Ive had my car terra-cleaned today after someone I know recommended it to me as they had it done on their own car.

Its a 2005 vrs with 125k miles and gets a good blast on a decent run regularly so I wasn't expecting it to be too badly coked up.

I wasn't expecting any major changes however first impressions are very positive

The biggest improvement I have noticed is the low revs torque and smoothness of the engine. Below 2k revs on light throttle it smoothly accelerates without issue (almost feels like a petrol) whereas before it would vibrate the whole car and bog down whilst chucking out  black smoke.

There is also a slightly increase in fuel economy although will need to wait for a few longer trips to confirm it- I reckon about 5 mpg increase at the moment.

I thought I would share on here in case any one is wondering whether to get it done, as I know there are lots of armchair experts online who will say its not worth it and won't improve your engine more than additives blah blah blah...

I would ignore that and try it yourself before coming to any conclusions.

In my case it hasn't really reduced smoke as there wasn't much coming out before it was done, but I know in particularly dirty engines (MOT fail) it should clean them up well.

I expect there are some power gains however haven't yet had a chance to test it out fully through the whole rev range.

 

 

?

How much did it cost you?

& how do you reckon about 5 mpg increase in economy at the moment.  How many miles have you done since the Terra Clean?

 

Ive only done a few short runs so far but I compared a route I often take getting around 45mpg usually and i managed 52 mpg  after it had been done.

I have done a few runs around town which are getting me 40 mpg  as opposed to the 36 i was getting. I know i need to allow it to settle long term but straight away I am getting a slight improvement.

and it cost £115

I wonder what the difference is between this an accidentally adding a "splash" of petrol ( which won't cost you £115 lol).

 

Also "vibrating car" and "bogged down" don't describe my car. I wonder if perhaps you could have looked into the elephant mod earlier which might have avoided said symtoms and save £115 is a thought that comes to mind ? ( not sure how true that thought may be, too late I've thought it now lol ).

It's interesting because the PD is a direct injection engine so the the inlet plenum and ports wouldn't get touched, I guess it's cleaned the injectors and the exhaust side of things but £115 spent can be a powerful placebo indeed.

Well I have done the elephant mod but I haven't owned the car since new, so yes that would probably have helped prevent such a buildup of carbon. 

The process does involve a 'soak' which allows the fuel to break down the carbon around the combustion chamber but no it doesn't remove buildup from the inlet manifold, or back of valves.

I would be interested to know if you are basing these opinions on your experience of this as it has definitely made an improvement to the running of the engine. It starts up smoother and as I said it does rev with less of a dead spot at low revs.

I would say its the cleaning of the injectors which makes the biggest difference.

@sepulchrave - Well, depending on how you view it, you can say that all diesels are "direct injection", at least if you treat the alternative as "port (or plenum) injection" where the fuel-air mixture enters the cylinders through the inlet valves.

4 hours ago, KenONeill said:

@sepulchrave - Well, depending on how you view it, you can say that all diesels are "direct injection", at least if you treat the alternative as "port (or plenum) injection" where the fuel-air mixture enters the cylinders through the inlet valves.

 

Why are you telling me, I already know, my point is that the benefits of the terraclean system are very much less clear-cut than for port injection engines. I tend to agree that any benefits would come from just cleaning the injectors.

17 minutes ago, sepulchrave said:

 

Why are you telling me, I already know, my point is that the benefits of the terraclean system are very much less clear-cut than for port injection engines. I tend to agree that any benefits would come from just cleaning the injectors.

Because, although all diesels inject into the combustion space, they don't all inject into the "combustion chamber". In the case of a diesel, the term "direct injection" is used only when injection is directly into the combustion chamber, and "indirect injection" is used when (usually in older engines these days) the fuel is injected into a swirl pot, and then out into the main combustion chamber.

1 hour ago, KenONeill said:

Because, although all diesels inject into the combustion space, they don't all inject into the "combustion chamber". In the case of a diesel, the term "direct injection" is used only when injection is directly into the combustion chamber, and "indirect injection" is used when (usually in older engines these days) the fuel is injected into a swirl pot, and then out into the main combustion chamber.

 

Have you been on Wikipedia again?

3 minutes ago, sepulchrave said:

 

Have you been on Wikipedia again?

Yes, but not to look up internal combustion engine technologies. Why not just accept that the comment I initially replied to was potentially misleading?

2 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

Yes, but not to look up internal combustion engine technologies. Why not just accept that the comment I initially replied to was potentially misleading?

 

Because it wasn't making the point that you think it was making, simply because you didn't understand it.

 

Clarendon got the point straight away, stop trying to be a pub bore and get on the quiz team instead Ken.

Bloomin' heck, C. You got the Terraclean at a good price. My Fabia throws up a cloud of smoke when accelerating, so I thought I'd look into this - in and Cambridge, you're looking at £250! Did you go for whole service? Thanks. 

Errr, the fuel system clean, I wasnt aware of any other terraclean options. I know there are some other treatments which may clean other parts of the system but the terraclean is the one they do at my mates workshop.

I wouldn't expect a huge decrease in smoke, Im just noticing the smoke is more consistent when it occurs. So when you accelerate from low revs you get a small amount and then it clears up. Whereas before the treatment the smoke would occur at random times. I think its because the injectors are nice and clean they are only injecting exactly as the ecu says.

Cheers, C. Another company are quoting £120 for the 'diesel clean' they've offered me a price to take off the egr and manifold, clean it all out and then perform the Terraclean for £180. Good deal? (the egr is baaaad!) 

yes get the egr cleaned along with the manifold and that will give you a better running engine. Seems like a reasonable price to me and you should certainly notice some improvements

I took the EGR off of my diesel octavia and even though it was fairly light, a cleanup gave me marginally better MPG. Left the intake manifold as it was a fairly light build up.

 

The EGR clean alone gave me increased mpg! only things you might need are ball ended allen wrenches, an EGR washer and your standard tool set I guess.

 

Not a big fan of "terra clean"

 

Dogsbody - try 2 tanks of shell vpower and tell me if it's still kicking out smoke?

 

I find that BP ultimate is more smokey than vpower.

Thanks everyone. I did have a look inside the piping next to the egr (a little wet oil in there - normal?) and had a look in the egr itself (pretty gummed up) pinged some egr cleaner in there, and wow! The rubbish that shot out the exhaust! It's still bad in there, though. I do normally use V-power, but have swapped to BP standard diesel in the last few weeks. Should I switch back? What's the best diesel for PD engines? 

10 minutes ago, GeneralDogsbody said:

Thanks everyone. I did have a look inside the piping next to the egr (a little wet oil in there - normal?) and had a look in the egr itself (pretty gummed up) pinged some egr cleaner in there, and wow! The rubbish that shot out the exhaust! It's still bad in there, though. I do normally use V-power, but have swapped to BP standard diesel in the last few weeks. Should I switch back? What's the best diesel for PD engines? 

 

EGR: not sure on the oil, but of course revving whilst your engine is starved of oxygen (having your air intake pipe off whilst cleaning your EGR) is going to make it smokey.

After pulling it off, I sprayed mine with a load of carb cleaner (petrol) and took a toothbrush to it.

In place cleaning also probably helps marginally, but I'd be worried about big bits falling into your engine.

 

For the sake of a bit of time and hassle you can try finding an intake manifold and clean it whilst it's off the car if you suspect it's that bad, then do a straight swap and sell your old one on.

 

Fuel-wise I found BP ultimate was quite smoky in comparison to vpower let alone regular BP fuel though YMMV.

 

Another consideration is if you've got a boost leak/sticky vanes that could be causing smoke.

 

 

 

 

The oil is your Crank case breather

do the elephant mod and then remove your intercooler and pipework and clean it all out of all the oil. I did and its made the intake nice and clean and should prevent buildup of carbon in the future to an extent. 

I would remove the valve for cleaning to get best results but you could do it whilst fitted the bits of carbon going into the engine arent going to damage anything

 

Cheers, C. I'll look into the 'elephant mod' I did get a bout of 'diesel knock' when I used the EGR cleaner, so switched the car off quick - then it was ok. Scared me half to death! 

4 minutes ago, GeneralDogsbody said:

Cheers, C. I'll look into the 'elephant mod' I did get a bout of 'diesel knock' when I used the EGR cleaner, so switched the car off quick - then it was ok. Scared me half to death! 

 

Don't worry about it, it won't harm the engine, it's designed to handle it.

12 minutes ago, sepulchrave said:

 

Don't worry about it, it won't harm the engine, it's designed to handle it.

 

Really, Sep? It sounded like I'd thrown a bag of spanners into the engine - only lasted for ten seconds, though. Is there an EGR cleaner you'd recommend? The Wynn's one is ok, but only around 250ml - it's not enough......

Always wondered about this: Do people mean cleaning the EGR valve or the passage through the EGR cooler/ pipe to the valve? Guessing just the valve?

 

 

19 minutes ago, GeneralDogsbody said:

 

Really, Sep? It sounded like I'd thrown a bag of spanners into the engine - only lasted for ten seconds, though. Is there an EGR cleaner you'd recommend?

 

Carb clean, an old toothbrush and elbow grease, no substitute.