Had the dealer change the oil and reset the service interval counter. Noticed a charge and notation for BG44 on the receipt. Asked and was told that it is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Checked the web and it's a fuel line/injector cleaner. Is this just snake oil or overpriced Techron?

 

Some other questions: If you are using Chevron w/Techron gas do you need any additional fuel cleaner? If so at what mileage interval and from what I recall it should be done prior to an oil change? Thanks Go

 

I use BG 44k in my wife's Audi (70k miles, with lots of city miles and very short drives), and it helps when the Check engine light goes on. Between the fuel additive and some high revs on the highway on a hot engine, it breaks up the carbon deposits enough for the engine to stop misfiring and the check engine light to turn off. Just came back after 1 year, so I am about to repeat the process.

It will be interesting to see if our DFI Porsche engines suffer some carbon buildup - I would think that more agressive engine temps (via more throttle, higher revs) should prove useful in preventing it.

 

It depends. While it a fuel system/injector and probably valve/engine deposit remover it may not be really needed provided you buy a top tier gasoline from a busy station and your usage of your car does not include too many short trips.

As an aside I have seen a 996 engine apart that was used for short trips (the owner lived in SF) and a Boxster engine apart from a car that was used for longer commuting drives and the differences in engine deposits was striking. In the case of the 996 the pistons were very dark, black with deposits. In the case of the Boxster engine the combustion chamber and valve faces were so clean I thought the tech had cleaned them.

I've never used BG44 but I have used Techron a couple of times. Only one time -- when what was really going on was a failing AOS -- did I notice any improvement as I drove the car with Techron in the tank. However, I do not know if the improvement was really from the Techron or just the intermittent aspect of and variability of the failing AOS. I do know the improvement was short lived which leads me to believe it was not the Techron but the AOS that was the cause of the sbort-lived improvement.

If you do not want the stuff used ask the dealer not use it. I did when my dealer (in another state) used something maybe the same thing as a matter of routine.

My problem with a dealer using this stuff is I prefer to if I decide to use any cleaner to use it before an oil change not just after.

The good stuff is designed to have a liquid as well as a vapor phase and what this means among other things is some of this stuff will end up as liquid contaminating the fresh oil. Now even if you dumped in the entire bottle of cleaner in the engine oil it may not cause any real problems but I prefer to start out with the oil as fresh as possible and avoid doing anything out of the ordinary to increase its contamination.

There may be some value to the stuff, when used properly and conservatively. I say conservatively because the stuff (both BK44 and Techron) are pretty aggressive cleaners and you do not want to overdo it.

I note even though the majority of my vehicle usage has me driving at often highway speeds a very large percentage of the my 30 mile commute when I take either one of my cars out on an extended drive -- 50 miles or more -- that at around the 50 mile mark the engine is noticeably perkier, smoother idling. Not only my two Porsches appear to benefit from an extended run but my 06 GTO on a drive to southern CA after a good run down I-5 and after a gasoline stop the engine was quite smoother running and more ready to rev.

This suggests even plain old premium gasoline has some cleaner benefit to it when the engine is run long enough at something above around town driving to let the detergents in the fuel do their thing.

(BTW, I run Shell or Chevron almost exclusively when in CA and try to stay with these brands when out of CA but there are other top tier gasoline brands that are just as good, like Unocal, or Philips 66 and there are other brands too.)

It is up to you. If you want try a bottle of BK44 or Techron and use according to directions and see what happens that's ok.

If after some driving -- say after you use half a tank of the fuel with the additive in it -- you notice an improvement in the engine -- you might think about using the stuff periodically. I would not use it every tank or even once a month. Once year might be a reasonable schedule.

A couple of times I have used it in my Boxster was before a smog test. Whether it helped or not I can't say but the car passed its smog test. But I have to note it has passed since without using the stuff.

Also, I used it once shortly after I bought my used Turbo because I suspected the engine didn't get run very much. The car had less than 10K miles on it and was 6 years old so I know the previous owner did not drive the car all that much. I have not used it since and I have put over 100K miles on the Turbo since then.

 

Snake oil, but if I remember correct Pat Goss loves that stuff (probably gets a nice "gratuity" to go with his endorsements).

 

Thanks. I use Exxon 93 and Sunoco 93 only in the car and those have pretty good additive packages. Was a little POed that they added something without asking first.

 

Ah 93...all we can get in Cali from reputable names (chevron/shell) is 91

 

When I was 16 Sunoco used to sell 100 under the Sunoco 260 brand, Atlantic sold100 calling it Atlantic Imperial, Amoco had its "white gas" and Esso put a tiger in your tank all leaded and all rotting the plugs and exhaust systems as well as polluting the air with lead. All were under 36 cents a gallon, then again I was earning $2.15 an hour. In 1970 a fill up cost $15 which was about 6 hours of work. Today, although it's $50 to fill the 911 the labor equivalent is just a fraction do what it used to be.

 

A bit off topic, but this caught my attention. To the best of my knowledge, service advisors are compensated not by the hour, but by how much they bill. Each time they can bill an additional $10 or $15 bucks adds up over the course of a year. (I believe their motto is "bill early, and bill often"). This became obvious when my SA mentioned that he was putting in 60 hr. weeks. Naturally, I assumed he was making a killing on overtime, but he said he worked on commission. Then it became clear why most routine service visits usually included some kind of additional charges.