Fuel additive

Has anyone tried the stuff? you know the stuff that cleans the valve and injectors etc.... I bought a bottle and added to the fuel...I'm not expecting it to work, but there again....

Reply to
Howard
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I don't believe in it, but add a bottle to the tank at MoT time. DaveK.

Reply to
davek

I've used some injector in the past, but haven't noticed a difference. I suppose if used regularly it would extend the life of the injectors. I suspect that you'll only really get a problem if you drive like a granny 1 mile at a time. If you get major problems with the injectors though, then the best thing is probably to get it professionally cleaned. Has anybody ever had injector problems which could have been avoided with injector cleaner?

Reply to
petermcmillan_uk

Be very careful of the kind you buy. Most of the cheap ones have tin particles that are abrasive. They do indeed clean the injectors, but also erode the nozzles as well.

I can only recommend what I know, Forte' fuel flush (the only additive ever to be recommended by Honda), and Fortron. Both of these are quite expensive, but both are fully solvent based and don't cause any harm to anything.

Whether or not they do any good is hard to tell, and if you put them in every 10k for 100k miles, it could actually work out cheaper to have the injectors professionally cleaned at about 80k.

Reply to
Andy Hewitt

additive

I have some STP injector cleaner, but it doesn't list the ingredients on the side. How would i know whether it had tin in it?

Reply to
petermcmillan_uk

In message , Andy Hewitt writes

Yeees. The Honda dealership I use are pretty keen on Forte. Totally irrelevant, I'm sure, but the only mechanical failure the Type-R has suffered was a failed injector.

Reply to
Steve Walker

That's pretty rare on a Honda anyway. It's more likely to have been a connector problem that was cured during the removal/refit of the injector.

One other tip, don't use Shell petrol, especially Optimax, Hondas really don't like it.

Reply to
Andy Hewitt

Usually if it's cheap.

Reply to
Andy Hewitt

Dunno. Fixed under warranty, I didn't ask for details. The engine warning light came on, idle became slow and lumpy and threatened to stall (but never actually did).

Really?

Reply to
Steve Walker

Yes.

Reply to
Andy Hewitt

I hadn't heard of this. What's the problem it causes?

Reply to
Steve Walker

The additives in the fuel end up as goo on the EGR valve and Lambda sensor. It's almost impossible to clean off, and any cheap solution is usually only temporary at best.

Reply to
Andy Hewitt

That's a bit shit, particularly given that the CTR was used in the Optimax adverts, and that it's one of the few cars to actually get any benefit from higher octane fuel.

Reply to
Steve Walker

Yes, it does get a short term benefit, but that is often the case with 'snake oil'.

Reply to
Andy Hewitt

I'd have thought that after the "Formula Shell" debacle, Shell would be a bit more careful. Ironic that they're selling it on the "removes deposits better" card as much as the 98RON card.

Is Honda doing anything official about this?

Reply to
Steve Walker

You would have thought so wouldn't you. I know some other cars suffer with the same issues, and possibly with sticky valves too.

It's possibly also not just Shell that this is related to either, we also suspect that BP fuel has similar properties. We have only come to these conclusions by researching what fuels our customers use when they have problems. The worst cases are those that almost exclusively stick to a single brand of either Shell or BP. Users of others such as Total, or especially Jet, don't seem to be getting the same problems.

Not that I'm aware of.

Reply to
Andy Hewitt

Bad news for those drivers, I guess, but to cynics, an interesting counterpoint to the "all supermarket fuel is crap, use Shell or whatever" proponents.

Curious that fuel blenders put things in that don't burn completely. They'd only have to worry about inlet problems otherwise.

Reply to
John Laird

ingredients

I don't know how much I paid for it. It's hard to define cheap anyway, cheap could be a few pence, but it could be a few pound. What I got was definately more than =A35.

Reply to
petermcmillan_uk

Actually most supermarkets 'fly' purchase their fuel, which means they buy fuel from any spare tanker going nearby. They will likely have a right strange mix of stuff in their tanks.

I believe it's only in some engines. I would guess that Hondas burn the fuel so completely that their is no more cumbustion left to burn off the additives.

Reply to
Andy Hewitt

Interesting thought. ;-) But somehow their fuel consumption figures don't suggest they are any better than others.

My SD1 has been run on Optimax probably longer than most would have used it for - it needs 98 Octane and a Shell garage is the closest.

Last year I had to remove the inlet manifold to replace a rusted out heater pipe, and I was surprised just how clean the inlet ports were. As were the plugs when I last changed those. They had no crud whatsoever on the insulators.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

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