends.)