Upkeep on Engine

I have a 2002 Corolla and just drive around town, never been on
highway. A man in the service department said it would be a good idea,
the next time I took it in for service, to have them do a "top engine"
service. This is to clean the engine ....for cars like mine that don't
get driven at high speeds. Would someone please explain how they do
this? Does it really help? What is the average price of this service?
Thanks.

I do not believe in those services. The owners manual says nothing about
that. Todays engines are much beter at controling carbon and such becayse
of fuel injection and better fuels. This top engine clean or what ever
they call it is up to you. It will not hurt your car by any means, but
probably not help anything either. I would not do it to my car. Scott

Decarb services are a generally good practice to any car, whether or not it
spends much time on the highway. A lot of people say that carbon doesn't
build up any more because of 'fuel injection and better fuels', but I
still see plenty of carbon accumulated on the valves and pistons of the
three or so engines I take apart every month. I do a BG decarb service to
my personal car around every 20k miles, and I've verified carbon buildup
depletion in my combustion chambers with a boroscope. I think these
services generally run in the low 100s as far as cost.

Add a bottle of Chevron Techron FI cleaner next gas fill up. Modern oils if
changed per owner manual keep the engine clean enough.

<Dorot29701@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1128636165.359311.238140@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...[color=blue]
>I have a 2002 Corolla and just drive around town, never been on
> highway. A man in the service department said it would be a good idea,
> the next time I took it in for service, to have them do a "top engine"
> service. This is to clean the engine ....for cars like mine that don't
> get driven at high speeds. Would someone please explain how they do
> this? Does it really help? What is the average price of this service?
> Thanks.
>[/color]

Please explain why putting a $10 can of cleaner in the intake or through a
vacuum hose is worth $100 . We have them at our shop too. Scott

<Dorot29701@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1128636165.359311.238140@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...[color=blue]
> I have a 2002 Corolla and just drive around town, never been on
> highway. A man in the service department said it would be a good idea,
> the next time I took it in for service, to have them do a "top engine"
> service. This is to clean the engine ....for cars like mine that don't
> get driven at high speeds. Would someone please explain how they do
> this? Does it really help? What is the average price of this service?
> Thanks.[/color]

If you are not having a problem, don't waste your money.

Ed

On Fri, 07 Oct 2005 10:49:29 -0400, zonie wrote:
[color=blue]
> Please explain why putting a $10 can of cleaner in the intake or through a
> vacuum hose is worth $100 . We have them at our shop too. Scott[/color]

$80 bucks where I was working...

Peace of mind...

Maintenance to keep your car running properly...

Good thing to do for your car...

Profit for the dealer...

On Fri, 07 Oct 2005 19:25:20 GMT, Hachiroku <Trueno@ae86.gts> wrote:
[color=blue]
>On Fri, 07 Oct 2005 10:49:29 -0400, zonie wrote:
>[color=green]
>> Please explain why putting a $10 can of cleaner in the intake or through a
>> vacuum hose is worth $100 . We have them at our shop too. Scott[/color]
>
>$80 bucks where I was working...
>
>Peace of mind...
>
>Maintenance to keep your car running properly...
>
>Good thing to do for your car...
>
>Profit for the dealer...[/color]

All of the above - but especially the last one.

The companies that devise and build the equipment and supplies for
these "power flushing" and "top-engine cleaning" services do not
market them to the auto dealers and repair shops for their benefits to
the customers' cars - that's what the printed consumer materials the
distributors supply to the dealer says, and the logic that the dealer
uses to sell it to YOU, the consumer.

The distributor pushes it to the garage owners that their system is
a great added profit center with a very substantial mark-up and that's
easy and quick for any junior technician to do with minimal training.
They actually have two different sets of promotional materials printed
up with the two widely disparate messages.

With the advances in fuel additive packages and modern lubricants,
these services are not needed very often. Yet the companies selling
the equipment urge you to do them at every intermediate service
interval "to extend the life of your car". BULL.

This is the same unspoken economic motive that still has Jiffy Lube
pushing all drivers to do 3,000 Mile Oil Changes - even when most auto
makers are setting service intervals at 7500 miles or more. See, it's
very simple: their way gets you to spend money twice as often.

If it was for my car, I'd spend the $40 or $60 (last time I checked)
to buy the kit to inject the top engine cleaning stuff myself - after
buying the kit, each subsequent use only costs you $10 for another can
of the special cleaner. Go to a NAPA store, once they know you aren't
the type to kill yourself doing it, they'll gladly sell you the
mechanic-grade toolkits and supplies without the huge markup. ;-)

--<< Bruce >>--

--
Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop
Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700
5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545
Spamtrapped address: Remove the python and the invalid, and use a net.

I fix cars, man. I don't have anything to do with how the business is run.
I'm astaounded that people keep paying $102.00 an hour for labor at the
shop I work at. If you don't want to pay it, figure out how to do it
yourself. But the fact still remains that decarb services do provide a
benefit. What that benefit is worth is up to the owner.

"qslim" <Suckers@suckersdotcom> wrote:
[color=blue]
>I fix cars, man. I don't have anything to do with how the business is run.
>I'm astaounded that people keep paying $102.00 an hour for labor at the
>shop I work at. If you don't want to pay it, figure out how to do it
>yourself. But the fact still remains that decarb services do provide a
>benefit. What that benefit is worth is up to the owner.[/color]

Of course it provides a benefit, but then, polishing the fuel
pump provides a benefit too.

I'm wondering if the 'benefit' of the service is actually worth
the expense. Further, most owners aren't equipped with the
knowledge to be able to judge. I'm one of those although engines
aren't exactly foreign territory to me.
--

-Gord.
(use gordon in email)