Diesel Injectors

[SlowBloke]

This topic is intended for owners of diesel powered Fabias. I have the 1.6 engine in my car but other engines may have a similar problem. My car has done 44,000 miles. The engine runs but produces the classic diesel rattle at low speeds. Performance seem reduced slightly also. I think this is down to the injectors being dirty. Normally I would use one of the cleaning products mixed in the fuel to remove or reduce this problem. But VW/Skoda specifically instruct owners not to do this. See bottom right on page 158 of the owners manual. If the problem gets worse it may start smoking as the dirty nozzles produce a dribble of fuel rather than a spray. I don't want to replace the injectors if I can clean the existing ones.

 

Has anyone tried using a cleaning product in the fuel. If so, with what effect (problems/benefits) and what was the additive?

[Guest]

Hi,

 

Yes, had my wife's car terracleaned when we first bought it - I noticed it became very smooth afterwards.

[SlowBloke]

Hi John

 

Can you provide any more details of this service? Who does it, where, cost, etc?

[SlowBloke]

Hi again

 

I searched for the company and found this web site:-

 

http://www.terraclean.co.uk/

 

I it works it should be worth the quoted £110. My main concern is that the car will complain afterwards. It is a bitty of a horror. Fitting a new thermostat or a new air filter and is was almost undriveable, blowing clouds of smoke, stalling and cutting out while the ECU reset itself.

[AMD87]

4 hours ago, john2017 said:

Hi,

 

Yes, had my wife's car terracleaned when we first bought it - I noticed it became very smooth afterwards.

Surely nothing that just using vpower wouldn't sort it out?

[SlowBloke]

I think it needs more than just a change of fuel. I normally use Esso simply because that is the nearest garage to home. But when I try an alternative fuel it gets upset. With Shell the fuel consumption dropped from 52 to 29mpg immediately. It sorted itself out after about 100 miles but the change of fuel produced no benefit.

[Ootohere]

Really. ?  That much difference with standard Diesel, not Premium or any such.

In much of the UK ESSO Fuel is delivered from GREENERGY that import the Diesel with their partner Royal Dutch Shell for some of the facilities.

http://greenergy.com/uk/independent 

http://petrolprices.com/blog/supermarket-fuel-and-premium-petrol-the-lowdown.html 

 

Edited 31 March, 2017 by Awayoffski

[SlowBloke]

Yup, it's a nightmare car. I would never buy another VAG car after this. I bought it as a one year old ex-demonstrator. I normally try to keep cars until the wheels drop off but will push this one off a cliff somewhere if I have any more problems with it.

[Ootohere]

I think you need to just go fill up your tank at any supermarket diesel pump and do a brim to brim check because you have a very unusual 1.6TDI CR that increases in drinking diesel that much if Esso diesel is not in the tank.

 

?

Has your car been in for 'The Fix' or something?  Or are you having it done>

Has it got a fresh clean air filter and fuel filter in it, and how often are you getting regens now?

Edited 31 March, 2017 by Awayoffski

[SlowBloke]

I bought the car as a demonstrator from a Skoda dealer. Absolutely standard. It has had all the regular services using standard parts. The only exception was a K&N air filter (another disaster) so back to a standard filter. I last changed it about 3 months ago.

 

No supermarket fuel, always Esso as far as possible. BP fuel seems OK but no local BP garage. I mostly drive around locally but even a trip to the supermarket here in Norfolk is a 25 mile round trip so few short trips. Yesterday I did a 150 mile round trip to the coast. Using mostly country roads but using the full throttle when the opportunity arrived. This produced no improvement. It did get to 52 mpg as the day was warm (20 here).

 

It rarely seems to regen. I have only seen the light on the dash once. But if driving in Norwich stop/start in the traffic it often idles roughly at 1000 rpm rather than the usual 800 when not in gear.

 

Sorry to be negative about the Skoda experience. I expected better. Adding in the emissions scandal for VAG diesels just makes me think very badly of their standards. I also have an old Toyota Amazon 4X4 which does everything it should very willingly and rarely gives any cause for concern in spite of 15 year old technology. We seem to be 'advancing' backwards!

 

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, AMD87 said:

Surely nothing that just using vpower wouldn't sort it out?

I was just offering my opinion!

 

You need to get it on a motorway and drive at about 2400 rpm+ steady for at least 20 minutes - that might mean using 4th gear. Country roads are to stop and start - these engine were known as high speed diesels and need to be revved.

 

Have you read about the Toyota scandal regarding the 2ad-fhv 2.2 d4d engines?

Edited 31 March, 2017 by Guest

[AMD87]

4 minutes ago, john2017 said:

I was just offering my opinion!

 

You need to get it on a motorway and drive at about 2400 rpm+ steady for at least 20 minutes - that might mean using 4th gear. Country roads are to stop and start - these engine were known as high speed diesels and need to be revved.

 

Have you read about the Toyota scandal regarding the 2ad-fhv 2.2 d4d engines?

Mines sits on the motorway at 2250rpm in 5th and seems fine, never one had the dpf light in 14,000 miles, 5 months and mines is run only on vpower. 

[Ootohere]

Slowbloke,

i know you are down south and it has been a mild winter, but Winter Diesel was still delivered Oct/Nov time until March.

That is at any Brand or Supermarket station, so by now it should be Summer Spec Diesel in the Filling station tanks.

 

There might be different Additive / Detergent packages in the standard diesel but they are meeting the same minimum standard and Cetane.

 

[m8t]

On 31/03/2017 at 16:26, SlowBloke said:

.

 

It rarely seems to regen. I have only seen the light on the dash once. But if driving in Norwich stop/start in the traffic it often idles roughly at 1000 rpm rather than the usual 800 when not in gear.

 

 

 

 

The 1.6tdi does not show a warning light when regeneration is taking place. The tickover will change to 1000 when regen is happening. Tickover may also increase to 1000 in the winter months when there is more demand for power (headlights used more) and the battery may need more recharging. The permanent yellow coil warning light will show when the DPF is more than a certain % blocked and needs a 2000rpm journey until the light goes out (source owners manual). Not sure what the % is now, it will say in the owners manual.

 

I have now chopped in my 1.6tdi after getting fed up of trying to manage the DPF regens on a 12 mile B road commute. I have heard the renault / Dacia 1.5dci has a superior method of regeneration.

Edited 1 April, 2017 by m8t

[hutchysrs50]

A light adding of Redex and Italian tune up would probably sort all the problems out.

 

I've used Redex a few times in the 1.6 CR engines and it's always been fine.

[Jeeves73]

I use kataclean once a year, it's amazing the difference it makes.

[Ootohere]

Is it 'Cataclean'?