Carb cleaner

[freenote]

Recently went to a garage to have a bit of work done and explained that the SX was running a bit rough and using a lot of fuel. Guy there insisted on spraying carb cleaner into my intake manifold and through the air filter. The car sounded extremely rough for a while but once it passed through fully it seemed to run a bit sweeter.

I was wondering if this is a good idea??? Is it a trick of the trade I had never heard of before?


Also, apart from a fuel leak, what are the obvious things to check for if I think the car is using way too much petrol??

Thanks

[balders118]

Something was wrong with my carb on my old mk2 golf. Would get 18mpg on a long run, if I was lucky. No idea why though, so I can't help. Sorry.

[freenote]

balders118 said:

Something was wrong with my carb on my old mk2 golf. Would get 18mpg on a long run, if I was lucky. No idea why though, so I can't help. Sorry.

No carbs on my car - he just used carb cleaner to clean the air intakes.

[balders118]

freenote said:

balders118 said:

Something was wrong with my carb on my old mk2 golf. Would get 18mpg on a long run, if I was lucky. No idea why though, so I can't help. Sorry.

No carbs on my car - he just used carb cleaner to clean the air intakes.

My bad, not paying attention when readin the OP. I need to go to bed, obviously too tired to read one paragraph properly.

ETA: probabaly because I saw "carb" and "fuel consumption" in the same post. Thats my excuse anyway.

Edited by balders118 on Wednesday 8th September 23:46

[lance1a]

To the OP. You could check for vacuum leaks by spraying WD40 about the intake manifold, also see if the fuel pressure regulator is ok and not blowing fuel back into the manifold via the vacuum tube.

[freenote]

lance1a said:

also see if the fuel pressure regulator is ok and not blowing fuel back into the manifold via the vacuum tube.

Any advice on how to do this? I am a novice by the way.

[LuS1fer]

Carb cleaner is just solvent that removes all the built-up soot and crud on the butterflies etc. It's not a magic potion but it's very good for cleaning lots of things.

[slomax]

I agree with luS1fer. You air intake was probably full of crap, restricting air flow to the engine. This would mean it would be running very rich, making it feel awful to drive. You were also probably be down on power and so you would have had to give a lot more throttle, hence the low MPG.

[andrewrob]

I used carb cleaner to clean the throttle body on my father in-laws XJR, following a Pher's recommendation.

The car was stalling quite a bit and struggling to start, after I had cleaned all of the built up carbon it ran perfectly.

[stoocake]

I swear by brake cleaner...clears the gunk off anything and dries off with no residue. Wouldn't spray it into a running engine but it never hurts to give things a good clean...intake components do gunk up with oil film and fuel gum so you may find it worth while to pop the throttle body off and soak it in brake cleaner/carb cleaner for a while, and give it a good scrub with a nylon brush.

[Davie_GLA]

Are you talking about a 200SX?

If so I'll put money on you having a split intercooler pipe.

[freenote]

Davie_GLA said:

Are you talking about a 200SX?

If so I'll put money on you having a split intercooler pipe.

I am. It's an Auto S14a. How can I tell if the intercooler pipe is split?? And would that massively affect fuel consumption?

Edited by freenote on Thursday 9th September 10:23

[Davie_GLA]

I had an S14a for a while and wlthough i didn't suffer from it, a few friends did that had the standard cooler on.

If the cooler splits the engine adds more fuel than needed as it thinks it's getting the right amout. But as the air escapes at the leak the car massively over fuels.

If you're wanting to go as far, i'd recommend binning the standard IC for a decent FMIC with hard pipes. This will do away with the aging old stuff and let you eventually get the boost up

Best way to check is to get the whole system off and pressure tested, but there might be a very obvious split.

They can crack at the IC end plates.

The IC is located in the passenger wheel arch.

[freenote]

Davie_GLA said:

I had an S14a for a while and wlthough i didn't suffer from it, a few friends did that had the standard cooler on.

If the cooler splits the engine adds more fuel than needed as it thinks it's getting the right amout. But as the air escapes at the leak the car massively over fuels.

If you're wanting to go as far, i'd recommend binning the standard IC for a decent FMIC with hard pipes. This will do away with the aging old stuff and let you eventually get the boost up

Best way to check is to get the whole system off and pressure tested, but there might be a very obvious split.

They can crack at the IC end plates.

The IC is located in the passenger wheel arch.

Thanks. It seems my intercooler (which has a Calsonic label on it) is located in front of the radiator. Does this mean that it is aftermarket? It looks pretty ancient. Unless it's not an intercooler - it looks like a much smaller version of the radiator.

[Davie_GLA]

If you have an aftermarket one you will have two hard pipes either side of the engine.

Can you get a picture up? You might be looking at the AC radiator.

[freenote]

[anonymous-user]

I've used something similar to carb cleaner to clean the throttle body out in my car because it was sticking and making it driver rather rough. I get better economy too now.

[Davie_GLA]

Nah, looks like the air con.

Have you got a pic of the full bay looking head on?

[freenote]

Apparently it's the auto fluid cooler.

Clearly I'm a total novice and checking the intercooler for leaks without a decent tool-kit is going to be difficult. I guess I'm going to have to stump up for a mechanic to check it.

[Davie_GLA]

It's a pain in the arse but they are common for it.

A mate of mine who had the same issue used to get massive flames due to the over fuelling. His fuel economy was shocking.