How to Clean Fuel Injection and Throttle Body

How many miles on the odometer? If less than 100K miles and your engine does not exhibit any driveability symptoms such as hesitation, lack of power etc., then don't worry about throttle body cleaning.

If you buy off-brand gasoline and want to help your fuel injectors, buy a bottle of Chevron Techron cleaner and add to the fuel tank according to the instructions on the bottle. That might cost you $10.

Throttle body cleaning, when done correctly, requires you to disconnect the mass air flow sensor wiring harness connector, remove the air cleaner housing, spray throttle body cleaner on a clean cloth or paper towel, then use that to scrub off the deposits on the throttle body interior and throttle plate. This will cost around $10 for the spray can of cleaner as well as tools and the knowledge about how to remove the air cleaner housing for access to the throttle body.

 

Proper cleaning of the fuel injectors requires pulling them from the car. For $249, if that's the service you're getting, then it's a fair deal considering the time and effort involved... that being said, you don't need an injector cleaning unless your engine is performing poorly.

Sounds like they're trying to milk you for some money...

 

My 08 has triple the mileage yours does, and I have cleaned the throttle body 1 time, never cleaned the injectors. My daughter still regularly gets high 40s in mpg with her lead foot. 9 times out of 10, the dealer's "fuel injection service" is just your wallet "getting serviced". Don't let them sell you something like that unless you are having a verifiable performance or mileage concern.

 

Patrick and Joe are giving you great advise. If the 2.5 you are talking about is fuel trim, I would suggest you consider servicing your Prius elsewhere. Can you find out or specify what the 2.5 is referring to? I charge less than 1/5 of the price they told you to clean the throttle body. Add a bottle of Techron and you get the injectors cleaned too. I also recomend it be done every 60K miles as it is easier to keep parts clean then try to clean them when they are dirty enough to cause problems.

There is a process to remove, clean and re-install fuel injectors, but, I doubt they were going to do that.