Hi 

Is there any down sides to using fuel additives such as EGR/turbo cleaners? Has any one had an adverse reaction using such a product?

I ask as I added a 400 ml bottle of EGR/Turbo cleaner to the tank yesterday and filled up with 30 ltrs of BP ultimate diesel  and the engine seemed to be running fine but I only drove home after filling about half a mile away.  now the engine was difficult to start this morning but it eventually started after the third crank, but it is also running a tad lumpy. I added this cleaner as it was getting smokey on acceleration. Kind of thinking should have left it alone maybe?

Any ideas would be great, thanks.

Hello and welcome mel

As you are using BP ultimate diesel, there seems little point in using additives as the fuel will already have them in.

New BP Ultimate Diesel with ACTIVE technology is our best ever dirt-busting fuel for diesel engines. It is designed to start working from the first fill, helping to remove the dirt in your engine and to stop it coming back.  With ongoing use, new BP Ultimate Diesel with ACTIVE technology helps to keep your engine running smoothly and efficiently, and helps reduce the risk of unplanned maintenance or break downs.

http://www.bp.com/en_gb/on-the-road/united-kingdom/products-and-services/fuels/bp-ultimate-diesel-with-active-technology.html

What's the mileage on the car

Hi Joss, 

thanks for the reply, the mileage is 105,000.

Mel

Is the car fitted with a DPF Diesel particulate filter on the exhaust ? I am real not sure with its age if it was to early for that

 

The car will not be fitted with a dpf

 

Jamie

Thx Jamie did'nt think it would.

I wonder how well the new BP Ultimate actually works...I'm sure we've all seen the advert with piranhas cleaning the filler neck...a part that actually doesn't need cleaning...  

Bu seriously, if there are strong detergents in the fuel it may well have partially blocked the fuel filter.

Personally i use bp ultimate with millers diesel additive :-)

 

Jamie

Thanks for the replies, just been out to it again, and it started fine, first time, but while just sitting with foot on the accelerator slightly the revs are up then down then up it just wont sit there at a constant rev if that makes sense?

Tom, I wonder if it has partially blocked the filter? its a fairly new filter thats done around 1000 mls. Everything was okay (apart from the smoke on acceleration) until I have added this cleaner.

Take it on the motorway and give it a damn good blast for a while

23 hours ago, melb100 said:

 

Hi everyone

an update:

been out the car to see what it started like, unfortunately it was exactly the same as yesterday morning with what now looks like a cold starting problem. It took 3 crank attempts to start and keep running. The first crank is where it fired and run for around 2 seconds, tick-over was very lumpy and stalled afterwards. Second attempt was, it fired up and ran for around five seconds then stalled again, tick-over was very lumpy before it stalled again. Third attempt was, it fired up again and kept running this time but tick-over was not quite so lumpy, however giving it a bit of throttle the engine seemed to misfiring. 

Drove off to see what it was like, it pulled away no problem and accelerated with boost kicking in as usual. I hope these symptoms I have described will help try and maybe figure out what might be going on. 

thank to all who can offer some help.

Mel

Have you got anything to read fault codes just in case it's an unrelated coincidence? 

There's not really any way to test the fuel filter except changing it, it may or may not help so that's entirely up to you, if it's cheap and easy on those it might be worth a shot.

If it was me I'd check for fault codes and if there aren't any just run it on that tank until empty then stick in some other fuel, whatever you normally use without adding an additive and see if it's better.

 

I must admit, I can't see how a fuel additive can clean anything on the exhaust side...surely it's all burnt by the time it hits the EGR or turbo vanes (actually, I guess a 2004 1.8TDCi doesn't even have VNT??). 

 

Tom, thanks for the suggestions.

My son has just been over and he has a work mate who has a reader which he uses on his Mondeo tdci, and seems pretty well conversant with using a reader, so he is going to ask to him come along and see if there is any fault codes. So I will update again on that. I was going to go out tomorrow and get a new fuel filter as they are cheap and quite easy to change by the looks of things, Haynes manual does state to make sure and fill up the filter first with diesel. 

thanks again Tom.

Hi everyone

Well Jos as you suggested above, been down the motorway giving it a blast and trying to burn off some of the diesel that has the additive mixed with it, it was holding steady in 4th  gear for a good mile then it started to misfire, so I put my foot down a bit more and it accelerated strong with out any misfire then not much after that the misfire was back, but this time quite a noticeable jerky misfire, but it keeps going, there is no sort of feeling the engine is going to die on me at all, I slowed down a bit to allow a change down to third and accelerated away, again the engine accelerated strong, but it wasn't long when the misfire was back in this gear as well and again quite a noticeable jerky misfire.

 

Any follow up? Is this fixed or caused some other troubles?

On 9. 10. 2016. at 1:16 PM, TomsFocus said:

I must admit, I can't see how a fuel additive can clean anything on the exhaust side...surely it's all burnt by the time it hits the EGR or turbo vanes (actually, I guess a 2004 1.8TDCi doesn't even have VNT??). 

 

Here is a new idea, intaking this additive directly after the fuel filter. LIQUI MOLY Diesel Purge (#5170)

I don't know if this is possible with Ford cables. And how you know when when this bottle is used up to stop the engine.

Hi ForTim, and Happy New Year to you and everyone else!

sorry for the delay in replying, the misfire eventually stopped after a couple of visits to the petrol station and using BP Ultimate, so I maybe the engine etc did not like this turbo cleaner for some reason. there seems to be no adverse affects using this product, as the engine is running sweet again, with plenty of boost, and the usual good MPG.

It could have been totally unrelated, but like I say all is well again.

thanks

I pick up my new diesel today. I usually use the Shell V Power and a shot of Millers at the same time and never had any issues.

TerraClean - mixed reviews, mostly good.

Give them a shot.

Fuel additives cause grief and trials and tribulations and really not necessary on a modern diesel engine if they get the correct Service & Maintenance and good fluids used.

Just might as well use Coca Cola.

Had a worse experience than this, put some fuel cleaner in tank and the car died after 15metres. Had to put a new fuel filter in to get it running again, don’t know whether these cleaners pick up water or crud from the fuel tank ….. Always use premium diesel in my Zetec S

1 hour ago, Jagsp said:

….. Always use premium diesel in my Zetec S

If you always use 'premium' diesel, there should be no need for further additives. That's the point of spending extra on premium...

1 hour ago, StephenFord said:

If you always use 'premium' diesel, there should be no need for further additives.

I always Tesco's bargain diesel and a teaspoon of snake oil, sometimes two if I'm feeling flush 🤣

4 minutes ago, unofix said:

I always Tesco's bargain diesel and a teaspoon of snake oil...

I see the error, you need to use 'tablespoons' of snake oil, not teaspoons...😁

well as we have a few experts reading - hows this for fun with direct injection on petrol cars

tractors or petrol engines its all to do with extras missing or extra of the wrong variety (all aimed to find more ways to make them misbehave - but apparently I'm not allowed to say that on this forum !)

 

I was reading a DIY car mag about Oils yesterday....

it goes on to say direct injection engines may suffer from LSPI - a nasty low speed pre ignition problem in gasoline direct injection engines that destroys the pistons and bores .... Caused by certain additives in the wrong spec oil


today I found this http://engineprofessional.com/articles/EPQ218_42-46.pdf avoid the use of oils containing high levels of Calcium and Sodium detergents in direct injection engines

The Mini Challenge series had been using a European road spec oil that happened to contain over 2,500 parts per million (ppm) of Calcium detergent. While using this oil, the Mini Challenge series suffered from several engine failures due to LSPI.

Once the series organisers and engine builder became aware that these failures were due to LSPI, the series fuel supplier Sunoco, recommended contacting Driven Racing Oil resulting in a change to Driven’s XP9 Racing Oil, which contained only 250 ppm of Calcium detergent.

Compared to the previous oil with more than 2,500 ppm of calcium detergent and no Molybdenum, lowering the calcium level to 250 ppm and adding 1,000 ppm of Molybdenum eliminated the LSPI related engine failures. Simply put, motor oils formulated with high concentrations of Calcium detergents are the primary contributor to LSPI events in direct injection engines. To avoid potentially catastrophic damage, motor oils must be formulated specifically for direct injection engines to ensure engine durability

 

4 minutes ago, Botus said:

I was reading a DIY car mag about Oils yesterday....

Pretty sure that was the May edition of Car Mechanics (which a poster persuaded me to buy as it has a great article on how to replace a Mk2 wing!)

Big difference is that although I too read the 'lubes' article, you obviously understood it 😂