Sea Foam Cleaner to clear phantom eng light and codes.

Since I didnt have the more agressive equipment to clean the fuel injectors at the fuel rail, I used Sea Foam on the vaccum lines and gas tank instead. It took 3 tanks of Shell premium 93 oct and 3 cans of Sea Foam to finally get rid of the dreaded OBD 0131 code which means bank 1 too lean. Even then I replaced the 0-2 sensor but the codes kept coming back. $30 in sea foam fixed it without buying a single part or removing any. The whole problem was just carboned up injectors and other dirty parts. No more cheap junk gas for me. 600 miles and no eng light or codes. Watch the Youtube videos on this. Their pretty funny.

EDIT: Half can for 11 gal gas tank & the other half can goes into the vaccume line. It took me 3 tankfulls of gas total so everyone is gonna be different. You can tell when its done its job because when you add it to the vaccume line and rev the motor up and the smoke never appears then you know its as clean as its gonna get. The best way to clean fuel injectors is to take them out and give them an "Ultrasonic Bath" but whos got that kind of equipment. I dont know exactly where the problem was because the OBD code of 0131 will send you in 5 different areas. For all I know it couldve been dirty injectors or a dirty fuel pump, EGR valve or a combination of all. Its gone and thats all that counts. The Sea Foam will mess with the transmission
"Hold Light" which is why I reccomend just doing it in the driveway first and then after 10 minutes take the car out for a spin. Its gonna smoke on the interstate after you kick it down to 70 mph and then fades away. Next treatment comes on the next tank of premium gas. I always knew to put premium in my tank when we went up into the mountains on vacation because the air is thinner there but after that I used the crappy 87 oct gas. Never again. Re-set your codes again because the car will run a little crappy if you dont.

So, you ran 3 tanks of 93 octane w/ a can of seafoam each time? Or something different with the vacuum lines? Thanks for the clarification.:)

For every tank of gas you use half a can of Sea Foam and for the vaccume line you use the other half can. Go to their web site. The Aveo only has an 11 gal tank so I would never dump a whole can into the tank. Carbon smoke will be every where when you do this when yo rev it around 5,000 rpm. Some people will only do it at night and jump on the interstate which I would not do!!!! You will get some crazy codes at first but just clear them. Dont expect any immediate results until the second tank ful and then again clear the codes each time. This is allot less agressive then the high acetone stuff the mechanics do in just 4 minutes. Thats too agressive for me and could possibly mess up the cars other sensors but do you think the mechanic is going to admit to something he did that he thought would help? No! Hes gonna say the cars got other problems too. Sea Foam has been around for years and an old mechanics trick.

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Originally Posted by broncsrule21

So, you ran 3 tanks of 93 octane w/ a can of seafoam each time? Or something different with the vacuum lines? Thanks for the clarification.:)

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I had a lean Bank1 code on my Pontiac Wave and I just ran a can of STP Fuel System Cleaner through and it has not returned. Canadian Tire checked the code and reset it and charged me 52 dollars. This week the reader was on sale for $89.95, so I now have my own. The car is five years old so a few codes can be expected every now and again. I use Shell gas 90% of the time, so I am surprised at clogged anything. I was under the impression that"Top Tier" gas was self cleaning.

I use Top Tier gas exclusively in all my vehicles but still run a bottle of fuel system cleaner at every oil change. Seems to work so far for me.

I suppose I will be doing the fuel system cleaner at every oil change again. I used to do that with prior vehicles. I just got out of the habit. Have a great day!

What has a Vietnamese investment holding company got to do with CEL codes on an Aveo/Wave?????

Nothing. Thats what.

I stay away from those cleaning additives 99.99% of the time. If you use good gas, and run the car in the full range of use. then you should never need one. The lean condition could be a dirty filter. and you basically cleaned the filter. Since it does not narrow the lean condition down to the cylinder to say you had a dirty injector, I would lean toward replacing the filter instead of using a cleaner/additive.

Where is the vacuum line on the 04 exactly?!