Since I'm doing way more city driving lately, I've been thinking of using a DPF cleaner additive, but I would like to hear some opinions before that. The reviews I've seen online are mostly positive though. 

What are your thoughts? ( engine's a 2.0 TDI cupa) 

They can work but I would just use better quality fuel if doing shorter runs. 

I'm always using premium fuel.

(posting deleted)

Edited 13 December, 20214 yr by varaderoguy

What total nonsense about UK Supermarket Diesel. Or even world wide.

 

More than half the cars and greater than half of vehicles in the UK are using diesel and more than half of that comes from Super Market forecourts or the Fleet / Depots are supplied with the same diesel from the suppliers like Greenergy that is the biggest road fuel supplier in the UK.

https://www.greenergy.com/uk

 

https://www.allstarcard.co.uk/news-insights/fuel-and-fleet/fleet-news/supermarket-fuel

 

Look at the Diesel Pump you use and see if you can see a Cetane number.

https://jct600.co.uk/blog/fuel-types-explained

 

 

The OP is in Romania. 

@BogdanB If your DPF is clogging then you will have to deal with that and Additives are not going to be the asnswer.

Do you now the ash level your car has?

Edited 13 December, 20214 yr by roottoot

My DPF was cleaned one year ago,  so the ash level is pretty low(was set to a value of 5.5g since it wasn't a new part replacement, and now it's around 7g) , and the DPF is functioning normally ( I would say, e.g: Regens occur at around 250 miles, and around half of that if driving ONLY in the city ).

Edited 13 December, 20214 yr by BogdanB

The oil ash mass or volume as my car records it goes up incrementally with each 10k kms driven, using an additive may reduce the build up but I doubt it, but the ECU will record the calculated figure from its algorithm regardless.

 

Before you had the flush out what level was it recording? Had it gone into limp mode? Were regens frequent?

 

I am asking because my calculated soot levels are a fraction of the calculated ones since fitting the EGR emulator but the regens are frequent and the calculated oil ash volume keeps climbing, nobody has been able to tell me what will happen when the ECU calculation exceeds the service limit.

 

I could do the procedure in VCDS to reduce the figure like yours has been if it were to avoid a shutdown at a critical moment and also if it reduced the frequency of regens, otherwise I wont meddle.

1 hour ago, varaderoguy said:

  Running a car on supermarket fuel is bad as they don't contain any additives. 

Do you really believe that?

1 hour ago, J.R. said:

The oil ash mass or volume as my car records it goes up incrementally with each 10k kms driven, using an additive may reduce the build up but I doubt it, but the ECU will record the calculated figure from its algorithm regardless.

 

Before you had the flush out what level was it recording? Had it gone into limp mode? Were regens frequent?

 

I am asking because my calculated soot levels are a fraction of the calculated ones since fitting the EGR emulator but the regens are frequent and the calculated oil ash volume keeps climbing, nobody has been able to tell me what will happen when the ECU calculation exceeds the service limit.

 

I could do the procedure in VCDS to reduce the figure like yours has been if it were to avoid a shutdown at a critical moment and also if it reduced the frequency of regens, otherwise I wont meddle.

 

Around 55g. The DPF was clogged, never being able to complete a regen.

1 hour ago, J.R. said:

Do you really believe that?

Supermarket fuels on their own - long-term are not good for vehicles and fuel standards are different on a country/country basis (as the OP was based in Romania).  However, we seem to get into this issue on a posting/posting issue and its getting stupid and disrespectful.  I drive huge amounts of miles; I know what the cheaper fuels do to vehicles - they drive poorly, yield poor MPG, make the engine sound terrible and I've seen inside the valves and cylinder heads of cars that run exclusively on these fuels.  Its not good.  Fuel additives are there to try and improve the situation; either by adding back in additional lubricants and cetane that are taken out by the desulphurisation processes (diesel) or adding in lubricants and improving the RON values of Petrol.  These lubricants are there to keep the various engine components happier.  We are each entitled to our own opinions and experience; whilst you might not agree - please be polite in your disagreement.

I don't have a diesel car now, but I have had 5 fitted with dpfs and never had any issues at all with engines or dpfs over a total of ~330,000 miles. This mileage was done almost exclusively on supermarket fuel.  I don't think that there is any evidence that supermarket fuels are bad for engines, as the fuel still has to comply with legal standards. 

2 hours ago, BogdanB said:

My DPF was cleaned one year ago,  so the ash level is pretty low(was set to a value of 5.5g since it wasn't a new part replacement, and now it's around 7g) , and the DPF is functioning normally ( I would say, e.g: Regens occur at around 250 miles, and around half of that if driving ONLY in the city ).

With the DPF being cleaned recently I would not overly worry. I know it won't harm the DPF adding a cleaner. Most people do not recommend adding oil cleaner when servicing. But I did on my last one and the engine is much quieter, the oil pump is not as loud as it was when cold. I have fewer long starts as that is an issue with the the vvt getting clogged up with dirty oil. (I will at some point fit the revised part.)

I do a mix of short and long runs and so far have not had any issues in 83000 miles (owned since 59000).

As I am new to VAG cars, and have never owned a VAG diesel, could someone clarify how the dpfs are regenerated. Where I have come from there was an additive which was injected into the fuel, and this catalysed the regeneration of the dpf. I never had to replace this fluid and I didn't have any issues. One thing that was always stressed was that it was imperative to used the correct grade low SAPs oil to prevent sulphate and phosphates in the dpf. Does this differ appreciably from the VAG system. I now have two petrol cars with gpf filters, and I wonder if these will cause an issue. Presumably they will need low SAPs oil. 

The TDI's that have SCR use AdBlue which is in a tank and needs refilling as required.

 

This was a Daimler-Benz (Mercedes) system that VW bought into, and the Defeat Device Scandal came about because they cheated because huge tanks would have been needed to hold enough AdBlue for a year if it was being used as it should to really lower emissions.

 

There were Diesels that had the required bags of fluid that were filled at services or the bags replaced.

Renault, Citroen, Peugeot's and others had that system.

 

As to Petrols and GPF's time will tell if there are more issues than the few that have been had by members on here.

VW are not that up on telling the price of replacing GPF's.

 

There are various GPF threads in the different sections.   As there are on DPF's, SCR / AdBlue, including topping up. 

 

GPF's.  Includes regen info.

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/479195-car-behaving-strangely

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/489435-something-not-right-20-tsi-190

 

Edited 13 December, 20214 yr by roottoot

36 minutes ago, Routemaster1461 said:

Where I have come from there was an additive which was injected into the fuel, and this catalysed the regeneration of the dpf

Not used on any VW group car as far as I know.

36 minutes ago, Routemaster1461 said:

One thing that was always stressed was that it was imperative to used the correct grade low SAPs oil to prevent sulphate and phosphates in the dpf.

Yes, minimising oil ash accumulation by using the correct oil spec is vital, not sure to what degree that is the same as what you've said, because I haven't remembered what oil ash is chemically.

As far as I am aware, Adblue is nothing whatsoever to do with dpfs. The purpose of the Adblue is to reduce nitrogen oxides in the exhaust. As the exhaust comes out of the engine almost directly into the dpf and the adble is injected between the dpf and the catalyst, it can have no effect on the dpf. Honest John, amonst others, reported that Adblue would replace the dpf regeneration catalyst in diesel cars. It doesn't. I have ghad two cars with regeneration fluid and Adblue.

Just now, Routemaster1461 said:

As far as I am aware, Adblue is nothing whatsoever to do with dpfs.

Correct.

6 hours ago, varaderoguy said:

Supermarket fuels on their own - long-term are not good for vehicles and fuel standards are different on a country/country basis (as the OP was based in Romania).  However, we seem to get into this issue on a posting/posting issue and its getting stupid and disrespectful.  I drive huge amounts of miles; I know what the cheaper fuels do to vehicles - they drive poorly, yield poor MPG, make the engine sound terrible and I've seen inside the valves and cylinder heads of cars that run exclusively on these fuels.  Its not good.  Fuel additives are there to try and improve the situation; either by adding back in additional lubricants and cetane that are taken out by the desulphurisation processes (diesel) or adding in lubricants and improving the RON values of Petrol.  These lubricants are there to keep the various engine components happier.  We are each entitled to our own opinions and experience; whilst you might not agree - please be polite in your disagreement.

I was polite, I wanted to know if you really believed that there were no additives in supermarket fuel which you have not answered. Have you perhaps confused my posting with Root-Toot who spoke of 'total nonsense!"

 

I am not disputing that some additives in premium fuels which may not be present in supermarket fuel bring benefits and many say that they get better MPG which covers the extra cost, I am not disagreeing with or challenging anything, I simply wanted to know if you genuinely believe that there are no, zero, none, additives in supermarket fuel or had just expressed yourself incorrectly.

 

I recall when fuel, supermarket or otherwise had no additives apart from lead and made my (2nd) living decoking engines, replacing rotten exhausts, changing filthy congealed sump oil etc, then they started adding detergent additives to all fuels including supermarket fuels and I have never had to decoke an engine or grind in valves ever since,(racecars aside) it was late 80's perhaps early 90's.

 

My pal worked for a nationwide company supplying fuel pumps & forecourt equipment and another delivered fuel from the refineries, all the fuels had additive packages, the premium fuels had different ones that they made big claims for but a lot of what they claimed was in the basic additive package anyway, they may have had higher percentages of some and different versions of others, they don't publish what they are.

6 hours ago, varaderoguy said:

Supermarket fuels on their own - long-term are not good for vehicles and fuel standards are different on a country/country basis (as the OP was based in Romania).  However, we seem to get into this issue on a posting/posting issue and its getting stupid and disrespectful.  I drive huge amounts of miles; I know what the cheaper fuels do to vehicles - they drive poorly, yield poor MPG, make the engine sound terrible and I've seen inside the valves and cylinder heads of cars that run exclusively on these fuels.  Its not good.  Fuel additives are there to try and improve the situation; either by adding back in additional lubricants and cetane that are taken out by the desulphurisation processes (diesel) or adding in lubricants and improving the RON values of Petrol.  These lubricants are there to keep the various engine components happier.  We are each entitled to our own opinions and experience; whilst you might not agree - please be polite in your disagreement.

 

I would beg to differ based on around 250,000 miles in Skoda Diesels and a similar further mileage in various petrol vehicles, all of which have been run almost exclusively on the cheapest supermarket fuel available.

 

As an aside I have also quizzed a friend about the above assertion, he being a Chemical Engineer and production controller for TOTAL and someone who has worked as a 'troubleshooter' in oil refineries around the world.  His response was (paraphrased) - all the UK stuff is the same stuff to the same standards with largely the same additives, coming from a small number of refineries.  So 'supermarket' fuel or not it's the same, so if someone experiences an issue it's being caused by something other than the 'quality' of the fuel.  The one exception to this is something like the contaminated fuel issues experienced a couple of years ago.

OT but Re Super Unleaded Petrol.

 

I posted back in 2015 the link with the Spec of Tesco Momentum 99 which gave the formulation for Summer & Winter.

Sadly that link in my post from April 2015 was changed the next year. 

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/351141-fabia-vrs-petrol-grade-for-business-mileage/page/2

 

For an insider of the Fuel Industry there is one in the Yeti Section that has given lots of good info over the years on UK Fuels and additives.

6ca06d648b9541e78fa838fece4a1a23 (1).pdf 388380a097b04fe693a8c27db8bb4974 (1).pdf

Edited 13 December, 20214 yr by roottoot

OT from the DPF thread.

But a useful attachment  for anyone interested in the E5 97 & 99 ron Super unleaded being sold in the UK. 

(This was posted by another member in the Fabia mk3 section.)

 

petrol.pdf

Edited 14 December, 20214 yr by roottoot

Considering we talked about additives. Does anyone recommend oil additives? 

If you are desperate to spend money maybe look at Liqui Moly Oil Additive.

 

The correct oil for the weather / environment the vehicle is used in has all the additives needed.

It is just a VW TDI and not a race or performance engine needing anything special.

Like the fuel sold at filling stations it is the correct ones for that world region.

 

VW Group advise not to use additives, but they do sell VW Branded Additives, but that is how they roll. 

Edited 14 December, 20214 yr by roottoot