To add or not to add, that is the question

[lichfielddriver]

A year old and 35,000 miles on, should i treat her to a can of forte injector cleaner?

 

she feels a tad hesitant at times now

[DEL80Y]

I do Forte treatment every 10.000 on my cars engine flush and advanced formula diesel treatment..

I also run them on Millers DIESEL POWER ECOMAX at each fuel up.. 

Edited 21 April, 2016 by DEL80Y

[terrytowelling]

I just use the plain suoermarket diesel and I'm up to 95 k , runs fine so far . I've used these treatments and additives on other cars I've had , I think they are a placebo

[DEL80Y]

I owned a garage back in the day and had the rep come round from Forte to show me the stuff he had ..

I was the same as you "waste of money"  blah blah  Then he done a Demo with 1 of the mechanics cars an old 2.0l red top (C20XE)  Cavalier 

We first of all done a standard oil change  on car that had been warmed up then got my Snap-0n compression gauge and took reading across all 4 cylinders which were not bad for the age of the vehicle and slight variation from cylinder to cylinder... 

Then Forte Advanced Formula Motor flush was used and oil changed then I took compression again using same gauge and there was a noticeable increase cant remember the percentage but was proof there and then that the Flush had worked on loosening the rings on the pistons.

Then he put what is now called the  Advanced Formula Treatment through the car and I redone the readings and again there was a far greater increase to the values and all were equal across the four..

The mechanic took his Cavy for a spin and could not believe the difference that £20 of stuff made to his cars driveability...

The readings were there in black and white and my views from that day were changed.......


On Millers  I use this regularly on all my diesels 1 of which is a C Class Merc which without using it is a very noisy engine but with Millers it quietens it down considerably and get far better MPG

It increases the Cetane rating by 4 points

I use Millers on my old 225,000 mile Mondeo taxi and get roughly 30-35 more miles per tank so for the cost of adding these "additives " makes sense in my book

[chimaera]

That old Cavalier was probably run on mineral oil all its life and was a pretty low tech engine so it'd stand to benefit a lot from something like this.

 

The CR engines must be run on synthetic oils and I'd bet if you did that same test on one you'd find only a marginal improvement.

[terrytowelling]

Depends how much the additive is , the stuff I used was a tenner for 250 Mil which is 8 or 9 litres of diesel in price.

[langers2k]

My worry on a modern TDi is when the additive burns, it might create something that blocks or damages the DPF.

[cnc]

Save your money http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/33200/fuel-additives-are-waste-money

[cnc]

Some even reduce power https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jbcCr2ll3c

[Solarstorm]

There is the cleaning aspect of them and the Forte products aren't designed to be used as an every tank additive, they're put in for a specific purpose

[chimaera]

Save your money http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/33200/fuel-additives-are-waste-money

That report is specifically about petrol additives - not relevant to this discussion.

[lichfielddriver]

Ive tried most in previous cars, mainly a Mk3 130PS Mondeo, Forte made it quieter for sure, Millers might have too, most others had little effect, i did mpg figures, best was 50mpg (summer) on Shell or BP, using Tesco derv made her knock like an old commer van

[DEL80Y]

I have done tank to tank refills on my Mondeo with Millers and its Defo not a placebo effect 

I have deleted that account on Fuelly and there was a difference about 30 miles for a full tank when I couldn't get home to add Millers before refill 

I taxied the Mondeo for 180,000 and kept track of every penny spent on it which was a worrying read  

Never kept the stuff in the car because it bloody stinks   

I see you use Fuelly so you will be able to get a real time feel if it works for your car

[lichfielddriver]

I taxied the Mondeo for 180,000 and kept track of every penny spent on it which was a worrying read  

 

 

 

EGR

DMF and starter

strut tops x 6

shocks x 2

coils x 1

2nd starter

4 recon injectors

 

car cost £4250 above cost me £3000 

 

did 130K in 4 years

 

smokey but like **** off a shovel

[lichfielddriver]

others swear by a small amount of synthetic 2 stroke oil in the fuel tank per fill up, modern pump diesel is sulphurless and 5% bio.....

[chimaera]

others swear by a small amount of synthetic 2 stroke oil in the fuel tank per fill up, modern pump diesel is sulphurless and 5% bio.....

The little bit of biodiesel more than makes up for the lubricity lost by the removal of sulphur. Adding 2-stroke oil to the fuel in a DPF-equipped car is asking for trouble.

[Raptor]

What about Shell Nitro?

I have started using this since I bought my car in 2014. Started with one fill up in four. Now use it all the time. I do find the car runs a lot better; yes it is more expensive but I am getting better mpg. I did use fulley for a while now use a spreadsheet because fulley does not calculate partial fill ups.

Edited 25 April, 2016 by Raptor

[Kirkie]

I retired last week and have just had to personally pay for the first tank of fuel for 42 years... Its breaking my heart....I will have to start taking short-cuts on my journey to the fishing lake.

Edited 25 April, 2016 by Kirkie

[lichfielddriver]

I retired last week and have just had to personally pay for the first tank of fuel for 42 years... Its breaking my heart....I will have to start taking short-cuts on my journey to the fishing lake.

 

 

1 tank every 3 months wont hurt though will it

[DEL80Y]

What about She'll Nitro?

I have started using this since I bought my car in 2014. Started with one fill up in four. Now use it all the time. I do find the car runs a lot better; yes it is more expensive but I am getting better mpg. I did use fulley for a while now use a spreadsheet because fulley does not calculate partial fill ups.

Fuelly does account for partial fuel ups  

http://www.fuelly.com/faq/6/How-do-I-account-for-partial-fuel-ups

[Raptor]

Fuelly....... Ah.. missed that, thanks Delboy.   Still, nice to mess about with spreadsheets. Averaging 41.56 MPG. Not too bad given the amount of 'around town' driving 

Edited 25 April, 2016 by Raptor

[lichfielddriver]

The little bit of biodiesel more than makes up for the lubricity lost by the removal of sulphur. Adding 2-stroke oil to the fuel in a DPF-equipped car is asking for trouble.

 

The high priest of diesels (His Holiness Grasshopper Shane at Swad diesels) knows all about bio, sulphur (and the silicon added to replace it) to quote him...

 

 

"its f****** up more engines that ive got time to fix, injectors and HDi pumps cant hack it"

[philpix]

As the drugs ads say...Just Don't Do It

Don't risk engine damage.

[lichfielddriver]

i remember when rapeseed biodiesel was going to save the world, then out came the Hdi/common rail engines and 5% is your maximum....

 

end of

[chimaera]

i remember when rapeseed biodiesel was going to save the world, then out came the Hdi/common rail engines and 5% is your maximum....

 

end of

FAME fuels have different flow properties (density, viscosity, etc) to mineral diesel.

 

When FAME fuels came out first, diesel engines had much lower injection pressures (around 200-250 bar) and the difference in flow properties didn't particularly matter.

 

Modern diesel injection systems are operating around 1800-2300 bar and the differences do matter. FAME atomises badly in a high pressure fuel system designed to run on mineral diesel, and the market isn't there to modify the engines to suit FAME.

 

The addition of FAME to mineral diesel happens for two reasons. The obvious one is environmental - it helps displace some percentage of fossil fuel use, and the process for manufacturing FAME is at least carbon neutral.

 

The second is fuel lubricity. In a diesel fuel injection system, the moving parts depend on the fuel for lubrication. Sulphur compounds used to be added to diesel to aid with lubricity until it was realised they were doing a number on the environment with acid rain. Biodiesel has phenomenal lubricity compared to other additives - adding as little as 2 % by volume improves lubricity of virgin fuel to a level above that of high-sulphur diesel.

 

The current mandate for FAME addition to diesel in EN590 (the standard governing diesel fuel for road use in Europe) is 7 % by volume provided the FAME being added meets standard EN14214.