Honda Legend 3.5 won't start after engine cleaner

darkchild101

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My dad's honda Legend won't start after he put engine cleaner in the tank. It had very little amount of fuel at the time and he poured the whole bottle of engine cleaner. It drove for 50 miles and then when he parked it it wouldn't start the next day. It's the Ka9 model. When you crank the engine there is sound of explosion coming from air filter and air filter looks charred

Please help. Thanks
 

A.J.

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Sounds like a too concentrated engine cleaner in the fuel lines to me. With hindsight perhaps he should have added the engine cleaner to a full tank of fuel. What did it say on the can ?
 
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darkchild101

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I'm sorry I can't remember what it says on the can. What could be a possible fix. Tried adding more petrol but don't help
 

rf065

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Purge the fuel lines or crank it for as long as it takes till petrol is coming through them, battery permitting of course?

I'm assuming the engine cleaner was actually fuel system cleaner and not engine cleaner which is supposed to be added to the oil in the engine?
 

spenttherent

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Have a look at the spark plugs to see what condition they are in
 

A.J.

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I'm sorry I can't remember what it says on the can. What could be a possible fix. Tried adding more petrol but don't help

No it probably won't because the fuel line will be full of the concentrate
 

ajlsl600

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if it fried the air filter you likely had burning fuel escaping up thru the inlet valve or inlet manifold, depending on where injectors situated. remove air filter ,will it try to run on small amounts of neat fuel poured in inlet tract ? fairly confident that treatment was designed to go in as you refill fuel tank if you can get it to fire ,drain tank or refill ,if near empty still and start again sans cleaner ! check no parts of burnt air filter have found their was into the inlet tract . and is that car,air filter/tract/maf/tract inlet ? maybe some crap messing with maf ect if you cant get to the bottom of the matter consider a compression test to confirm inlet valve/s.. are closing. as generally burning fuel does not reach air filter. another Q, unlikely, does this car have a cold start injector in the inlet manifold ? i remember yrs ago sheds (R.Rovers did )
 
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mioba

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Sounds very unfortunate, you need to clarify what the said cleaner was intended for. If it was fuel injection cleaner it should be used in the fuel system. This stuff usually burns deposits off injectors and so on and burns quiet high, its seems to be too conecetraed and high burning hence burning back through the system. Not knowing what damage has been done to air filter, injectors etc etc, start replacing the obviously damaged parts, open fuel lines to expel the cleaner, get clean fuel in there and try again.
 

LostKiwi

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As above remove the air filter and check the inlet tract for charred debris. Clear anything visible.
Flush the fuel lines and try again.
The explosion in the air filter may simply be a backfire due to the different combustion characteristics of the cleaner.
 

alexanderfoti

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Have you tried filling it up with 10+ liters of fuel?

Is it possible that it has no fuel in it?
 

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