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Fuel Additive For A 12 Month Old (10000 Mile ) Car ??
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I have just had my 10000mile 63 reg Vauxhall Viara serviced which I paid for when I bought the thing. I have been informed that they recommend a fuel additive in October and asked me to pay £17 for them to do it!! I would rather do it myself but was not cheeky enough to ask 'em which additive they use. Any suggestions welcome please. Chris
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Hi there: Some believe additives (fuel or oil types) are a waste of time while others say the opposite. I'm a fan of using additives because at the end of the day the name of the game is beating friction! I'm not familiar with your prices (I've retired to Cape Town) but would say why pay your garage to pour in a tin of whatever straight into the fuel tank when you could do it yourself – and most probably cheaper ... citing Halfords (oh, how I miss them!). The reason they might be suggesting the additive is they can most likely see you may be only doing 'stop/start' trips ... go with it, it's a win-win situation for you, I'd say ...
Well I wouldn't pay a garage £17 to put something in the fuel system.
Having said that, since I got my first fuel-injected car in 1985 I've put a bottle of injector cleaner in every 5000 miles or so (about £5); the first three cars were petrol, the last two diesel. I monitor the fuel consumption and over the life of all the cars (all over 100,000 miles, one 200,000 miles); it didn't change so I had no problems with the injectors clogging. The advantage of doing it yourself is that you can put it in when there is the right amount of fuel in the tank and at a time when you think you can run the car until it's nearly empty before you have to fill it to get maximum advantage of the cleaner.
Having said that, since I got my first fuel-injected car in 1985 I've put a bottle of injector cleaner in every 5000 miles or so (about £5); the first three cars were petrol, the last two diesel. I monitor the fuel consumption and over the life of all the cars (all over 100,000 miles, one 200,000 miles); it didn't change so I had no problems with the injectors clogging. The advantage of doing it yourself is that you can put it in when there is the right amount of fuel in the tank and at a time when you think you can run the car until it's nearly empty before you have to fill it to get maximum advantage of the cleaner.
I am of the no fuel additive school, especially if you use a decent fuel that already has detergents and friction mods in it. They can interfere with the chemistry of the additives in the fuel.
I'm a person who used to be heavily involved in this field and there's only two fuels I would use and that's Shell and Chevron as they 'overtreat' their fuels especially with detergents (the interjector clogging issue). Use one of these, it's worth it and they are claiming fuel economy of 5% - in practice it's closer to 10, just the lawyer effect. If you have to, load in alternate fills of their premium grades and then normal if you want to save on the bill.
I'm a person who used to be heavily involved in this field and there's only two fuels I would use and that's Shell and Chevron as they 'overtreat' their fuels especially with detergents (the interjector clogging issue). Use one of these, it's worth it and they are claiming fuel economy of 5% - in practice it's closer to 10, just the lawyer effect. If you have to, load in alternate fills of their premium grades and then normal if you want to save on the bill.
I've done a quick sum and worked out that my fuel injector cleaner costs me about 1p/litre of fuel I use. Since I always use the cheapest fuel I can find (usually supermarket, either in the UK or mainland Europe) that works out cheaper than using branded fuel.
Zacs may well be right ie, it isn't necessary but I feel that 1p/litre on the cost of fuel is worth the gamble, especially when I've been doing it for 30 years and never had fuel-system problems or seen my fuel consumption worsening.
Zacs may well be right ie, it isn't necessary but I feel that 1p/litre on the cost of fuel is worth the gamble, especially when I've been doing it for 30 years and never had fuel-system problems or seen my fuel consumption worsening.
1p extra - and you don't have a well adjusted additive package to protect your engine, no decent top if the line detergent either.....
Zac's comment - try millions - and also the majors and additive cos (like Infineum, Oronite, Ethyl, Lubrizol) - it costs some $5-10 million to bring a new technology lub or fuel additive to the market (and that doesn't include the engine costs), believe me. I was involved in a start up for one and we were looking at initial start-up costs of $6 million, that for an effective NOx suppressant that would have reduced the size of the catalyst unit.
Zac's comment - try millions - and also the majors and additive cos (like Infineum, Oronite, Ethyl, Lubrizol) - it costs some $5-10 million to bring a new technology lub or fuel additive to the market (and that doesn't include the engine costs), believe me. I was involved in a start up for one and we were looking at initial start-up costs of $6 million, that for an effective NOx suppressant that would have reduced the size of the catalyst unit.
razza, there are organomolybdenum additives in fuels for friction, Exxon (Esso) advertises on this platform....
The build up of residues that look like nicotine sludges in one of those cigarette holders or a pipe, for want of a better descriptor, around the piston head and injectors, are tackled by detergents in the fuel - which is where Shell and Chevron come from, their fuels with other adds too in them. For clarification's sake, these are added at the loading gantry in the refinery and that's how the product differentation is achieved....
The build up of residues that look like nicotine sludges in one of those cigarette holders or a pipe, for want of a better descriptor, around the piston head and injectors, are tackled by detergents in the fuel - which is where Shell and Chevron come from, their fuels with other adds too in them. For clarification's sake, these are added at the loading gantry in the refinery and that's how the product differentation is achieved....
I confess to having very limited knowledge of cars so can not answer the question in the OP but would like to contribute my experience with buying the more expensive options at garages such as Shell. A few years back, when I had a petrol driven car, I decided to invest in a few consecutive fills of the expensive stuff. Wasn't sure if I was being taken for a ride or not but noted the claim I’d get more mpg and decided that was something I could check. The result was such a small increase it wasn't proving worth the extra cost. So I went back to the ‘normal’ priced stuff. Ok it’s possible there were other benefits I could not note, and I have also read elsewhere that a regular occasional fill with the dear stuff is a good idea, but I couldn’t be stressed out remembering to do that when I wasn't seeing much in benefit. As for additives, I buy them occasionally, I usually keep forgetting to add them when I fill up so they last for ages & ages. My suspicion is that any benefits are minimal, but I couldn't know for sure.
//I'm a person who used to be heavily involved in this field and there's only two fuels I would use and that's Shell and Chevron as they 'overtreat' their fuels especially with detergents (the interjector clogging issue). Use one of these, it's worth it and they are claiming fuel economy of 5% - in practice it's closer to 10, just the lawyer effect. If you have to, load in alternate fills of their premium grades and then normal if you want to save on the bill. //
DT - If you were going to use one of the fuels you mention ,would you need fill up when the tank was at a minimum / near empty - or doesn't it matter what amount of fuel is in the tank before you fill up ?
DT - If you were going to use one of the fuels you mention ,would you need fill up when the tank was at a minimum / near empty - or doesn't it matter what amount of fuel is in the tank before you fill up ?
I guess that depends on whether it works when more dilute. Otherwise if you always fill up half a tank at a time you would end up getting the same amount longer term as if you always filled up a full tank at a time. My guess is that the additive is simply dispersed in the fuel and so would work regardless, but it'd be interesting to see DTs thoughts.
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