I brought my 2010 Honda Civic to an AAA facility for an oil change yesterday (although it still had 50% useful life) since I was offered two free services, balancing and wheel alignment. I assumed they did the wheel alignment but I was not given the sheet showing the toe-ins, etc. I should have asked for it, but my mind was preoccupied by a service they were trying to sell me consisting of a fuel induction service. My car has less than 18,000 miles on it. They said that a swab indicated there was a carbon build-up. My car has not shown any symptoms and I passed on that. I feel I can wait until symptoms appear. What’s the straight dope on that?
Swab of what?
Does the owner’s manual recommend the fuel injectors be cleaned before this mileage?
A cotton swab for carbon build up. The owner’s manual (which I checked, of course) is silent on this.
Oh, not the fuel injectors. That’s another issue, separate from the fuel induction, which, I guess, is further down the fuel line. They can test it for carbon build up with a cotton swab,
Sorry. I read it as fuel injection, not fuel induction. :smack:
The swab sample would be from the throttle body, where carbon deposit build-up is common. It’s not a problem until it gets to the point that it affects idle quality or acceleration. While some cars reach the problem point sooner than others (and some never reach it), it’s hard for me to imagine that any car would need this service at 18K miles.
Waiting until symptoms appear is not a bad strategy, but it may end up costing more due to the testing/inspection required to determine that the symptoms are indeed caused by throttle body carbon build-up and not by something else. The ideal would be to do it as preventive maintenance, but that requires regular inspection by someone knowledgeable enough to properly evaluate the situation as well as honorable so as not to sell the service prematurely.
Carbon in your throttle body is almost certainly going to come from your EGR system- it recirculates a proportion of exhaust back into the incoming airstream to be reburned.
So of course there will be some carbon that accumulates there. However, I don’t know if it would make any difference unless it did one of two things- accumulated in such a quantity that it obstructed the airflow into the engine, or obstructs the throttle-body butterfly. Either situation would more than likely be accompanied by EGR valve sticking, I’d think, and like others have said, aren’t likely to happen at 18k miles without something else seriously wrong.
So in short, it’s not something you likely need to do, and if you actually do at 18k miles, the carbon in your throttle body isn’t your biggest problem.
Thanks for today’s replies. It is as I thought just a gimmick by AAA to make some money at cardholder’s expense, or to recoup the cost of wheel balancing and alignment, which were, theoretically, free. I will not bring my car to them again. I usually bring it to the Honda dealer, which is most knowledgeable about my car, and I’ve found them honest and straight forward.
I have a Honda as well, and I usually get it serviced at the dealer. I think they’re generally honest but they also try to upsell. If I go in for an oil change (under fifty bucks) they’ll suggest I get a minor service instead (around $150).
My dealer charges around $35 for an oil change but they occasionally run specials. They do try to sell a recommended service, but if the manual recommends it I get it.
I was unaware AAA got into the auto repair business. I was under the impression they sold their name to independent shops to display so as to convey a sense of security and well-being about the perceived quality and value of the services rendered by the shop paying a fee to AAA.
No. It is an AAA store. Appointments set up by home office in NC and it has AAA services such as maps, trip routes, etc.
barbitu8, I would suggest that you use your honest dealer from now on.
I would also send AAA a note telling them what happened, and why you are going back to your honest dealer. AAA does not want the reputation this shop is giving them.
If enough folks report this kind of BS “up-sell” to AAA, AAA will pull their affiliation from them.