Anyone with a high mileage 2.4 using Lucas fuel injector cleaner/ conditioner?

I just purchased a 01 Tacoma 2WD w 2.4 auto. She has 195k on the clock and I am trying to squeeze just a lil pep into her step. Its cool that she is slow but I imagine when she was new that she was just a little bit more alive. I have replaced the plugs and coils tubes with OEM. I have replaced the air filter and the oil. I cleaned the intake side of the throttle body and will remove the throttle body next for a thorough cleaning as well as an IAC cleaning. After that I will install my new OEM fuel filter and I would like to run some Lucas in the tank to possibly clean my injectors. Do u guys think the Lucas will make a difference in the old gal? I figure with 195K miles those injectors could use a little help.

 

The injectors have a fuel filter in them and the injectors should be rebuilt because of this which includes new injector filters.
Motor west in California is 125.00 for 6 so 4 would be less.
So probably not going to help much with Lucas.

 

Interesting. So I would be without a truck for a period of time.....not best case scenario but understood. Thanks for the info. Would an injector cleaner like Lucas clean the filters in the injectors at all or is rebuild the only way?

 

I don’t think Lucas with clean the filter, but I don’t know,

motor west usually takes 3 or 4 day

 

The injectors should sound like an old sewing machine clicking away, FYI

 

Ya I watched a vid about listening to the injectors. I have a cheap stethoscope and will listen in....

 

You don’t need a stethoscope, you should hear them loud and clear, if you don’t they definitely need to be rebuilt,

 

Well...I am just learning......I guess I could focus on the ticking sound........just trying to give this ole gal every opportunity to perform as good as a 2.4 can.

 

She got a full tank of the good stuff today Shell gasoline......then I added the snake oil......Lucas.......tomorrow she gets a new fuel filter.........I just want her to perk up just a little on the low end....she is a little boggy of the line if there is any incline at all. I also replaced the fan clutch but that wasnt slowing her down. She is a bit quieter now though.

 

In my 03 2WD MT 2.4 taco I’ve used Lucas additives in my rear diff, man trans, engine, and gas tank and I can definitively say I have absolutely no conclusive proof they work! I only have 165k on the clock and suspect with regular maintenance there’s absolutely no difference whatsoever in any of these areas. My opinion is that these are analogous to the old saying about fishing lures, namely they have caught more men than fish.

As far as feeling any extra “pep in yer step”, forget about it. Unless the injectors were terribly clogged and Lucas could work miracles, you’d never know you added it or not.

 

Thanks for your honest opinion. I am a fisherman so I totally get the analogy. I always feel like an idiot when I go for the orange, green, purple. w glitter lure that just came out........its all in your head. If you are confident and know what you are doing you will catch fish. Anyway I am about 500 miles into my Lucas experiment. I recently purchased this truck and it was poorly maintained and a city driving truck. I did feel a little more pep after I changed the spark plugs and boots.......I thought I felt a quicker response time with gear shifting with the Lucas in the gas. I had a check engine code on P0420. Since the light came on I have been giving the ole gal just Shell gas with Lucas. The light stayed on for 2 tanks of gas and then I took her on a road trip which consisted of 6 hours round trip high speed 70mph highway driving. The light stayed on for the whole trip but when I fired up the truck the next morning no more P0420 check engine light. Now would this light have gone off with just the highway driving alone? I would say probably ......yes. But for the hell of it lets say that the Lucas burned off some crap and got the light to go off.

 

On that note I have had gas from certain stations consistently trips my CEL with the dreaded P0136 code. It was a local Raceway that I guess is known for selling older gas, or so I have been told. All I know is when I filled up anywhere else my CEL did not come on so I suppose it’s possible for Lucas snake oil to fix something like that. I have no scientific data to prove it though.

To be honest i still use it (in my manual trans) but it probably has more of a benefit on my peace of mind than the actual operation of the mechanisms in my engine. It sure looks cool though when you watch the oil string between the gears on the display in the auto parts store.

Scotty Kilmer (YouTube) will tell you not to use in engines with VVT though and that makes sense. YMMV, both literally and figuratively.

 

As long as it looks cool......sign me up

 

Seafoam works good as fuel injector cleaner and fuel stabilizer. I mix it a little rich ad put the petal to the metal and dont fill up until you run most of it out of the tailpipe

 

My 5 lug 2wd in MT is very peppy still at almost 300k, I think it might be the auto making it feel like a pig

 

My 02 has 380k and has a lot of pep. The auto is the issue as he said. I am a seafoam user as well as berrymans b12.

 

My hearing must be very poor I have never heard Toyota injectors firing in the 20 years I had Fuel injected Toyota`s . Just the engine running easily covers the sound

Think of doing a Compression test see just what your dealing with.