Diesel Fuel Additive

[StitchesnFluff]

1) Nope - if you look at the warranty it usually says not recommended
2) it never does any harm to put some premium fuel in. It might improve your consumption a bit and might feel better to drive and will certainly help keep the engine clean, but bear in mind that the vehicle is designed to run on EN590 basic pump diesel so it won't do any harm if you don't.........

useful to know, thank you

 

[MC 55 FUN]

I have an almost new van. It has only 4000 miles on the clock after our trip to Italy. Do I really need this additive or premium fuel??

I used additives on my Mondeo ST TDCi from 1000 miles onwards & on the TXS from 3000 miles onwards, when I inspected the EGRV on the 1st Mondeo at 30,000 odd miles it was incredibly clean & therefore so were the inlet manifold & turbo vanes.

I wouldn't say you NEED additives - it's preventative maintenance i.m.o.

 

[PhilandMena]

Waist of money just give your engine a a thrashing say once o week.
I am talking 3000 revs for 15 mins will do as good as any additive.
Treat now and again to some top price supermarket fuel.
espasily the newer engines ie euro 5 etc.
Every one wants to drive at 2000 revs to save fuel. BUT HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO HAVE A EGR CLEANED OR IF THE DEALER/ GARAGE CANNOT BE ARSED TO CLEAN EAN JUST FIT NEW.
SO FRASH AND KEEP CLEAN CHEEPER.

I too do this, well more or less. Three thousand revs for 20 minutes every 1000 miles. I was advised this is a very good way to prevent the ERG filter from clogging up with soot. At 3000 revs the exhaust gets hot enough to burn soot of the filter.

 

[Figaro]

I have an almost new van. It has only 4000 miles on the clock after our trip to Italy. Do I really need this additive or premium fuel??

Don't think there is any simple answer. In your situation I think I would just use a premium fuel every few tank fills.
I will try this Forte just because it's an older engine and although it runs ok it might clean away any accumulated deposits

 

[MC 55 FUN]

I too do this, well more or less. Three thousand revs for 20 minutes every 1000 miles. I was advised this is a very good way to prevent the ERG filter from clogging up with soot. At 3000 revs the exhaust gets hot enough to burn soot of the filter.

This is good advice, however the burnt soot turns to ash which sooner or later will clog any D.P.F., which should really be regarded as a consumable item, albeit an expensive one, hence any additives which prolong the DPF's life must be a good idea i.m.o.

Good additives will significantly delay the build up of soot ( carbon ) so help reduce the issue at source.

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[Figaro]

I thought the DPF's were self cleaning with indefinate life ?
Don't have one on moho but had them in the past on vw's

 

[MC 55 FUN]

I thought the DPF's were self cleaning with indefinate life ?
Don't have one on moho but had them in the past on vw's

Sadly not, later CDPF's self clean to a certain extent but at the end of the day they all trap soot / carbon which burns to ash under the correct circumstances & it's that ash which will clog the DPF / CDPF at some point, so, the less carbon that is produced the less ash will accumulate in the DPF / CDPF & this is why some people use diesel fuel additives

 

[Steve]

I always try and use Vpower or ultimate but beware of the filling guns I once put petrol in by mistake. And Forte is as good as they get.

 

[ambulancekidd]

Forte is a pretty good engine cleaner and recommended by a lot in the trade. Well worth sticking some in the tanks a couple of weeks before the MOT and giving the van a good old fashioned "Italian tune up". The emissions test should be a breeze after that

Just to put a misconception to rest (but someone will always argue, despite the chemistry proving otherwise) and no disrespect to the others on here.....

• All diesel road fuels sold in UK and Europe must by law meet or exceed EN590
• It doesn't matter really where you fill up as the way the specifications are written means that whatever the brand, the components are pretty well identical. Nobody wants to lose money in a competitive business so "giveaway" is at the bare minimum
• Branded fuels and supermarket fuels both have additives - in a few parts per million; things such as anti foaming additive for diesel. For all practical and analytical purposes it is the same stuff
• Different additives in branded fuels make no practical difference except to the wallet. Think of Shell advertising "up to 2 litres per tank" or BP advertising "up to 21 miles per tank" - read the disclaimers and do the maths
• In fact different brands such as branded and supermarket fuel often comes out of the same tankage. Stand outside Vopak in Thurrock and see for yourself
• If supermarket fuel is substandard then why....

1. Aren't customs and trading standards crawling all over them?
2. Why do so many people fill their vehicles at supermarkets without problems?
3. Why aren't there broken down vehicles all over the place?

There is a difference between standard fuel and so called super fuels such as Shell VPower. The latter is in fact a synthetic fuel with a differing composition and much better burning qualities. These fuels do a great job of keeping the system clean due to added detergents and because of their higher calorific value, work well in performance engines and can result in improved mpg which (in my case almost balances the extra costs). Our MH runs normally on VPower as does the jag as both remapped engines. Dawn's Fiesta runs perfectly well around town and it's a diesel with a dpf) on Asda fuel.

Back to subject........
In our old van, after a close call at one MOT, we used to dose the tank with Forte and do the Italian tune up. SIL does the same with any of his vehicles (he is an MOT tester). The fuel itself? Personal preference really. You aren't going to get 20% worse fuel consumption under the same conditions by filling at ASDA etc.

Hope the above helps a bit

Info given to me by a tanker driver who has driven for a large fuel company & a large supermarket group. You are correct in saying that the fuel all comes from the same refinery but, the large oil company adds their own chemicals to ordinary diesel, they also NEVER buy the fuel at the bottom of the tank, This fuel used to go back through the refining process but, now the supermarkets buy this fuel. The supermarket fuel does not contain the additives. Now that doesn't mean that it'll damage your engine, it simply means that the additives that have been developed by large fuel companies are absent.

The Mercedes that I mentioned in a previous posting was filled with diesel every single day, I was working & driving huge mileage. Every time I noticed the consumption getting worse I was thinking that a brake calliper must have been stuck or seized but, I could find nothing wrong!
My wife gave me one of the ten pence off per litre for Tesco's fuel vouchers, that's when it dawned on me that the 52mpg had dropped to 42mpg. There is no other explanation.

My current Sprinter is prone to having an EGR blocked problem but, I only ever put large fuel company's fuel in, so none of it is what its cracked up to be

 

[DuxDeluxe]

Info given to me by a tanker driver who has driven for a large fuel company & a large supermarket group. You are correct in saying that the fuel all comes from the same refinery but, the large oil company adds their own chemicals to ordinary diesel, they also NEVER buy the fuel at the bottom of the tank, This fuel used to go back through the refining process but, now the supermarkets buy this fuel. The supermarket fuel does not contain the additives. Now that doesn't mean that it'll damage your engine, it simply means that the additives that have been developed by large fuel companies are absent.

The Mercedes that I mentioned in a previous posting was filled with diesel every single day, I was working & driving huge mileage. Every time I noticed the consumption getting worse I was thinking that a brake calliper must have been stuck or seized but, I could find nothing wrong!
My wife gave me one of the ten pence off per litre for Tesco's fuel vouchers, that's when it dawned on me that the 52mpg had dropped to 42mpg. There is no other explanation.

My current Sprinter is prone to having an EGR blocked problem but, I only ever put large fuel company's fuel in, so none of it is what its cracked up to be

Yes, and thanks for the post. It is partially true but a few points about refinery tankage........

1) all suctions/outlets are usually above the bottom of the tank, which is usually shaped anyway. Nobody gets the bottom of the tank. In more years than I care to remember stooging around oil refineries I think that I have only seen a couple of empty tanks.
2) it goes through filters anyway or the gacky stuff would destroy the metering system before it got anywhere near the supermarket
3) The supermarkets DO put additives in (as mentioned above in earlier post) but the oil companies, mainly for marketing purposes to justify the extra pricing, put parts per million (ppm) of some additives. you can only tell the difference if you use an HPLC or similar analytical equipment
4) Those additives are injected "on the fly" when the tanker is being loaded. The incident about 10 years ago with cars breaking down from Tesco fuel was caused by a leaking diesel anti foaming additive system that put this into the gasoline, destroying the oxygen sensors

There simply must be another reason as yet unknown for the consumption difference, otherwise many tens of thousands would have noticed and it would have been in the press. Research has actually shown that statistically speaking, there is minimal difference between the consumption of the two types of fuel (talking about standard fuel here). This is backed up by the chemistry........think about it.... the only difference between one and the other is a few ppm of additives. The rest of the fuel is identical. If an oil company could come up with something that gave 20% better consumption surely they would shout about it, in the same way that Shell shout about an improvement of "up to 2 litres per tank"........ cheers

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[Mack100]

My daughter-in-laws father is the recently retired Chief Scientist for a major oil company and it was interesting to hear his views on supermarket fuel once I'd filtered out the highly technical stuff.
Essentially he said that all branded fuel contains "a shot" of additive, premium fuels contain 2 shots. It was when it came to supermarket fuel it got interesting.
Basically he said it depended where you lived or where the supermarket was situated.

Supermarkets in and around large towns and cities for the most part got their fuel in exactly the same places as branded, essentially the same fuel. There were however "anomalies " where some supermarkets bought from suppliers who obtained their fuel on the spot market. While all these fuels conformed to standards it was doubtful that many contained additives which he insisted on calling "detergents". In a nutshell, he said that while it was most likely that your supermarket fuel did contain additives they may not, if you wanted to be 100% certain then always use branded fuels.

When I asked what he did he replied that it didn't really matter as long as you used some branded fuel every 4 or 5 fill-ups. When pushed about what would happen if you never used branded and took pot luck he just shrugged and said "probably nothing"!

 

[DuxDeluxe]

My daughter-in-laws father is the recently retired Chief Scientist for a major oil company and it was interesting to hear his views on supermarket fuel once I'd filtered out the highly technical stuff.
Essentially he said that all branded fuel contains "a shot" of additive, premium fuels contain 2 shots. It was when it came to supermarket fuel it got interesting.
Basically he said it depended where you lived or where the supermarket was situated.

Supermarkets in and around large towns and cities for the most part got their fuel in exactly the same places as branded, essentially the same fuel. There were however "anomalies " where some supermarkets bought from suppliers who obtained their fuel on the spot market. While all these fuels conformed to standards it was doubtful that many contained additives which he insisted on calling "detergents". In a nutshell, he said that while it was most likely that your supermarket fuel did contain additives they may not, if you wanted to be 100% certain then always use branded fuels.

When I asked what he did he replied that it didn't really matter as long as you used some branded fuel every 4 or 5 fill-ups. When pushed about what would happen if you never used branded and took pot luck he just shrugged and said "probably nothing"!

.....as evidenced on a daily basis by several million drivers......

I'd be interested to know what the additives were for "one shot" or "two shots". Believe me, there is a lot more than one shot goes into even supermarket fuel

 

[Mack100]

.....as evidenced on a daily basis by several million drivers......

I'd be interested to know what the additives were for "one shot" or "two shots". Believe me, there is a lot more than one shot goes into even supermarket fuel

He may have been guilty of a little over simplification, he knew who he was dealing with!

 

[iceclimber]

I've always used Millers 6204KB Diesel Power Ecomax Fuel Additive.
In my 2.8JTD (2003) Burstner & in my Nissan 2.5L pick-up. Don't really know for certain if it makes a lot of difference BUT have assumed it must ?
Have always trusted Millers products from my classic car days where we used a Millers lead / octane boost petrol additive + always used Millers oils.

At the price below ..... it works out at aprox 80p per 50L fill-up

 

[Just smiffy]

I've always used Millers 6204KB Diesel Power Ecomax Fuel Additive.
In my 2.8JTD (2003) Burstner & in my Nissan 2.5L pick-up. Don't really know for certain if it makes a lot of difference BUT have assumed it must ?
Have always trusted Millers products from my classic car days where we used a Millers lead / octane boost petrol additive + always used Millers oils.

At the price below ..... it works out at aprox 80p per 50L fill-up

Been useing millers for years on diesels....great stuff.

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[TheBig1]

£13.40 delivered


and yes it is very worthwhile

When Geo mentioned Forte he said not to buy from eBay as there were a lot of fakes, he did say that he had been offered money for his empties. I ordered mine from Amazon, it was a reseller but when it arrived it was sealed so I assume it's puccka. It was a couple of quid dearer than Ebay.

received my eBay bought forte this morning and it is sealed and genuine. purchased from a garage/workshop not some dodgy seller trading from a back bedroom

 

[Figaro]

@TheBig1 Just ordered some too from same seller

 

[Reallyretired]

I put premium fuel in the MH at fill up before last (by mistake as some wit had transposed the nozzles) cost an extra 14p a litre but no noticeable difference on performance or mpg. I suppose it might have cleaned something but mileage is quite low (29k)

 

[Petest]

I've used 2 stroke oil for years. Every 3rd tankful I add 250ml

 

[DuxDeluxe]

I've used 2 stroke oil for years. Every 3rd tankful I add 250ml

There are a few threads about that and quite a bit of scientific research.

However, it is your choice and your engine.........

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[Techno]

My emissions are as low as low can be and the MPG for a 3 litre 4250kg van is as good as can be expected.
I mainly use ASDA fuel

 

[Techno]

I have an EGR bypass and CAT removed. £360 custom exhaust lifetime warranty

 

[TheBig1]

I've used 2 stroke oil for years. Every 3rd tankful I add 250ml

not the greatest idea on the modern common rail diesel, but thats your choice

 

[pappajohn]

Hope the above helps a bit

my views exactly.....but there will be thousands who wont accept it.

 

[john1953]

I just can't get my head around using fuel additives, when you think oil companies spend millions developing clean burning and efficient fuels why would you want to add something to it, if adding forte fuel additive is claimed to increase economy and clean the engine then surely the fuel companies would already be adding it.
For me the most important thing to do to look after the engine in your van is to make sure the oil and filter and fuel filter are changed every 12 months, don't sit in a traffic jam with the engine running for more than 5 mins , try and cut out short journey's where the engine doesn't get up to temperature especially in winter and use branded fuels with an occasional tank of "V" Power and it will be good for 100 thousand miles.
After rebuilding more Diesel engines than I care to remember the biggest killer by far was dirty engine oil.
JMO.

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[TheBig1]

there is some confusion here between products mentioned. there are octane/cetane enhancers that improve fuel economy and help burn off soot in the combustion process and dpf/exhaust. and there are solvents to break down deposits in the injectors and fuel system which helps the combustion etc

what forte is used for is to cut down smoking from the exhaust so improving emissions