Flushes, Additives & Nitrogen filled tires, say "NO"!

On September 26, 2006, American Honda sent a letter to all the dealer principals. In this letter with the subject line of “Honda’s Service Policies”, they clearly stated that oil additives, fuel injection cleanings, engine flushes and the use of nitrogen in tires are all practices that the dealers should not engage in.

The following is an excerpt from that letter.

“Honda engineers have conducted exhaustive tests to create specialized maintenance standards that support the performance and longevity of Honda vehicles. Not following these maintenance schedules -or performing services not recommended by Honda-can have adverse consequences on our vehicles or, at minimum, offer no benefit.”

So, if your service provider tries to sell you a power steering, coolant, transmission or any other kind of flush as part of regular maintenance, I suggest you turn around and walk out the door.

I am all about preventative maintenance, not just for your vehicle, but for your house,
personal health and so on. But there is such thing as overkill, and these flushes and additives are
just that, wasted time and wasted money. I’m sure you don’t go through the trouble and expense
to have a plumber come out and snake the drains in your house just in case, as part of preventative maintenance, that wouldn’t make sense and neither does performing all these unnecessary flushes.

I’m not saying these products and services don’t do anything, sure they do something, but they
either do not produce measurable results in terms in performance gains or they fail to extend
the product lifecycle long enough to justify the compounded expense of performing such services.

Radiator Flush...
Let’s look at the radiator as an example. Based on my eleven years with the Honda product,
I see original equipment radiators from Honda last anywhere from 10-15 years plus, and that
is conservative. Now, if we look at the average cost to flush, power flush or whatever to your
radiator, once per year (what seems to be the norm) at an average cost of $80.00, that is $ 800.00 in flushes in just ten years, and they tend to last a lot longer than ten years. Did you know that it costs between 600-800.00 dollars to actually replace the radiator with original equipment part once it does fail? Did also know that the top half of these radiators is made of plastic and there is nothing you can do to stop them from failing over time? See, the heat does a job on the plastic. Hot cold, hot cold, it stresses the plastic out with time, it develops cracks and then leaks. But that’s ok because after ten to fifteen years of driving, it is expected. I mean, nothing lasts forever, right? So do yourself and favor and don’t do it! Service your vehicle according to the manufacturers recommendations. The coolant these days is replaced every 7-8 years!

Nitrogen...
The practice of selling nitrogen in place of free air during tire replacements has gained
a good foothold. And there is good reason, it is very profitable. But the down side is, there is no upside for you, the consumer. Did you know that regular, dry, compressed air is approximately 80% nitrogen already? So what are you paying for? 20% nitrogen that once again provides no measurable gain. Just say no!

Fuel injection (induction) cleanings...
This is a big one. Seems like everyone is selling these. Why?
Because in most instances the cost is about 100.00 dollars or more and very little is performed,
making the service highly profitable. The problem is, this cleaning does nothing to increase fuel economy or make the vehicle run better and certainly does not increase the life span of the component. Sometimes this is used to resolve a symptom, but rarely does it work. When you are having problems in this area (fuel injection system), you address the specific concern. This usually means replacement of the throttle body or fuel injector(s).

So in closing, the manufacturer knows best. Read your manual and know what is supposed to be done. Find yourself a provider you can trust, one that will service your vehicle according to the manual, saving you money and making you a happy Honda Owner.