EFI Cleaner...

[rickmadison]

I have a general maintanance question for you folks.
My 2002 Camry LE has 24k miles on it and so far I have performed all recommended service from local shop and never have gone to local Dealer for that. I was just looking at one of friend's dealership repair receipt for first 7500 miles service (we have similar model, his 2004 model and mine 2002) and it has a parts charge for some $20 for "EFI Cleaner" and labor for that. What is it and why was it required at 7500 mile? There is no mention of "EFI Cleaner" thing in regular scheduled repairs in service booklet.
Thanks for your time,
-Ric

[rickmadison]

...just trying to bump up the post for response.
This seems fuel additive of some sort?
Thanks,
-Ric

[Mike Gerber]

rickmadison,

It wasn't needed at that mileage or anywhere near that mileage. The dealer just wanted to increase his profits. If you run a can of fuel injection cleaner in the gas tank once or twice a year, you should never need this service. Chevron with Techron comes highly recommended by the guys on Cartalk (Click and Clack) on public radio, although it is a bit pricey. In summation, follow your maintainence schedule in your owner's manual and your Camry will live a long happy life.

Mike

[yotacam98]

Thats bull. You could do an FI cleaning every 30k, but even that is unnecessary if you use a quality gasoline since most major nationwide brands all are using a high level of detergents already.
Now in Cali where we fill up our cars with some sort of dinosaur piss that has all kinds of garbage in it to lower emissions, maybe a good regular cleaning is in order.
but 7500=bull