Is it safe to use fuel additives?

[capt jack]

I think that if you suspect a problem with the injectors then maybe a shot of injector cleaner might be OK, but as has been said, modern fuels already have all the additives needed. I'd be more tempted to spend my time and money on some nice new spark plugs (and if non=ETM) a new rotor, leads and dissy cap.Cleaning out the throttle would be good, as would a new air filter and maybe an oil change.

If you're hoping that an additive will improve things on the emission front pre-MOT then I reckon that a proper service would achieve at least as much as engineering in a bottle.

There's always a risk with an older engine or gearbox that if you disturb gunk that's been sat quietly minding it's own business then it'll do more harm than good. Having said that, keeping the important fuel, air and oil-ways clear is a sound policy too!

Cheers

Jack

[volvorocks]

Originally Posted by Tension

Regardless, I dare say that incident would've done significant damage to your engine.

I would've taken the garage to the ****ing cleaners :/

The engine, surprisingly was actually fine. That did amaze me. Did quite a high mileage in it afterwards. The garage did get '' told off '' - thing was the owners were friends of my father,I was a kid, so not a lot I could do. I did express my feelings though with my mouth...!!!! (its a large one!!!!)....and never let them forget.

Regards

[monkeh]

A shot (or bottle) of redex never did my Escort any harm, It was meant to run on 4 star. I started driving as LRP was phased out and my car went like a rocket on the LRP. Unleaded never had that oomph... But with the odd shot of redex it went well.
In my diesel cars, I used to put 5 litres of white spirit in to help flush the gunk out when my fuel was below 1/4 of a tank. The engine burnt that as normal- coupled with the itallian tuneup... No problems.

[10musse]

Oops - that hit in just one of my very sore points :-)

I have a small engineering company in Denmark and we have more than 15 years working with several of the world's largest oil companies.
And one thing is for sure "Oil is NOT just oil" there are very large differences and oil companies have PARTICULAR absolutely no idea that improve their products beyond what is just expected.
Oil DNA is also a significant factor, since the base oil is a product of the area in which the oil is pumped up from.
Some oils are better than other oils for various products.
I have used additives for more than 10 years and all the years with great success. On a daily basis I use octane boost, which in addition to raise the octane by 3-4% as it also has a strong cleansing effect of the injection system. Besides this, then the fuel particles smaller thereby enabling a much better utilization of the fuel = more km per liter. On my T5R approx. 1.2 km more per liter.
At each oil change added a Teflon product that greatly minimize "metal on metal" which of course is devastating for each motor.
The same type of products I use in gearboxes, LSD, differentials, etc.
All products are from Danish Lindemann - they have been working on this for more than 35 years and a very serious partner in an otherwise very doubtful market, with lots of fudge.
Lindemann supply special products, Rolls Royce, British Railway, MAN, Mercedes AMG, Ferrari.
There are numerous tests made of e.g their products and is 100% that there is a very great effect using the additives - for a long time test which takes e.g. 10 identical new cars, the 5 gets additives and the other 5 run without additives. In the 5 with additives that minimally with heat (heat = wear), better fuel economy, etc. The test results speak for themselves!
So yes in my view, is the use of additives is definitely a must.
Good weekend.

[Shortstuff]

After working on an oil refinery for 10 years I learned that sometimes its better not to worry. I personnally put in BP ultimate 1 in every 4 fills to help keep things clean. Shell and Tesco 99ron is also good and believe it or not if used often then you do get a small improvement.

I did use Redex once on a Primera and it wasn't too bad but that was before the days of low sulphur fuels and the like

[t+m]

i always use a bottle of cataclean a few days before the mot and advise my customers the same,its very effective but anything else is probably not necessary.You could add an octane booster if the boost is very high so the ecu doesn't retard the spark,if you were doing a run at santapod for example on a" run wot you brung day".
Yes the original slick50 was almost miraculous in its effect.The advert,if i remember correctly was adding slik50 to an austin 1300,let it coat everything and drain out the oil then go for a drive,and absolutely nothing happened,drove as normal didn't seize up.i would have thought the bearings would be knocking without the oil pressure to float them on but apparently not.Didn't realise the current slik was not the same.
Anyone know of a replacement that does the same?usually these products seem to be american,