Are these services really needed?

[duanew81]

So i brought the 6 to the dealership today to have my steering column replaced (some '05's have power steering failures caused by the electrical in the column, so it said in the letter I got from Pontiac in December '07). I've had warnings and "power steering" show up on my DIC for about 2 years now, with no real notice in steering change from before "issue" started. ...long story as to why it lasted so long...

On to the real topic of this thread...

While having the column replaced, the service dept. did a multi-point inspection and noted a few things that needed to be taken care of. new brakes and 4 wheel alignment, injector & t-body service, induction service, and they noted a clunk in the front end.

I've had the same clunk that most of you know, and when I picked the car up, it doesn't make the clunking sound anymore...so one problem fixed. I've ordered my brakes and will replace them once they get here.

so with 57000 miles on the car, is it really necessary to have a 4 wheel alignment done if I don't notice anything wrong? also, what does an injector and throttle body service and the induction service entail?

Has anyone had any of these services done to their 6? What did they do?

[ahuhn]

Re: Are these services really needed?

biggest thing with alignment is tire wear. at 57k it might be worth having it checked at least. i know alot of places will check alignment for free and only charge if you have it done.

as for the t-body basicaly there going to take a can of crab cleaner and a tooth bruch and clean the carbon out of the throttle body. typicaly not needed unless your having problems.

the injection service. if it is what i think it is there going to disconect the fuel pump and run a special injector cleaner through the injectors to clean out the gunk. at 57k might not be too bad of an idea. i also think jim (Flrmnet) just had it done to his car

[zlatsky]

Re: Are these services really needed?

biggest thing with alignment is tire wear. at 57k it might be worth having it checked at least. i know alot of places will check alignment for free and only charge if you have it done.

as for the t-body basicaly there going to take a can of crab cleaner and a tooth bruch and clean the carbon out of the throttle body. typicaly not needed unless your having problems.

the injection service. if it is what i think it is there going to disconect the fuel pump and run a special injector cleaner through the injectors to clean out the gunk. at 57k might not be too bad of an idea. i also think jim (Flrmnet) just had it done to his car

So in other words, buy seafoam and seafoam deep creep and do it yourself.

[mi04se1]

Re: Are these services really needed?

Get some GM fuel system treatment and your set.

[grfnkl]

Re: Are these services really needed?

I did the fuel system ( injection service)... It did help somewhat on mine, more so then seafoam... which oddly enough made my car idle rougher.

[mi04se1]

Re: Are these services really needed?

Heres alittle story about seafoam. A few years ago, I put a BBK h-pipe and American Thunder flowmasters with true duals and no cats on my old Mustang. It sounded mean after the install. I put seafoam in alittle later, the Mustang kinda sounded rice. To make a long story short....... f**ck seafoam.

[duanew81]

Re: Are these services really needed?

Thanks Ahuhn, that's about what I thought. I can definitely clean the throttle body myself. As for the induction, I'm guessing its just the air cleaner. I've got a K&N so it gets cleaned out every other oil change. Not too worried about that either.

So, would a fuel system additive (injector cleaner/fuel treatment) really do the job well enough if I run it through a few times, or should I just pay to have it done? I've never used seafoam and I've always worked on carburetor equipped cars. I've used b-12 chemtool in my goat and it worked pretty well, but it's not for injected engines. I'm just curious if the stuff like STP and Lucas (or any other brand) is just a waste of money, or if they really work.

[ahuhn]

Re: Are these services really needed?

depending on the brand they can do some good

ive heard good things aboyut the GM stuff. ive heard that theres a generic brand thats about the same ill see if i can figure out what it is

[mrslcom]

Re: Are these services really needed?

Chevron Techron gas additive is suppose to be quite good.

[rollin20s]

Re: Are these services really needed?

i have 68k on my car and have done some work at my shop just to keep things running smooth
now this is all personal preferance since we ALL have different views on what should be done to any car

every 15k i do a fuel service using BG products www.BGprod.com
every 30k i have changed the transmission filter and flush the system out with BG Syn. transmission fluid
done brakes twice and alignment twice (due to my larger wheels, kills the pads)

my car runs the same that it has when i drove it off the lot and it has never had any issues.

some dont believe in preventative maintence but i swear by it. always works out for me in the end with my cars

[mi04se1]

Re: Are these services really needed?

I can see the fuel system treatment being done, but the trans is good for 100,000+ miles. GM sent us a bulletin awhile back and said NOT to do flushes like BG and other products. The dealer I work at used to do power steering flushes, trans flush, coolant flush and fuel induction service and the bonehead service writers would scam customers and sell one of the flushes with only 10,000 miles on the car. Now, we hardly sell trans and coolant flushes and havent sold a power steering flush in almost a year. The best thing and only thing you do is a fuel system treatment.

[FLRNEMT]

Re: Are these services really needed?

I just had the air/fuel treatment done for $79.99 - $8 coupon, and it's incredible. The power I got back I had forgotten I had because it deteriorates so slowly.

[zlatsky]

Re: Are these services really needed?

I did the fuel system ( injection service)... It did help somewhat on mine, more so then seafoam... which oddly enough made my car idle rougher.

Heres alittle story about seafoam. A few years ago, I put a BBK h-pipe and American Thunder flowmasters with true duals and no cats on my old Mustang. It sounded mean after the install. I put seafoam in alittle later, the Mustang kinda sounded rice. To make a long story short....... f**ck seafoam.

You guys can hate seafoam all you want. I used it on my car and it gave me more power (the power lost by carbon buildup) so I can't say one bad thing about it. I actually recommend it because it did so well for my car.

Recipe for success:
1/3 in the oil
1/3 in the gas
1/3 in the booster line

[MustangEater82]

Re: Are these services really needed?

seafoam has done nothing but good for any car I ever put it in...


Only "fuel system servicing" I'd ever do is one where they unhook the fuel lines and pressure run chemicals throught he injectors.