Reasonable?

[Barry]

Originally Posted by PauSum

800km per tank is impossible for my Forester...the best I had got out from my Forester was about 650km and when the car was brand new (roughly 8.3 L/100km)...

PauSum,

The Forester tank must be significantly smaller than that in the Outback - about 55 litres on those figures.

Outback is 65 litres, from which I impute ~ 800km at ~8 litres / 100km.

With no 'reserve' tank I can't take it all the way, as with my old Beetle!

Of course, my figures drop off rapidly if doing any driving 'around town'.

[joel_57]

The Forester's is a 60L tank i believe. I've noticed the orange fuel light comes on with 15L spare. On my Easter trip to Coonabarabran I got about 10L/100km. That was fully loaded with 2nd spare on the roof. Which I thought was still pretty good. The best I've ever got was 9L/100km I think.

[PauSum]

To sum up (and thanks guys):

• regular use of fuel additive is good for the injector
• BP98 is a waste which I do agree and probably will get the same milage as 95 RON (I use 98 just trying to clean the fuel line/engine/injector etc and I plan to resume to 95 RON when I see better milage again

And..after reading all these, I realise the milage my Forester is doing is not too bad at all - 9.5L/100km in general (combined) and I won't do the cleaning recommended by the dealer....

[Barry]

Originally Posted by joel_57

The Forester's is a 60L tank i believe. I've noticed the orange fuel light comes on with 15L spare. On my Easter trip to Coonabarabran I got about 10L/100km. That was fully loaded with 2nd spare on the roof. Which I thought was still pretty good. The best I've ever got was 9L/100km I think.

Interesting, I filled up in 'Coona' on our trip. Tank was very low when we got there - took about 64 litres I think (digital gauge suddenly went from '50km' (remaining) to '----' about 10 km before we got into town! :O

Car was 'fully loaded' with roof rack, roofbag and 1 & half Jerry cans on roof - and 'stuff' packed around the 2 kids in front and rear seats.

640+ litres since Wellington, via Gulgong and Dunneedoo.

Was really pleased with 10l / 100km in those circumstances!

[ashpool25]

Originally Posted by PauSum

Got my MY06 serviced by one of the dealers in mid-March, told them that the car was using a little bit more fuel. They did some diagnostic checkings and recommended me the injector need servicing/cleaning and costs about $300.

Didn't have that done and yesterday received a letter from the dealer offering me 10% off labour and parts to have this done.

Would cleaning the injector helps improving milage? What would be the potential involvement?
Is $300 reasonable to do this?
Is there any other way to clean the injectors?
Any potential harmful impact if this is not done?

Thanks in advance.

Pulling up an old thread I know however....

If the cleaning that the dealer is talking about is having the injectors ultrasonically cleaned and tested/flowed then $300 is in the ball park (allowing for labour to remove the injectors, have them cleaned/tested by a specialist then reinstalling them, possibly with new seals etc).

I had this done when I installed a rebuilt EJ22 in my trusty 1G GX wagon (currently for sale...<<shameless plug>>) and the cleaning/testing alone was around $180 back in 2007 - I did the removal/reinstallation myself.

This type of cleaning will remove dirt that "in fuel" additives/cleaning solutions can't get. The testing will also confirm that the injectors are flowing to spec and that they're not jamming open (which could lead to excessive fuel consumption).

It may be worth talking to an independent fuel injection specailist.

Alternatively for a second opinion, I can recommend Doug at S-Technic Garage in Maddington (08) 9493-5559. He's a Subaru specialist, does a lot of performance work but does standard cars too. He did an inspection on an Outback I was considering buying earlier this year and did a very thorough job.

MS

[nipper]

Food for thought...

Here in the states replacement fuel injecotrs name brand can be had for about 50.00 a pop (do not know about the money conversions).

This is purely a profit driven service, as no where does subaru recomend a fuel injection cleaning (at least here in the US). This can also be cheaply done at home (at last in the US using SeaFoam). You can also use a fuel injecotr additive at regular intervals. My 97 with 276,000 miles has his original injectors and still gets his mileage numbers.

i watched a 150.00 fuel injector cleaning at an oil change place. They hooked up some chemical to a vacume line like an IV, ket the car run for 15 minutes, collected the money.

This goes right up there with blinker fluid, muffler bearings and winter air.

[ashpool25]

As per my original post - there is cleaning and then there is cleaning.

With a carburettor the only way to really clean it properly (if indeed cleaning is required) is by removing it fom the car, dismantling it and carfully claaning each individual cpomponent, blowing out all orificed with compressed air etc etc then reassembling with a fresh gasket kit.

The equivalent with injectors is to have them removed from the car and cleaned properly and then flow tested to ensure they are working to spec.

Any "on car" cleaning is little better than running a fuel additive or squirting carby cleaner down a carburettor - it may help a little but if there's a real problem it won't cure it.

BTW - this all assumes that there really is a problem. I'm certaionly not suggesting that this cshould be a routine servicing operations. Off-car cleaning is only somehing to consider if you have a problem that can't be addressed by other means or when reconditioning a motor - just as you dismantle and clean the carb on a rebuilt motor. From the previous posts it would seem that the OP's consumption was perhaps not as bad as they had thought.

[Rally]

I agree.

But it seems the main point of agreement is that it is much easier to keep them clean with regular servicing, and not using cheap and nasty fuel. Which on this rock means staying away from no name petrol stations and using 95 octane fuel. Car runs better, you get better fuel economy and so on.

Originally Posted by nipper

Food for thought...

Here in the states replacement fuel injecotrs name brand can be had for about 50.00 a pop (do not know about the money conversions).

This is purely a profit driven service, as no where does subaru recomend a fuel injection cleaning (at least here in the US). This can also be cheaply done at home (at last in the US using SeaFoam). You can also use a fuel injecotr additive at regular intervals. My 97 with 276,000 miles has his original injectors and still gets his mileage numbers.

i watched a 150.00 fuel injector cleaning at an oil change place. They hooked up some chemical to a vacume line like an IV, ket the car run for 15 minutes, collected the money.

This goes right up there with blinker fluid, muffler bearings and winter air.