Additives

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by Yar Is Word

Also, the ECHO's automatic was shifting harder 15,000 miles after new transmission fluid. With the Lucas transmission additive it shifted smoother right away.

Are you saying that you changed the fluid at 15,000 miles and the new Toyota WTS fluid did the job its supposed to do, shift harder? Are you saying that 15,000 miles after you changed the fluid that the car shifted harder?

I've used a substance called P-blaster fuel injector cleaner. I have a friend who uses it at four times its normal concentration. So far nothing has flown apart for him. Of course he also recommended that I use Rotella-T 15W-40 in my Yaris, which prompted a pretty nasty fight between us.

Ordinarily one should not need additives, but sometimes we get gunk in our gasoline. Doesn't hurt to use moderate amounts of fuel injector cleaner from reputable sellers. I'll probably get a bottle of Pblaster and use it per instructions. Ought to last me quite a few years.

I myself would stay far far away from Tranny additives in Toyota products. If Toyota engineers are like the ones at Sony (who I once worked for as a Depot Repair Tech) and Honda (which I owned in the past) than they are not big believers in "robust engineering". This means that they design stuff very close to the edge as far as tolerances and specs. You cannot afford to mess with stuff too much.

Best example I can recall was when I used an aftermarket distributor cap in my Honda CRX. The Echlin cap was a work of art. Made of good quality plastic and brass fittings, far superior to the Honda offering that used crummy plastic and aluminum fittings. The car ran like crap with with the Echlin cap, but once I put the original Honda part in the car ran just fine.

Another was when I worked for Sony. Their electronics is really tight assed stuff, which requires tight tolerances on some parts. Like it's hard to cross reference some driver transistors because the engineers used them to specifically match what was needed. An American engineer might not be as tight assed, but who can say?

I do use a Napa Gold air filter in my Yaris. The quality of the filter to me is much higher than Toyota OEM. I plan to change it more frequently than the Toyota spec filter for this reason.

Gene