Three products your car doesn’t need
Just as there are cosmetics that are useless, there are car products that are useless, too. While none of these are big-ticket items, those nickels and dimes add up.
- Oil additives. Your engine needs the correct oil, changed regularly. Oil additives not only don’t work, but can be harmful.
- Gas-savers. The EPA has tested them all, and they don’t work. Some can even lower engine performance.
- Nitrogen fill of tires. Don’t do it, unless you just enjoy burning cash.
Four services your car doesn’t need
No matter what that service manager says, your car does not need the following procedures:
- Engine flush. What your engine does need are regular oil changes.
- Fuel-injection cleaning. This unnecessary service could set you back as much as $200.
- Transmission flush. Flushing the transmission can stir up sediment that can then travel into small passages, such as precision valves, and affect the shifting quality of the transmission. If anything, R&R would recommend an alternate procedure, a drain and refill, which minimizes the chances of agitating sediment. You don’t really need a drain and refill, either, but if you decide you like the idea, do it regularly or not at all to minimize the chances of transmission damage. We recently encountered a customer whose transmission was destroyed in the aftermath of a dealer-advised transmission flush.
- Power steering flush. In our experience, this is unnecessary unless a failed steering component is being replaced.
