Safe Speed Forums

Quite possibly.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Quite possibly!

(All of the following is based on personal experience.)

They have less refined products at the pump, with much lower octane levels - akin to the old 2 star that cheapskates used to buy!!

'premium' is just our normal 4 star.

Our 'super unleaded' 98 is practically rocket fuel to them!

Modern petrol with all of its additives & detergents renders just about all of the injector cleaners obsolete (which is normaly Kerosene based).
Nobody 'de-cokes' engines these days, it's only done as a home remedy with £30-a-tin concoctions.

Slick 50 is evil as an engine oil additive. It uses particulant PTFE..which can gum up just about everything! OK in an old E-reg fiesta (ANYTHING helps), but avoid it in your new car!!

Viscocity modifiers can help get a car through an MOT, or quieten noisy tappets.

Neat ZX1 is REALLY good when used like 'WD40' if you have cold surfaces, but as an additive it thins down engine oil making it less effective (and noisier).

Molyslip has been arround forever and is another particulate additive. Works wonders added to knackered, rattely old engines - wouldn't let it near anything decent!

Motor-up is another gimmick, as unfortunately is the expensive Eco-tek additive in the long run.

A good quality synthetic (or semi) changed at regular intervals is MUCH better at protecting your engine than buggering about with the stock formulation.

In short - additives help extend the life of old cars & old oil. Spend £20-£50 on a good oil change and it'll be better for it, instead of dumping yet another tin of gloop into the oil filler!

Hobbes - totally agree - best way to keep your engine in peak health - change oil often - gallon of oil + filter done at some or other fast fit place is about the cost of the oil if you buy it at Halfrauds( BUT - first go to main dealer and buy new washer for sump plug , and watch it fitted on oil change.).
As i posted about petrol additives - my old Cav with 120k was clean - i was looking at engines from 20 year ago when i thought about valve cleaning/ decoke head/etc -

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

There was as ASA adjudication for a "Greased Lightning" additive advertised on Ideal Vitality channel:

http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications ... _41575.htm

I think we need to not loose sight of reality here though!

My car engine is now 16 years old and has done the best part of a quarter of a million miles. It has just had (at least since I've had it) ordinary mineral oil (& filter) of a reputable brand and correct grade put in it according to the manufacturer's recommendations. I expect it will still be running fine when the ass finally drops out of the car due to tinworm!

Surprisingly, it managed to dodge the coffin (sorry, "Authorised end-of-life vehicle tratment facility" - Don't you just love new Labourspeak?!) by passing its MOT last week for another year but one day....

Seriously though, there's not much point in the engine lasting forever unless the rest of the car can!

Mole - that was point of my post - a few pounds on oil & filter return a long lasting engine -

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

Sorry! Thought you were advocating changing the oil MORE frequently than manufacturer's recommendation!

I believe it's only in the last 20 years that the advice to change the oil more frequently has, err, expired. In the 1970s we used to say: change the oil twice as often; keep the engine twice as long.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

I had a heated debate with some Yanks about all this on another board. Basically (some of) the Yanks refuse to believe the oil service intervals suggested by vehicle makers, and instead of taking their cars to an approved dealer for service/oil change, many Yanks get oil changes done at outlets like JiffyLube™, because it's cheaper. Presumably this is because oil change outlets like that do not use synthetic oils which are of course very expensive. (I recently paid £12 for a litre of Castrol SLX Long Life 3) Those owners who have ignored the recommendations of the vehicle maker have then gone on to experience "oil sludge" problems, with the engine being shot at 36K miles in some cases. Needless to say, the vehicle manufacturer does not want to pay out in cases where the owner has voided the warranty by taking their car to back street garages who have used non-synthetic oil. In their surprise, the owners then attempt to take the vehicle manufacturer to court in a "class action" suit. I haven't heard of any of these suits succeeding, although the American legal system seems to grant much more sympathy to these owners than they would receive here.

Synthetic oil is expensive, but the upside is that it lasts a long time. I'm on the variable/high mileage service schedule for my Audi A3 2.0 TDi, and can go 18,000 miles between services. So as expensive as synthetic oil is, I think I'm better off than the old days of the 6000 (or even 3000) mile services. This my second diesel car from the Audi/VW group. I don't use additives and simply follow the service schedule laid down by VAG. The engine's computer management system is an intelligent system which includes sensors which continuously monitor the quality of the oil. It can even detect if a non-synthetic type of oil is added, and will shorten the service interval accordingly if it has.

I don't know that the Yanks' petrol is dirtier, but I do think that there are far more pig-headed owners who think they know better than the vehicle manufacturer what oil should be used and how often it needs to be changed. One guy I talked to even said that the vehicle makers "know nothing" - about their own cars! When I was living over there in the 1980s, I found that there wasn't really a service schedule for American cars. There was no equivalent to a "6000 mile service". Instead, the vehicle handbook made some vague recommendations with regard to oil changes but not much more. People tended to take their cars to a JiffyLube for oil changes, to Aamco for transmission service, to a brake shop for brakes, to another place like Milex for tune ups etc. etc. So the concept of a "15000 mile service" where the dealer sees to everything is a concept lost on many Americans who buy European or Japanese cars.

Service intervals in America for European makes like Volvo tend to be about half what they are here. It has been suggested that this is because of America's more stringent emissions standards. I suppose it is possible for dirtier petrol to contaminate the oil more quickly.

Higher gullibility is probably near the mark. Lots of European cars in USA still carry very low service interval requirements compared to same cars in Europe. Also, USA only has really nasty diesel on the pumps. The low-sulphur stuff is only due their in 2007. Euro TDi engines don't like the high-sulphur stuff. Once USA gets clean diesel it would be fair to expect our colonial cousins to discover the joys of modern diesels.

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"Experience isn't everything - but it's most of it".

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.