crazyjkz

Hello I own a 2002 Acura 3.2TL with 86,000 miles on it that I just bought about 3 months ago and I was considering buying a good brand of complete fuel system cleaner(Chevron Techron) for it but one of my friends who is a certified Acura mechanic is claiming that you aren't suppose to use any fuel additives of any kind in Honda and Acura vehicles and that it even indicates this in the car manual. He claims that although he isn't necessarily saying that running fuel system cleaner will definitely do any damage to anything he still feels that it isn't a good idea to use it. But for some reason I just can't live with my car not knowing whether or not the fuel injectors and the fuel system as a whole is properly clean and running at optimum conditions.

Is there any truth to the "no fuel system additives" rule in Hondas/Acuras?

Sperry

iTrader: (1)

I ran a bottle of Seafoam through just under half a tank of fuel.
Took the car 60 miles past the "low fuel" light.

There was a definite, discernible increase in the smoothness of the engine at starting, idling, and accelerating.

fsttyms1

You can use them. The preferred one is Seafoam. Thats what i and most here would recommend. Ive been regularly using it for 350k miles now

01tl4tl

agree with everyone above 1, 16oz can of seafoam for 8-9 bucks into just under half tank of gas-
8 gallons = tune up in a can

Acura dealers offer a fuel injection cleaning service with a machine hooked up to the fuel lines and running a mix of gasoline and seafoam for 30 minutes
they charge 100-125$!!!!
Diy 20 bucks for a good job- 30 including the oil cleaning method

you are about ready for sparkplugs too- wait a week or so after seafoam so the plugs go into a clean workspace- use NGK Iridium

01tl4tl

the owner book is old and not complete-more a guideline for maitenance

Practical use, USA switch to E10 gas and other factors change the maitenmance needs

crazyjkz

Thanks for all the replies. Yeah I was planning to replace the spark plugs with the NGK Iridium IX very soon anyway. I just had my Acura mechanic replace the timing belt and tensioner, all drive belts, water pump, and clean out the intake/EGR ports with solvent cleaner which he said had A LOT of carbon and gunk in them to be cleaned out. He told me that it is a common service cleaning that they do at his Acura dealership on the TLs and I did notice overall smoother and faster acceleration especially on the top-end.

I have never used Seafoam on any of my cars before but I have always traditionally used Chevron Techron complete fuel system cleaner and/or Marvel Mystery Oil and I have always had good experiences with them. Would you recommend the Seafoam over the Chevron Techron Complete Fuel System Cleaner and/or Marvel Mystery Oil??

YeuEmMaiMai

I just did the seafoam on my 02 CL-S with 94K miles. very little smoke. I put nearly the whole bottle in saving 6 oz for the oil. then i put atf seafoam in the gas tank to clean the injectors

AznHonda

iTrader: (2)

I used the seafoam when I first bought the car..and damn that shit was smokey as hell..but after that every 6 months I use the seafoam and is not that smokey at all...I guess the previous using some cheap ass gas...because I have been using 93 octane on my car.

01tl4tl

seafoam website suggest 2 times for noobs a month apart, then once a year/15kmiles
you can also throw a can into a nearly full tank of gas every 5000 for maitenenace dose

smoke is relative to heat in the cat- maybe your technique needs work- see DIY section

techron and marvel are good products, but seafoam is really good stuff- especially when directions are followed~

01tl4tl

the EGR ports are well known problem and need to be cleaned out every 75kmiles

crazyjkz

Ok I just went to my local Pepboys and bought 6 NGK Iridium IX spark plugs and two 1-pint cans of Seafoam. I'm going to use the Seafoam in the gas, oil, and vacuum line and then I guess I'll wait a few days to put some mileage on the car before I replace the stock plugs with the new NGK Iridium IX spark plugs and I will change the oil and filter with Mobil 1 5W-20 full-synthetic with a Purolator Pureone oil filter.

Btw has anyone ever used Redline's Water Wetter product for the cooling system? I saw it when I went to Pepboys and on the bottle it claims that it can reduce engine operating temperatures by up to 20 degrees! If it is safe to use with Honda/Acura cooling systems then I would really like to add it to my radiator coolant because it is VERY hot where I am right now, we have been getting 100 degrees temperatures with very high humidity. Does anyone know if this Redline Water-Wetter coolant additive is safe and/or beneficial to use in the cooling system of my 2002 3.2TL??

YeuEmMaiMai

^nope never used any additives. Only Honda coolant here

01tl4tl

please stop reducing the font size, us old people cant see it very well- the normal setting of the forum works fine - thank you

redline is safe to use,, but not needed in the TL-it should run a specific temp
the question is: Does your temp guage ever vary above 1-2 lines below half???
Thats the normal reading and it should NOT vary regarless of load or outside air temp, and never exceed halfway!
If it does there is a problem that additives wont fix!

Have a read of the main thread page titles and the DIY section for more info

see the seafoam DIYs for help, use 1 can in just under half tank of gas
Use 1/2 can in master vac port at TB
Use 1/2 can in oil just before change and drive 30 miles/minutes, change while still warm

01tl4tl

vehicles where the temp makes a large change between thermostat open and closed, like my 86 honda 1100 water cooled vtwin bike does on its guage, swings from 20-80 percent temp between at stoplights and riding slow and riding hard pushes temp..
then redline will help

Its really for racers where you are not allowed to run coolant (makes racetracks very slippery when spilled) and want a booster against boiling pure water--
then water wetter is in everyones toolbox~ read the label or redline site for more info

totaledTL

ATF seafoam in the gas tank- why?

YeuEmMaiMai

^cause it's LOADED with some serious detergents and it makes short work of cleaning fuel injectors

totaledTL

Has anybody else on here put ATF seafoam in their gas tank? Haven't seen that mentioned.

YeuEmMaiMai

I'm telling you it works wonders been doing it for years on all of my cars and never had any issues.

you know some people even put atf in their engine oil for the same reasons as it removes a ton of buildup and was a cheap way to clean lifters on old engines.

Also diesel people put ATF it in their fuel for the same reasons to cleam em out.

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

BG 44k is better

or let alone the amount of additives ALREADY in gas from the station

and the owner's manual never even mentioning anything about TOP TIER gas (iirc only available in Cali ), anyways Honda was one of the manufactures that actually helped write what they would like to actually see in gasoline from the station
http://www.toptiergas.com/deposit_control.html

YeuEmMaiMai

TOP tier is a marketing gimmick...There only a hand full of companies that actually refine oil into gas and they sell it to pretty much anyone who wants it. If gas was so crappy then everyone who filled up at their local market gas station would have cars dying left and right due to poor fuel and that just isn't the case anymore.

I'd be more concerned about the local owner being too cheap to make repairs to his leaking tanks or short changing you at the local [insert popular name brand here] than I would be about getting gas at a BP/Marathon/SuperAmerican/Holiday/KwikTrip just because it isn't on that top tier list......

01tl4tl

tier 2 has the govt min amount of cleaners added- thats `generic stations` fuel
tier 1 has `up to twice` the legal min amount of cleaners
The govt had to add the cleaner spec because E10 gas sucks bad
Acura did help decide that 10 percent ethanol was the MAX the car can tolerate- so thats the standard the govt set!~

Anyone who runs chevron or shell will tell you a differance in performance and mileage over arco (bp)

bg44 is also a fine product

Having worked at a fuel depot: yes it comes down the same pipe into the final mixing station-- where each company has its own additive package in varying amounts blended in,,tested, approved, and then it goes into the tanker and onto the station

When tanker returns it is fully washed out of all the fuel residue and made ready for next batch of different brand name

my 01 book does say to use tier 1 gas, I dont know about any other year/car books

If you are doing like Yeu is- with a super cleaning thru the gas now and then- his method is seafoam trans tune in gas--combatting the effects of the dirty gas crud buildup
old school is run trans fluid in a dead engine to clean the carbon- it works but I would be concerned with our cat suffering from it

There are interesting utubes showing inside engine while cleaner is added- see Wynns cleaner post for those
There really is carbon crud and it really does go away!!

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

, and i much rather have a clean engine all the time, then to have to occasionally add additional cleaner (even then shell gas does need a little extra every once in a while though, but a can of 44k does that though)

crazyjkz

Ok I did the Seafoam technique yesterday evening by putting half of the can in the gas and very slowly pouring the other half of the can directly into the vaccuum line under the engine/intake cover with the engine running just as shown in the Seafoam DIY on this forum. I waited about 20 min and then started it up but I didn't see or notice any significant smoke come out of the exhaust even when revving it up and driving it hard for about 30 min afterwards?? I was very surprised that there was no dirt/gunk/carbon smoke to be expelled out of the exhaust because the car does have about 85k miles on it and I kinda doubt that the previous owner had ever Seafoamed the car before(which maybe I could be wrong about?).

At first I thought maybe I did something wrong but now I don't think so, I followed the DIY word for word with the exception of just slowly pouring a half pint(half the can) directly into the vaccuum line as opposed to using the extension tube and putting it into the Seafoam in a water bottle. My Dad said that maybe the engine was just already very clean by the previous owner always using good quality premium-only gas and regular service/maintenance and oil changes. I do know that the previous owner had maintained the car extremely well because the car is practically like new inside and outside and on the Carfax it showed all of the standard maintenance and servicing done directly by the Acura dealership that they had originally bought the car from. I'm still just kinda shocked that I saw hardly any smoke at all come out of the exhaust after starting it up, the only thing I did notice was some heavy fumes from behind the car after it was running for a minute or two.

But whatever I mean I guess it's actually a good sign because it showed that the engine is already very clean on the inside??

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

first of all please turn it on 3 font, very hard to read, especially for 01tl4tl, he is old and needs reading glasses

now, to the point, normally minimal smoke does mean that the engine was relitively clean to start with, there was really no carbon for that seafoam to soak in to, when you shut it off, so the minimal amount of smoke produced (as you said on yours, mine was also very well maintained, cause i was actually the one that did the maintence for the previous owner lol; but anyways when my friends wanted to do mine, i let them and they did it, well anyways mine also produced a minimal amount of smoke also, because it is a reletively clean engine to strart with (i was using valero gas for a bit [kinda cheap stuff], then i found my local shell station, and have not looked back since, litially only gas my car has gotten in the past 7 months (owned it for 10 months roughly so far) is shell v-power, so 91 octane [thats all we get ][there is an exception though i did put in like 5 dollars worth of conoco gas once, after the track, so i could get home and fill it with shell right afterwards]

01tl4tl

A; what vac line did you find to pour seafoam into? the correct place is at a metal nipple coming from the TB area
that will effect what happens~
B: smoke is reaction of the oils that are seafoam- to the HEAT in the engine and the cat convertor
C- wait time is 10-15 minutes so it doesnt cool off too much
D: doesnt sound like you did the start up and blow out drive procedure as detailed in the DIYs here

I can add seafoam to most any car at 2000 rpm and get lots of smoke,,and blaster action in the process!,,first loosen and liquify, then blaster, more loosening near idle..

01tl4tl

how much gas in the tank to that half can of seafoam?

crazyjkz

Uh oh, I think I just realized what I did wrong. I think that I poured the seafoam into the wrong end of the tube! I poured it into the vaccuum line itself, not into the throttle body!! I don't understand how it could have taken it in like this, could I have screwed anything up with the car by doing this? Where did the Seafoam go?? It did suck it in, it didn't bubble back out or anything. I can't believe I made this stupid mistake. I'm gonna do it again today the CORRECT way by pouring the Seafoam into the throttle body!!

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

but at some point you may have a leaky brake booster (possibly master cylinder also) though, depending on how it reacts with the rubber in there, from it being fully concetrated in there

crazyjkz

Ok I just put the Seafoam in the CORRECT way. I removed the tube from the throttle body nipple, then took a piece of loose tubing that I had in the garage and put in on the nipple, turned the engine on, and slowly poured in about half of the Seafoam bottle into the throttle body nipple. I was looking at the picture on the DIY for the 2003 Type-S and my vacuum line looks kinda different maybe because mine is a regular 2002 TL, the vacuum line is to the right of the throttle body, not to the left like in the picture for the Type-S. And it's not a small rubber tube that connects to a long metal line, it's a very long rubber tube that goes all the way from the throttle body nipple to the firewall.

I checked to see where the long rubber tube goes to see where the hell I poured it into when I did it the wrong way yesterday and I traced it back to the firewall but I couldn't see where it goes from there. I just REALLY hope that I didn't do any damage to anything or screw anything up by pouring it in the wrong end yesterday, I love my TL and I am really paranoid now that I did something wrong, although I was driving it all around this morning before I realized I did it wrong and the car drove and ran perfectly fine.

BTW when I just poured in the Seafoam the correct way I started seeing some smoke come out of the exhaust before I was even finished pouring it so obviously I did it right this time. I also just put in my new NGK Iridium IX spark plugs this morning with my father and the original platinum plugs were REALLY shot!!

I can't believe I made such a stupid mistake. Can anyone please give me ANY reassurance that I didn't do anything to damage anything in the car by pouring the Seafoam into the wrong end??

I'm going outside now to start the car up again because it's been about 20 min since I finished pouring it in. I can't wait to see all the smoke and crap come out of the exhaust!

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

a picture would do wounders for figuring out where it goes

as far as any damage, depends on where it went to first of all

crazyjkz

Just got back from a test run after PROPERLY doing the Seafoam technique. Started the car up after waiting about 20 min and a good amount of smoke came out of the exhaust along with strong smell of fumes. I let it run and revved it up from time to time for a little bit and then took it for a test run and gave it a few full-throttle runs bringing it to redline to ensure that I cleared out all the dirt and carbon and what not. It definitely feels more responsive and less restricted now especially on the top-end and it also seems to run a little smoother also. I put in the new NGK Iridium IX spark plugs this morning too and the original NGK platinum plugs that were in there were completely shot so I'm sure that made a pretty big difference as well.

As far as any concerns of damage, well the car is running and driving pefectly fine so I'm assuming that the Seafoam hopefully may have just trickled down back into the throttle-body nipple and into the throttle body when I hooked up the rubber tube back onto the TB nipple when I was done yesterday. Nothing seems to be wrong with the car in any way at all, actually it's running smoother and better than ever now that I finally did the Seafoam correctly and put in the new NGK Iridium IXs.

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

hopefully, but as said it could possible be a little harsh on rubber if in full concentration depending on the exact formula of the rubber itself, idk

as far as the plugs being wasted lol, try 120k with some of these new cars before their first scheduled plug change, you think those are not wasted by then (let alone not being kinda siezed in there, 105k and they are already kinda rough coming out)

as far as our stock plugs, i would say a 90k change interval is about right for maximizing their life while still working effectively

01tl4tl

hey crazy- do you know about the DIY section,, with the full pics and hand-holding thru the seafoam procedure?

Still need to clean the TB air plate

had you read it- and followed it on startup too- you would get more value for money on the results
ck it out and repeat gas and vac port in a month /1500 miles then good for a year/15

01tl4tl

the actual direction of the metal nipple does vary with year,
if its on top-front-rear of the TB to manifold connection area, and has the correct hose clamp- thats the only one!!

when you remove it-- the engine doesnt run well-has a 20 inch vac leak!! and putting a thumb over it sucks on tight,
that also fixes engine stumble that occurs during seafoam application

crazyjkz

Yeah I actually found out about the Seafoam DIY AFTER I had screwed up the procedure the first time and poured the Seafoam into the wrong end of the vaccuum line, instead of pouring it towards and into the throttle body nipple I actually poured it the opposite way towards the rubber vacuum line tube! I'm still wondering where the hell the Seafoam went when I did that, but the car runs and drives better than ever now that I changed the original plugs with the NGK Iridium IXs and re-did the Seafoam procedure the CORRECT way so I guess it didn't do anything bad to the car, my educated guess is that when I turned the car back on the Seafoam got forced back into the throttle body anyway from the vacuum suction but it obviously wasn't very effective doing it that way because I saw little to no smoke come out of the exhaust until I did the procedure the correct way yesterday.

I will clean out the throttle body plate and everything tomorrow as I have read the full DIY procedure on everything but I have to say that the car is running much smoother, more responsive, and it overall feels less restricted since I have put in the NGK Iridium IX plugs (the stock plugs were completely shot) and did the Seafoam procedure the correct way yesterday, a good amount of smoke was coming out of the exhaust for at least 5 minutes or so after I started it back up!

crazyjkz

Oh btw I'm going to put up some pictures of my TL sometime tomorrow for everyone to see. It's a 2002 TL with black paint and black leather interior with woodgrain trim and the car is in mint condition. I just bought it about 3 months ago and it has about 85k miles on it. Next thing I wanna do is get the AEM Cold Air Intake System and the bypass valve for it and I'm also considering getting Type-S rims for it too. But so far I really LOVE this car a lot and it runs and drives better than ever after the Seafoam and the NGK Iridium IXs. I used to be primarily a domestic fan but this car is beginning to turn me over to a Honda/Acura guy.

01tl4tl

make sure to register with acura care 1-800- 382- 2238x5
ask if any OPEN recalls on the car--those are freebies waiting for you!
Need your VIN number handy when you call

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

F***er i want black on black (mine is black with tan), but then again i like my Type-S better though

the bypass valve, yes it does it's job, but complete bullshit, and you should never really need it, cause you really should never be driving in water that deep to truely begin with (and the filter is protected pretty well anyways from being behind the bumper, that it should never see any sort of a large amount of water

as far as vs domestic, maybe not as powerful, but it handles a shit load better then a domestic though, especially in stock form, and the build quality is a whole lot higher too (let alone alot fewer squeks also), but also better fuel mileage too (and not in the shop as often either; no car is invincable and maintence free)

crazyjkz

I'm kinda confused as to what intake to get for my TL. I really like AEM but now I'm thinking maybe it would be easier just to get the Short Ram system, I see they make one for the 2002 CL which is essentially the same car as my 2002 TL so logically I would have to think it would fit with no problem. I also like Injen's systems, originally I wanted to get the AEM CAI but I keep on reading and hearing different things like it only takes about a teaspoon of water to create hydrolock in the engine and if the filter is below the hood level there is always a risk of enough water getting into the filter to create a possible devastating hydrolock situation which kinda scares me.

Does anyone have any idea on what kind of approximate gains I could expect in hp and torque with either the AEM or Injen short-ram intake systems and which one is the preferred system over the other? Also is there really any risk of hydrolock with the AEM CAI with or without the bypass valve and is it really worth the extra money and extra hassle of installation to go with the AEM CAI over the AEM or Injen short-ram intake systems?

Also is it normal for the yellow "maintenance required" dash light to blink on and off a few times right after you start the engine on a 2002 TL?

01tl4tl

the light means its close to 7500 miles since last time the oil change reminder light was reset
It will blink more insistantly until it goes on solid one day
Time for oil change!!
easy DIY reset too