Dealer suggesting $500 motor decarb

[l3randonf]

At the dealership they had a big sign up explaining the importance of paying $500 to have them decarb the motor instead of using those little gas additive decarb bottles you can buy at the store for $5. My service advisor was also pushing the service and he explained that they actually polish the interior of the motor and said it should be done every 40k miles. He said those gas additive bottles don't do much. But my extremely experienced Honda owning friend said the gas additive bottles are the way to go and that the $500 dealership decarb is stupid.

What do you think about that? Is it dumb?

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[LBP]

Decarbonization? Pretty dumb, unless their service is media blasting the intake valves, in which case that is actually a decent price for an effective service. However, the PCV system on these Hondas is very good and so such a service typically isn’t required. Of course, this can change depending on many factors.

Unless your car has symptoms of poor performance I would not worry about it.

 

[gtman]

 

[speedyserg]

With direct injection the old bottle stuff can't do its job like it did with port injection.

Carbon can build up on valves/intake ports but saying it needs a deep cleaning at those intervals is quite a stretch.

If your worried about it you can add methanol/water injection which will basically steam clean the engine and keep exhaust gas Temps down and break up any carbon deposits for as long as you own the car.

The last time I visited the dealership was for them to just pull a rock out of my dust shields which is an easy 5 minute job - they explained normally they charge $200 an hour but for me they would only charge $100

My regular mechanic did it for free lol

Lesson here is dealerships are in the business of overcharging for the smallest of things so it's best to find a local specialist who you can trust - their prices are much better and they won't try to sell you on junk services.

I wish it was different but sadly 25+ years of dealing with dealerships pushed me to always seek a local honda guy vs getting fleeced.

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