High Fuel Emissions - which fuel additive?

Henzo

Supermarket fuel ?

Alt

scorpionxedos wrote: »

It had a full service approx 12,000 miles ago (incl air filter) and had an oil/filter change about 4,000 ago.

It's not like it's being neglected!

He spends most of his life under a dry carport, and the rest of it on nice steady drives in the town. Not a bad life!?

If as you said you only do 2000 miles a year then the last full service was 6 years ago?? :eek:

Slowly_does_it..

I would give the car a treat of V-Power, then give it a good blast along a motorway. I have noted lower readings when I had that in my tank, and higher when I had supermarket fuel in the tank. If that fails, you have "wasted" a fiver on the stuff, my apologies!

At 2k miles a year, your car saw fresh oil 2 years ago, and a service 6 years ago...

FishHookPockets

At the mileage the car has done the lambda will need changing if it has never been done before. You should be able to look up the required one on bosch's website. I did this for my girlfriends car and the part was a lot cheaper (£40) than from the dealers (slightly different to look at but correct for the car). If you are ok with a set of spanners its an easy job too. It has sailed through the emissions since and is costing less to run.

Limey

A good blast and service with fresh plugs would help a lot as others have said. Your spark plugs are probably somewhat fouled up from all the low milage runs.

Edit: The lambda may not need replacing, I'd get it tested before just going ahead and changing it. My 1995 Celica still had the original lambda on last year when it failed emmissions, it was on it's way out but only just failed on the diagnostics.

scorpionxedos

Alt wrote: »

If as you said you only do 2000 miles a year then the last full service was 6 years ago?? :eek:

Does the car need a service when it's sat there doing nothing for most of that time?

Iceweasel

scorpionxedos wrote: »

Does the car need a service when it's sat there doing nothing for most of that time?

I have to tell you that the treatment your car is getting is known as 'extreme conditions' and warrants extra services not less.

The oil especially is having a hard time as it never heats up to the extend that contaminants will be evaporated off.

I would expect that in the handbook it says that services are required every X,000 miles or 12 months.

If you are using supermarket fuel - stop.

Give the car a really long run asap and give it a full service - not just the air filter - everything - including the anti-freeze/coolant.

saverbuyer

scorpionxedos wrote: »

Does the car need a service when it's sat there doing nothing for most of that time?

Of course.

Slowly_does_it..

scorpionxedos wrote: »

Does the car need a service when it's sat there doing nothing for most of that time?

Afraid so!

Off the top of my head it is a simple service every 6000 miles or 6 months whichever comes first, and a full service every 12000 miles or every 12 months, whichever comes first.

Please refer to someone with the specifics for your car or to your handbook / haynes manual.

Some people service their cars more frequently if they do short trips.

Engines like to get up to temp and stay there, cold engines run rich to overcome extra friction. This builds up soot in the system, does not dry out any water that collects in the exhaust system, etc.

forgotmyname

Short journey's are harsh on mechanical parts. It needs to be serviced more often.

12,000 miles way overdue a service. I generally only cover a low mileage. My car gets an oil change every 6 months or 6000 miles which ever is sooner.
And it gets a full service each year.