High Fuel Emissions - which fuel additive?

scorpionxedos

Okay, it's possibly becoming clear. I run the family to a visit to our 101-yr-old relative in London every three months and car gets a blast at ahem mph on the way back.

Due to circumstances, we haven't been on the latest visit, and there may not be another one. (She's hanging-in there tho, so..)

I'm going to the the garage tomorrow to get a copy of the emission form.I will get a full-service ordered as well as repairing the MOT failures. Partly because of the comments on this thread; but mainly because I love MY car.

scorpionxedos

forgotmyname wrote: »

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.

Thanks buddy, you may have a budget larger than mine!

CrazyRed

I look after all our 'family' cars - some of which do a relatively high mileage and others do virtually nothing.

On the much lower mileage cars (one of them does around 500-1000 miles between MOTs) I tend to change the oil and filter annually, regardless, the air filter bi-annually and the fuel filter once every three years (petrol engines). Spark plugs are generally every three years on this one, or, if it's really done nothing much between a couple of MOT's, I'll stretch it to 5 years for the plugs - dependent on the difficulty presented in changing them. Most V-engines (especially Japanese) take a significant amount of dismantling to change the plugs - it's not the simple job that it is on, say, the 4-pot BMW. It normally involves the loss of skin on a knuckle or two and the utterance of a degree of Anglo-Saxon.

The higher mileage ones get a twice-yearly oil and filter, plus air, fuel and pollen filter change (these two are diseasel and do a mixture of pottering round town and some 'driven with vigour' runs up and down the motorway).

My advice to you, with your low mileage, especially if the budget is tight would be air filter and Cataclean for the MOT, followed by a fuel filter, oil and filter and a set of plugs as soon as possible afterwards, then drop into the schedule I suggested in the second paragraph.

Henzo

Have you tried the Red-Ex stuff ? If not , give it go. Take it on the motorway for a good run ?

scorpionxedos

CrazyRed wrote: »

I look after all our 'family' cars - some of which do a relatively high mileage and others do virtually nothing.

On the much lower mileage cars (one of them does around 500-1000 miles between MOTs) I tend to change the oil and filter annually, regardless, the air filter bi-annually and the fuel filter once every three years (petrol engines). Spark plugs are generally every three years on this one, or, if it's really done nothing much between a couple of MOT's, I'll stretch it to 5 years for the plugs - dependent on the difficulty presented in changing them. Most V-engines (especially Japanese) take a significant amount of dismantling to change the plugs - it's not the simple job that it is on, say, the 4-pot BMW. It normally involves the loss of skin on a knuckle or two and the utterance of a degree of Anglo-Saxon.

The higher mileage ones get a twice-yearly oil and filter, plus air, fuel and pollen filter change (these two are diseasel and do a mixture of pottering round town and some 'driven with vigour' runs up and down the motorway).

My advice to you, with your low mileage, especially if the budget is tight would be air filter and Cataclean for the MOT, followed by a fuel filter, oil and filter and a set of plugs as soon as possible afterwards, then drop into the schedule I suggested in the second paragraph.

Great stuff, CrazyRed, thanks very much. Will do as you suggest.

Will post the emission readings later.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

if your doing low miles like this, then i would suggest oil and oil filter every 6k miles or 6 month wich ever first. using a good brand oil like valvolive high mileage or valvoline expensive oil but ive done the low thing and even doing regular oil changes the quality of the oil and addatives they dont add in the cheap stuff has caught me out, i rounded the cam lobes off on my last car because the oil didnt have the properties higher priced branded oil have to keep the oil attached to the metal parts and puff delaminated lobes.

you also have to bear in mind short trips unspent fuel sitting in the bores is not a good combination and can lead to borewash in the cylinders and excess carbon build up on the valve bottoms and valve seats and head exhaust ports and then onto the exhaust system.

poor quality fuel spending time to go stagnant in the tank get pressurised through the injectors the bad particles in the tank can clog up injector nozzles causing problems and fubar a fuel pump, fuel filter.

give your car a nice drive on a weekly basis.

add a good service good fuel tank addative nice good long run.

scorpionxedos

Henzo wrote: »

Supermarket fuel ?

Supermarket fuel has been mentioned a couple of times. Yep, I'm making that mistake too! I used to use Super Unleaded, then after a pay-cut I downgraded to regular unleaded, both from Sainsbury's.

Is there a problem with supermarket fuel? (Did a forum search but couldn't find a thread.)

What fuel do you guys use/recommend? I can use what I have left, on long runs, by Sunday. Then Mon/Tue I can run the car with Cataclean and the upgraded fuel. Hopefully that will be enough to pass the MOT on Weds.

wongataa

There's nothing wrong with supermarket fuel. All fuel in the UK has to meet certain standards. Some people claim branded fuel has better additives and some people claim their cars run better with a certain brand. Maybe for certain people branded fuel is better but there is no definitive conclusion on the matter. Millions of people use supermarket fuel every day and have no problems at all.

Iceweasel

wongataa wrote: »

There's nothing wrong with supermarket fuel. All fuel in the UK has to meet certain standards. Some people claim branded fuel has better additives and some people claim their cars run better with a certain brand. Maybe for certain people branded fuel is better but there is no definitive conclusion on the matter. Millions of people use supermarket fuel every day and have no problems at all.

Quite right - I've heard that before.

There's also nothing wrong with supermarket own-brand bread / beans / whisky.

All bread / beans / whisky in the UK has to meet certain standards.

Some people think that branded goods have better additives etc. and some people claim that branded products taste better.

Maybe for certain people branded goods do taste better, but there is no definitive conclusion on the matter.

Millions of people consume supermarket brands every day and have no problems at all.

But I can tell the difference between Tesco / Asda / Morrisons value beans, and a well known brand - other brands are available.

But what makes you happy - but there is a difference.

If some people can't tell the difference between supermarket whisky and a 10 year old malt - buy supermarket whisky - it's a no brainer.

colino

The point Iceweasel, is that your car (unless you drive an 80's Lada) can tell the difference and adjusts the engine settings to suit, so drivers who claim to notice an improvement, get me their addresses, I have a Monorail to sell.