So I took our 2018 CX-5 to the regular maintenance yesterday. The car is 4.5 years old and has only 28K miles on it. I was recommended a "Fuel Injector Service: Complete Fuel System Cleaning Service" for $165 which I declined. I do not know the specifics of what type of cleaning they proposed, most likely just adding some additive or some other cleaning but given the price it was most likely just adding the fuel additive, I do not know. Anyways, for this low mileage, I was kind of surprised about the recommendation. I always use fuel from either Exxon or Shell and was not expecting any cleaning requirement at this low mileage and age of the car. Any feedback/thoughts on this?

 

In the past when I cleaned my injectors (not on a Mazda) I removed them and took them to a shop (or sent them off) to be really cleaned. While I lose use of the vehicle for a few days I knew the injectors were inspected, tested and cleaned. Costs were in the $15-$20/each range. An on-the-engine cleaning might do a good job of cleaning…not sure what the OP’s shop would do, they might remove them and soak them in a can of solvent overnight. (Note that direct injection engines like the 2.5 have the injectors exposed to high heat and combustion products, unlike old-skool port injected engines.)

 

Thanks for the feedback. The service they suggested did not involve any overnight treatment. Anyways, I declined this time and might ask next time what exactly they were planning to do.

 

Never seen this offered in Mazda dealers I've ever worked at.

 

My dealership recommended the same service probably around a similar mileage. I was also surprised given that's not typically necessary so early on, but I agreed to have it done since I had noticed some lag in acceleration. I wasn't sure if it was just low quality gasoline or something with the vehicle itself, although maybe the fuel injector recall has something to do with it? I'm scheduled to have that service done late next week, so we'll see.

 

In the case of the fuel injectors there are to main factors that would be the thought behind a recommend cleaning, milage and years in-service. At least here in the US the fuels offered may have some detrimental effects on the small operating components in a fuel injector. These issues will not usually just suddenly appear but when they do it will cost more to diagnosis and replace them that what most will offer an F/I am cleaning that should clen them completely.
One preventives way is to use fuels that have Patent, patent pending and proprietary formulas which would be Chevron and shell my first choice and recommendation. Also using a top-level fuel treatment can NEVER hurt and may have some extra cleaning attributes.

When I pulled my Head to swap it out on my 2018 MAZDA at around 30k miles I sent my injectors to be serviced and matched flowed. They already saw some varnish forming and I ONLY use Chevron fuel but in CA that mandated formulas are crap!!!!



If the service offered is a true F/I service cleaning they will be connecting directly to the fuel rail to high pressure wash the injectors while on the engine. The time is about an hour so expect a 1.5 labor hour charge (estimated may vary on different platform models etc.?) plus supplied to do the job.

 

I just joined this forum and saw this one, I had the same recommendation from my dealer to have my fuel injectors cleaned although they couldn't explain that if this were so important, why isn't it in the maintenance schedule. In Canada this service is $260 at my dealer. I talked to a service technician there and he never gave me a definitive answer that they actually take the injectors out and clean them, but for that price I would certainly hope they would. With this being direct injection I would recommend it being done but certainly not at that low a mileage. Mine is approaching 60,000KM and I'll have it done at my next scheduled maintenance. I've replaced injectors myself on other cars but I'm not into it much anymore, I'll leave it up to the dealer.

 

.Welcome to the forum.

Ok so .. did you read post #6 ??????

NO the injectors are NOT removed for this service.

The correct fuel injector service cleaning actually takes a little over an hour to do using Fuel Injector Service Equipment and also the fuel injector cleaner that is used on that equipment. So, your estimate from a dealership is within reason.

If your engine (gasoline) has fuel injectorsat some point to maintain a very well running engine and getting the best overall MPG this service is a good consideration. Each vehicle is accessed individually based on more factors than years of service and the miles!ALL fuel injectors will start to give less then new performance in less then 100k miles and in some cases sooner. When a fuel injector starts to cause problems the first line of services at that point is replacement. So a single injector and labor could run as example of an easy to access Fuel injector minimum 1 hour labor plus the fuel injector, so estimate close to 200. This is not including the diagnostic labor to find that it was a failing or failed fuel injector.

To be clear I am not saying that this service is critical at low milage engine I do personally feel as a shop manager that any shop recommending the service should have a legitimate reason by way of either via a diagnostic scan, a oscilloscope diagnostic, DTC(s) , pending DTC(s) monitors not in readiness state , poor MPG or decrease in power or something that is alerting the Technician for concern of a probable fuel injection concern?

This is mine I can do up to an 8-cylinder Gasoline engine. Car, truck plane motorcycle boat, etc. I have done this service twice on my own 2018 MAZDA 3 with only 42k miles

ASE