I always see the fuel additives at the gas station. Do they really work to help keep your fuel injection working properly?
Some people say NO!, others say YES! I'm inclined to believe they're helpful it you choose the correct one and use it properly. For cleaning fuel injection systems, some can help, yes. It depends on which one you're choosing, however, and how bad [if at all] your fuel-injection system is clogged. Personally, I've gotten good results from Chevron Techron Fuel Additive / Fuel System Cleaner. It's about $6 or $7 a bottle at the auto-parts store, probably more elsewhere, but seems to work very well at smoothing things out. You may not get the same results with the .99 cents STP-type of fuel additive. Just remember to add the stuff *before* you are about to pump gas, and do so only when you're almost to the red on your fuel gauge, and then don't add any more than 8 - 10 gallons of gasoline or you'll dilute it beyond it's effectiveness. As a plus, splurge for the high octane when you do this, which, by design, has much more detergent in it than does low or mid-grade gasoline. I hope that helps ;)
Here is the low down on fuel additives. Gas mileage improvers rarely even increase gas mileage enough break even for the cost of the bottle. Only proven non driving habit way of improving gas mileage is using higher grade gasoline. Octane boosters do not improve horsepower noticebly, it would take about 30 bottles to get 10-15 horsepower. All they are is watered down jet fuel. Fuel system cleaners are the only worth while additive. You should clean you injectors every 5-8 thousand miles. Also use a full fuel sytem cleaner every 10-15 thousand miles. If you do this regularly you will never notice any improvement from using it, but your engine will last longer. I have a 2000 Mercury Mountaineer V8 that I drag race every other weekend and track race every 2 months. This vehicle is my daily driver also, it has 80,000 miles on it and still dynos as good as it did when I acquired it 2 years ago. So yes is the answer to your question, 8 bucks every 10,000 miles is very worth your while.
No, they will hurt actually. The only additive I would suggest is Techron by Chevron. All the others will leave what looks like a red dust like deposite on your spark plugs, valve faces, and the EGR valve. I once worked on a Mustang GT (1999) that the EGR was almost completely stoped up with this red deposite crud. Techron is the way to go.
