Has anyone ever used BG Products"Throttle Body & Intake Cleaner / 44K / Fuel Injection Cleaner. I'm looking to do this less expensive method on my 2010 cooper. The dealer wants 600 bucks to clean the Throttle body. Thanks for your help.

 

get a bottle of Chevron Techron. Its the same thing Mini uses and sells in their parts dpt. under the mini name and the same stuff they will use to clean your mini. $600 is an outrageous rip off and I would find a more ethical Mini dealer if possible. Also, if you have access to ethanol free gas use it as ethanol turns to water in your tank and causes a lot of carbon when it burns. Google "pure gas" for a listing of all ethanol free gas stations in your state and city.

 

Ethanol does not turn into water. Just like you can't change lead into gold.

It will absorb water, and Ethanol (corn alcohol) is hydroscopic, but it isn't as big a seal as the internet leads you to believe.

OP, search for the "Seafoam" treatment for cleaning carbon deposits. Or find a local MINI specialist that can do the BG 44 tratment for far less money than a dealer.

 

and no i dont work for BG but i do work at a cadillac dealer and we carry BG products, so i had it done there just 1 week ago, since we carry the BG line the salesman gave me the 3part pack of cleaner for free i figured what the hell ill try it !!! the shop performed the service for me. car ran rough for about 1 minute as the cleaner worked thru, then ran most excellent, i will continue to use it in the future !! give it a try !! i am also going to try the MOA by BG , its an oil additive[motor oil additive ] that you put in when doing your oil change [fully compatible with synthetic oils] and gives you a 5k mile warranty on all parts that it touches inside the engine and also prevents oil gunk up , ill try it , why not....i figure cheap insurance

 

we use the techron on the cadi's too it works excellent but the BG tbi cleaner does a more thorough job , ill use the techrons every so often, they make a bottle for 12 gallons thats about 7 bucks at autozone, and a larger bottle for 20 gallons for about 12 bucks, dont need the larger bottle its overkill and wont do anymore than the smaller bottle for you on a small 14 gallon tank , but on tanks with larger capacities[around 20] i would use the larger bottle

 

I'm going to go ahead and try the BG TBI cleaner. I have a friend that has the set up to run the cleaner through the system. I'll post later how effective it was later. I'm going to also try the techron additive. I did recently run a can of seafoam with my last fill-up didn't see much improvement. Unfortunately i don't think the previous owner ran high octane in this car. Thank all for your advice.

 

From the price you listed it sounds as if the want to do a "Carbon Cleaning" on the valves. If that is the case then it sounds as if the car is an S (turbo model).

SoI have a question for you is your car a Justa or an S because if it is an S then putting additives in the gas tank will do nothing for you problem. Seafoam or BG/44 needs to be used in the proper manner of adding it thru the intake.

 

It is not an S, the car idols rough when it first starts as soon as the temp comes up it smooths out. I've also been told it could possibly be a temperature sensor. No check engine light is on at this time.

 

I used this on my VW GTI VR6 (2001) when it hit about 120k miles. I noticed a major improvement in power, throttle response and gas mileage (2-4 mpg increase).

However, I think most of the performance problems would be attributed to the carbon build up on the valves on Mini's instead of dirty throttle bodies or injectors so I don't think it would make such a difference on our cars.

If BG came out with a $200 carbon removal service in a can or to be performed in a shop, they would have a lot of business from Mini, Audi, BMW, and VW owners with the new DI engines.