I put some Marvel Mystery oil in or some Power Service but don’t drive mine enough to see it make much difference. Maybe it’s a little quieter. Just rebuilt my injectors so it might be a while before it really needs an additive


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Nothing but RED X in my tank every time i fill up .

 

Additives aren't needed. The refinery and fuel station add some already.

 

This is correct. My father worked for a major oil company and part of his job was to know the formulations for all automotive fuels. These fuels already have cleaning additives in them so adding an additional additive is unnecessary and may do more harm than good. MB has also always frowned on fuel additives and actually says so in the owners manual for my W201.

 

What car is this for? I don't see a W123 in your profile.

Depending on the model, MB have sometimes recommended additive periodically. Their own was Wurth rebranded.

 

LZOM May be they do now , but i still use Red X . Keeps all the gum away from internals .Had my fuel sender stick in one of my cars , and after i put 1/2 biottle in the tank it freed up the sender, and it is showing fuel in the tank now . So fuel is not as clean as you would like to think it is ..

 

LZOM May be they do now

It has always been. No car or truck since the early 1900's has ever had pure gas/diesel from a retail pump.

Keeps all the gum away from internals

LOL, no, it doesn't.

 

RedEx, double strength (a whole bottle not half as recommended) for 2 consecutive tankfuls, whenever I buy a car, and only if I think it needs it after. Normally never.

I've done it since the 1960s when we used to remove sparkplugs and poured a shotglass of the original RedEx into each cylinder to decoke valve stems, valve heads, cylinders and piston tops. I know it worked then as we took engines apart after and checked the results.

The modern one does clean up the injectors, and cures lumpy idle and lack of power. Proven.

But at double strength.

STP, Wynne's and many others didn't work even at double strength. Waste of money.

I was sold BG44-K by Kwikfit in the UK for my E320 CDi, £20, a whole tin to one tankful, but I noticed only a slight improvement.

Two tankfuls of RedEx later and she'd see off a lot of cars, sewing machine tickover and no smoking.

I never had to use it again for that car. But I've used it (the modern one) on probably 8 cars before and 2 after including our current ML320. It's smooth and quick now, it wasn't before.

Note there's one for diesel and one for petrol engines.

Don't waste your money on other unknown injector cleaner trials if you can get RedEx.

I always use either 95 octane petrol or cheapest EuroDiesel.

Premium grades of either have cleaners in them but a previous owner probably didn't use them if your new (used) car is running lumpy or misfiring.

Misfiring eats catalytic converters in no time, so if your car is misfiring get it fixed right away, you may not have time to run 2 tankfuls!

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The modern one does clean up the injectors, and cures lumpy idle and lack of power. Proven.

Got a source for that?

 

Fuel quality is vastly different from country to country, even within the EU which has "strict" regulations on fuel quality. Maybe the Germans follow them.

"Human error" is covered up here in Cyprus for example, where many gas stations are privately owned and their station fuel tanks have been found to contain rust, sediments, water, wrong fuel...

I don't know about US fuel but UK lower grades are basic, basically. The oil companies do have higher grade gas and diesel with additives and/or "detergents", and all stations sell them, at +10p or more per litre than the lower grade fuel.

You can Google it, UK fuel grades. Shell V-Power for example.

When the damage is already done, as in the UK where the lower fuel grades are known to clag up injectors, the car idles lumpily and has less power, it's either that, or injector removal for expensive "professional off-car cleaning" or injector replacement at around £200 each plus labour.

It's not an encouraging path, especially with an older car on a tight budget. Kids take precedence!

But as I've said, the other many brands than RedEx have turned out to be hoaxes, they didn't work.

So as an alternative, if you have the symptoms described and you can get premium grade fuel, run on that for a couple or three tankfuls, or longer of course - it'll cost about €/£/$7 more than "regular" or low-grade fuel for an average tankful, and it might well solve the problem.

Why not?

 

So as an alternative, if you have the symptoms described and you can get premium grade fuel, run on that for a couple or three tankfuls, or longer of course - it'll cost about €/£/$7 more than "regular" or low-grade fuel for an average tankful, and it might well solve the problem.

Why not?

Because thats not possible in the US. There is no defined "grade" of fuel for diesel. Stations that display "premium diesel" are the same "grade" as jo-blo corner fleet fueling station down the street.

 

As part of a larger project, I recently had the fuel injection pump rebuilt for my 1982 300CD turbo car. The Bosch shop that did the work strongly recommended using Stanadyne additive to make today's diesel fuels more like they were when the car was built.

I plan to use it.

FB

 

The Bosch shop that did the work strongly recommended using Stanadyne additive to make today's diesel fuels more like they were when the car was built.

Sorry, thats bunk. Diesel of today is far better than what was around in the 80's. It has less sulfur (a contaminant), less free carbon (better refining, reducing sludge inside the pump) and far less water contamination (the reason behind GM's 350 diesel downfall).
Sulfur is NOT a lubricant and it has no function in diesel fuel. ULSD has been mandated since 2006. If it was detrimental to older diesels there would have been a massive die-off soon after, not 14 years later. As it stands, raw vegetable oil use is responsible for far more number of OM61x deaths than any factor of modern diesel fuel.

 

We supposedly have "standards" here in Cyprus and in the UK and the rest of Yurrup too.

But that doesn't prevent dirty fuel, especially outside the UK, France, Germany.

And age plays a part in reducing performance over time.

The newest car we've ever bought were 4 years old, I can't bring myself to throw away thousands of £/$/€ on cars, that will only lose value.

All of our second-hand cars have benefitted from injector cleaner including our 2006 ML320 CDi, clearing lumpy idle and improving pulling power.

The cost is only around £20 to RedEx 2 tankfuls every 4-5 years or when needed.

As for not using double strength - I did it the hard way, by trial. Even RedEx did not make a quick difference at single strength. The others just didn't work.

Now that the original RedEx has been superceded, whoever wants to needs to do his/her own tests of course, I can't vouch for their new "Fuel System Cleaner".

 

The proof courtesy of Fifth Gear:

 

What are the opinions on Diesel Purge? Seems I have read only positive things about it, especially if run 100% strength from a separate fuel container right at the injection pump.

 

Well i use RED X but its not everyones cup of tea. I have seen gum on the fuel tanks inside and fuel pipes and on the base of the injectors . I t has worked well for me for 50 years ..

 

Seems we can't get RED X in the USA

 

This article might help to identify good products for the USA:

Do Fuel Injector Cleaners Really Work? - Automotive

In the automotive industry, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that there are a number of ‘snake juice’ products out on the market. You’re probably familiar with the type…

blog.automotive-technology.com

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