Diesel Injector Cleaner

[SlowBloke]

A few weeks ago I posted a thread asking if anyone had experience of using a fuel additive to clean the injectors in a 1.6 diesel engine. Nothing much happened. Recently the car started running really badly. It is a 2010 car which has done 45,000 miles and has been my car since 2011. Prior to that it was a demonstrator.

 

I took the car to my favourite local garage (not Skoda) to check the error codes recently. There were none. However I have the MOT coming up in a few weeks so felt I had to do something.

 

I trust the mechanics so I asked their advice. They recommended using a Forte product. They didn't have it in stock but suggested that another local garage might. So I bought a bottle, filled the fuel tank with diesel and added the bottle of cleaning fluid. After about 10 miles the car ran much better. No complaints from the engine. The rough lumpy idle and jerky operation at low engine speeds has gone. I will check the fuel consumption when I have used most of the present tank full. 

 

The Forte stuff is about £15 but you may have to resort to the internet to find it. There are other brands like Millers and Redex but I have found the Forte products excellent and felt I was at the end of my rope with the problems.

 

About fuel consumption. The dash gauge has been showing it at about 45 mpg at best for most of this Summer. I live in rural Norfolk and most trips are more than 20 miles so not short runs to the local shops. HOWEVER, I decided to check the consumption against the fuel log I keep. I was delighted to find that over the last 5 tankfulls It got to 57 mpg early in the Summer which has gradually dropped to 52 for the last tank. I am hoping that cleaning out the fuel system and injectors will return this to closer to 60 mpg. So don't trust the gauge if you car is more than a few years old.

 

My findings are for the 1.6 diesel but might be applicable to the other diesel engines. I can't offer any guarantees though.

 

 

[mrgf]

My local MOT bloke recommended a Forte diesel cleaner on my last MOT. Might have been just bumping up the company profit or might have been genuine, not sure but as he passed the test for me, it WAS just a recommendation due to slight smokiness, I felt I'd buy a bottle. It was a little dearer, last £20 and he tipped it in for me so it got used all in one go, where Redex is a two dose bottle, at around a fiver so very pricey but if I remember correctly, the Forte stuff is say, twice annually where Redex recommend every fill up (Who wouldn't, if they could get away with it)? I remember Redex of old, a few squirts in the tank at the petrol station, 10p a squirt or something, each fill up so its an ok product for regular use. The Forte, I have not tried before nor since so I cannot really be sure of its effectiveness. I do remember people saying once you use Redex, you need to keep using it but that hires-droppings... Like saying I had a cigarette so I need to keep smoking or I had a mint so I need to keep eating Polo's! The car, if running better WITH the additive, will revert back to how it was if you stop adding it. This MAY feel worse as you are now possibly used to better, but it won't damage the car to stop. A regular additive or an annual deep cleansing one... Your choice really. Using additive-derrived diesel or petrol is most likely overkill too, occasionally ok, continually, how clean can an internal combustion engine be? 

[GeneralPurpose]

Slowbloke, that's brilliant you've posted that info. As a tech we used it all the time in the workshop on many different engine types. It works well. We used Millers. With modern 'hot' running engines and modern fuels, engines can become gummed up with a sticky brown carbon. It's not like the stuff that you used to get inside engines 30-40 years ago. How much of this you actually get in your engine is dependant on how and where you drive, and what sort of quality fuel you use. Supermarket plain jane fuel that uses secondary cleaners is the worst producer of dirt inside your engine, and of course, we have all seen the videos from Top Gear and Fifth Gear about the different mpg's you can get from 'proper' petrol and diesel and the plain jane stuff that lowers you mpg. It also as said is likely to leave you more of a dirt deposit inside the engine too. Normally, twice a year is more than enough for most engines when using Millers or Redex. It's just not needed more than that. If you do mostly motorway work and use a good quality fuel then once a year is ok, there is normally a benefit even if you don't 'feel' it. Unless you believe your engine is very dirty inside there is often no need to buy expensive injector engine cleaners.  A good naphtha based one is all that's needed to dissolve the gum.

 

Any smokiness with a diesel is an indication that the injectors are gumming up and maybe the egr needs a clean too. Often some Millers fixes it though. 

Edited 3 August, 2017 by Estate Man

[meekhong]

@generalpurpose  would you recommend Forte on 2017 skoda octavia 1.6 diesel? just want to be sure before buying or adding it to the tank😁. ratio additive to diesel fuel?

[sepulchrave]

7 hours ago, meekhong said:

@generalpurpose  would you recommend Forte on 2017 skoda octavia 1.6 diesel? just want to be sure before buying or adding it to the tank😁. ratio additive to diesel fuel?

 

Dude, the thread's four years old, smoke from a 1.6 TDI is usually a sign of faulty injectors in which case additives won't help anyway.

If there's nothing wrong with your car then the additive will do what additives do, which is nothing at all except to gently remove that purple banknote from your wallet while whispering promises in your eager ear.

[J.R.]

On 03/08/2017 at 12:38, GeneralPurpose said:

Supermarket plain jane fuel that uses secondary cleaners is the worst producer of dirt inside your engine,

Thread 4 years old so GP is unlikely to respond, can anyone else justify that comment with a cogent explanation?

[sepulchrave]

40 minutes ago, J.R. said:

Thread 4 years old so GP is unlikely to respond, can anyone else justify that comment with a cogent explanation?

 

I seriously doubt it, it's such obvious nonsense. Dunning Kruger writ large!