redex

[mtwo]

I brought a 4 pack of 500ml bottles of redex in costco as it was only £11.50. It's enough for 16 tankfulls. Its for my diesel vrs. Any body have any thoughts? Does it make any difference? Can it do any harm?

Edited 12 June, 2015 by mtwo

[MoggyTech]

Not needed, and voids warranty if used,

[Mence]

Car being no more than two years old by now, wouldn't think it would be necessary?

In a car that new, you wouldn't notice any difference anyway.

[pipsyp]

I wouldnt personally chuck that ****e in such a modern car...also as others have said use of non approved additives will void the vehicle warranty.

Some dealerships run approved system cleaners through as part of routine servicing which is OK but are often extra cost. They are on the whole not necessary. Using good quality diesel (branded doesnt have to be premium stuff) with good additives will do much the same anyway.

[Jono]

I call bull**** on redex.

The responsibility lies with the manufacturer to prove efficacy, and from what I can tell there is no good quality evidence out there.

Anecdotes are not evidence.

Its the same bull**** I call on posh petrol/diesel. They need proper independant testing to show they are any better, otherwise its just marketing snake-oil.

[Black_Sheep]

I call bull**** on redex.

The responsibility lies with the manufacturer to prove efficacy, and from what I can tell there is no good quality evidence out there.

Anecdotes are not evidence.

Its the same bull**** I call on posh petrol/diesel. They need proper independant testing to show they are any better, otherwise its just marketing snake-oil.

I have previously worked in the product development department / test cells for a large Diesel engine manufacturer. Obviously for tests where the data would be subject to Euro emissions criteria for example we would have fuel to a certain laboratory derived specification. However, we would also test different fuels for lubrication, detergents, performance etc as this has an effect on the durability of the engine - this is why engine maps are conservative due to differences in performance of the oil, fuel, coolant that customers use. At the time we were concerned about low / ultra low sulphur content fuels such as city diesel and the degradation on fuel pumps and to a lesser extent injectors.

The tests would generally show that Esso fuels were best for lubrication (wear protection), Shell for detergents (keeping parts free from coking / varnishing) and the best performance - Sainsburys City Diesel!

We also tested a certain injector / fuel system cleaner, but this actually made the injectors perform worse as it left a sticky varnish residue which affected open / close function and pattern of spray. Obviously this was a small sample and other factors may have influenced its performance but I have never used said product since. The fuel system has filtration in the tank (low pressure) and before the pump (high pressure) so this should prevent most gunk causing any lasting damage.

[themanwithnoaim]

Very good Matt but, having read the report can I now have the synopsis ? Redex Staint or Sinner ?

[Jono]

Thanks for that info.

I work in a field where small variations in characteristics in lab-conditions often have little or no variation in real-world efficacy. For example a real statistical significance, but not clinical significance.

Also, sample size and statistical power of testing is important to know when accepting the results, otherwise you get things that look significant that just appear by chance.

The value of the fuel industry is so huge that I refuse to accept that there is any real difference simply because if there *was* the manufacturers would be constantly crowing about it and release their hard-data proving it.

Same thing applies to running shoes - it's a multibillion dollar industry but none of them have *ever* reliably proved to make you jump higher, run faster or reduce injuries.

[Black_Sheep]

Very good Matt but, having read the report can I now have the synopsis ? Redex Staint or Sinner ?

My opinion is not to use it. But as stated before it was a small sample and therefore other factors may have influenced the results.

In terms of the fuels, it was no coincidence that the trucks would be brimmed with the fuel of our choosing before the were given to the motoring journalists.

[TheWanderer]

I've used Millers (previously known as Power Sport 4) Diesel Ecomax & Redex for diesel in previous cars and I only ever noticed a small improvement with MPS4, I never found any benefits or improvements from using Redex.

 

Whether it does anything good I don't know, like I said it didn't seem to when I used it. I guess the only way to find out is to do a controlled experiment using the entire bottle full of it over several tanks, then do another experiment without using it for the same number of tanks.

 

It's your car, you do what you want with it.

 

As for the petrol version I don't know whether that would show any difference with Redex for petrol or Millers Petrol Ecomax either, I'm reluctant to try either TBQH.