Just Say No to Throttle Body Cleaning and Fuel Injector Service Dealer Service Department Upsells, AKA Scams

Car dealers operate the new car side of the business to enable their more profitable service departments. It’s an open secret that most of the profits dealers earn flow from doing routing maintenance, repairs, and warranty work, along with some tire and battery sales and detailing. Honest work deserves honest compensation, and we will be the first to tell you that dealers have their pluses. However, being offered useless work that will not change the way your car runs or its longevity is another thing.

Upsell To Decline Number One - Cleaning a Throttle Body
The first upsell you will likely be offered by a dealership is a throttle body cleaning. They may even claim that “your throttle body  is dirty.” That sure sounds scary. Who wants a dirty throttle body? Setting aside the fear. Uncertainty and doubt is the fact that it is very unlikely your dealer’s service technician or mechanic actually disassembled the intake manifold to look into the throttle body and inspect it.

Your throttle body is part of the car's air intake system. In modern vehicles, it is controlled electronically. When it’s open, more air can enter the engine, and power can increase. It has a flap that tilts in the middle, and it can block or allow air to pass. It does have moving parts.

Owner’s manuals do not list “clean the throttle body” in the list of required maintenance tasks because they are designed to operate without being cleaned. Unless you have a check engine light on or the vehicle is running poorly, you need not clean the throttle body in a modern vehicle. If your car is running normally before the cleaning, it will not run better after the cleaning.

Upsell to Decline Number Two - Fuel Injection Cleaning or Service
Like the throttle body, the fuel injectors in your vehicle are part of the intake. They regulate the fuel delivery to your cylinders. In many modern cars, the fuel injection is “direct,” meaning the spray of fuel is into the cylinders themselves rather than into a chamber or plenum ahead of the cylinders.

Dealers often wish to offer to “clean” your fuel injection system. What they really plan to do is basically nothing. They may introduce a bottle of detergent to the gas tank, or they may be planning to remove the fuel injectors from their mounting positions and run solvent through them. Neither is normally necessary.

If you have a check engine light or your vehicle runs poorly, it may be the fuel injection system. IN which case, cleaning the injectors or replacing one or more may be needed. Otherwise, you are not solving or preventing any issues by proactively cleaning them.

There is an exception to this. Some Toyota vehicles recommend that a bottle of fuel system cleaner be added at the 30K, 60K, and 90K mileage service routines. It’s very inexpensive, and the dealer simply pours it into the tank via the fuel door. If your manual says to do a service task, do it.

A Bonus Upsell To Seriously Consider Avoiding - Alignment
Many dealerships will upsell you an alignment, despite there being no real need for one. Here are the symptoms pointing to a vehicle that needs an alignment:
1) The car pulls to one side when cruising on a smooth road.
2) The Tires are cupped, scalloped, or unevenly worn.
3) The steering wheel is not centered.
If your tires are not unevenly worn and the car does not pull, you will not benefit from an alignment. Furthermore, if the tires are worn past the quarter-life point, they will never “wear back to proper shape” if you do align the car. The time to consider an alignment is when you buy new tires or when you have a symptom you wish to correct.

Have you been upsold throttle body cleaning, fuel injector service, or an alignment? Tell us how you reacted in the comments below. 

John Goreham is the Vice President of the New England Motor Press Association and an expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE int). In addition to his fourteen years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on LinkedIn and follow his work on his personal X channel or on our X channel. John employs grammar and punctuation software when proofreading, and he sometimes uses image generation tools.