Wanted to get some thoughts on some fuel additives given the fact that its been stuck in the 20's and 30's in these parts. I always put an antifreeze type product in i.e. Heet, but was wondering about the fuel injection cleaners, Sea Foam etc.?

Sea Foam worked wonders in my wife's Saab, but Im always overly weary and cautious in regards to putting anything in the STR.

Thoughts?

 

I've always been a fan of Chevron Techron fuel injector cleaner -- the largest size you can find... comes in a black bottle. Buy 2 even.

Never used any in the STR, but it cleared up some rocky acceleration on a few beaters over the years like magic.

 

Absolutely unnecessary and a waste of money. Gasoline has all the additives required already blended in.

 

Jaguar, Ford, Chevy, Toyota & Nissan, Etc. in Northern Va. all recommend BG 44K and I have been using it for years with no regret. I do caution the over use of the product never use back to back.

 

Lucas Upper Cylinder Lubricant
Increase in efficiency more than compensates for the $0.08/(gal fuel) cost of use.
I used to use Chevron Techron at each oil change but stumbled onto the Lucas looking for something similar to treat the diesel with. Discovered it was OK for petrol as well. It's worth an avg of at least a penny/mile in fuel savings across my fleet at current costs of $30+/gal for the Lucas and $3+/gal for the petrol/diesel. My data are from the Excursion/F150 (GMDS odometer crapped out many years ago at 262k mi so no real mileage data available - just seat o'the pants and # of round trips to work between fills) Only acquired the first Jag about the time I started using it and a bit leery of pouring it in the "foreign" engine, plus I don't track mileage and fuel buys anally on the two S-Types 'cause I'm not primary driver. Just acquired the X300 in late August so wanted to establish a baseline before starting full-time usage (besides, I haven't yet calibrated any Ale-8-1 bottles for the smaller fuel tanks!!!)

Good stuff...I'm wasting money when I'm too lazy/impatient to use it.

 

Agree with Gus.. BG 44k is great.
but you can only use it every few thousand miles since it will clean up the injectors. (plus this this is hard to find.. only dealers and few Auto parts carried them)

I also use Lucas fuel injector cleaner, much cheaper and easier to used.. plus its available at walmart.

 

All fuels don`t have the same range of additves in them so adding a fuel system cleaner does have benefits.
Not cheap but BG44k is an excellent product
http://www.bgfindashop.com/44K.htm

 

I agree with the recommendation for Chevron's Techron product. Good stuff, probably the most cost-effective fuel injector cleaner product you can buy when it's on sale during those buy-one-get-one-free deals at Advance Auto Parts or AutoZone. I watch the ads in the local Sunday newspaper and stock up during those deals. All of our vehicles get a 20-ounce bottle of Techron poured into their gas tank at every oil & filter change....


Bull, where you been lately? I'm assuming asleep as much as possible with a new baby in the household now....

 

I'm always amazed by the number of people that believe in generic or specific additives.

Being that I've don't use them in any car or motorcycle, have never had a moment's operational problem and get just as good fuel economy as the best of you, I am obviously skeptical.

Does it not make sense that if any one of these additives truly made a difference, an oil company would jump on the opportunity to blend it in and capitalize on the marketing opportunity?

 

Many additives are indeed snake oil. But a few can be beneficial in terms of helping to keep injectors clean. If you don't believe us, then talk to the techs....

Have you never experienced a fuel injection system in need of cleaning? I certainly have. Running a couple of bottles of Techron through the system made a world of difference in that vehicle (a 1990 Chevy S-10 pickup with the 4.3-litre V6 at about 60,000 miles). Donated that particular truck to charity in December 2000, but I've been using Techron ever since in all of our vehicles. Never had another fuel injection issue since. Coincidence? Perhaps, but Techron is a highly-respected product. I've had several techs tell me that if you don't want to spring for the cost of a professional injector cleaning, at least use some Techron on a periodic basis. You may want to do a little research on it before you bah-humbug it into the snake oil category....

 

Hum! Snake Oil! Good question! I often ask myself if their really is a difference in many of the products on the market. It could be said about many things; in fact many ask me why I own two Jaguars.

Today’s fuel mixtures and driving conditions almost dictate the use of additives to clean injectors and other fuel related items. It is also true to say not all drivers/cars require the use of additives but it is an injustice to say it is snake oil.

 

I did research as a minor part of my professional career for approx 30 years while working for an OEM. Between this and the 'synthetics are better' I always came up dry...........

Additives do have their benefits- if an injector is plugged (I've never had one since my first fuel injected car in the early 80s) then some products may help unplug it. Or may not. This is easy to document as there is a problem at hand that either gets fixed or it doesn't.

Is there a history of injectors becoming plugged on S-types? No. Is this because all owners use additives? No. Is there a credible, demonstrable difference in economy, durability, reliability etc. between people that use additives and those that don't? No.

As always, one group will believe that routinely adding a product 'will keep bad things from happening' and chalk up their excellent track record as proof that it works. I'm part of the silent majority that doesn't use them- but has the same excellent track record.

The OP was asking about additives to help cope with cold weather. Ironically, he's in the habit of using a gas line antifreeze (Heet) which is basically ethanol. The fact that almost all gas is now 10% ethanol makes this additive redundant.

There was also mention of Seafoam- another great favourite- which was basically developed to help out carburated outboard motors in the '50s which would gum up over the winter. It is indeed effective for this purpose. When use as directed, it does indeed produce great clouds of smoke which often gets interpreted as 'blowing out the carbon'. Maybe this is where the phrase 'smoke and mirrors' was derived from- in part.

 

Hey Jon, you are correct, had a beautiful baby girl, Gracie. I can barely keep up with sleep, let alone work our anything else for that matter! Seems like there are alot of new, active members which is great. Hope all of you are doing well and wish you a great new year!

Mikey, the reason I brought this topic up is because I was getting some HEET because it has been freezing around here and my gas tank has been below half way the majority of the time. I have heard that gas line anti freezes is a must. Whether this is true or not, I don't know, but I have always added it over the winter....doesn't break the bank, its a couple bucks. As I was picking up a bottle I saw all that STP stuff including fuel injector cleaner. That's what prompted me to create this thread and get peoples opinions on additives, the whole lot of them. I don't know much about this stuff and whether it is beneficial, detrimental or useless.

 

Mikey,

There are indeed Jaguar techs who have stated that S-Type fuel injectors are prone to clogging. When I was researching the car the night before I purchased ours in December 2008, several techs warned me about this issue as well as the IMT O-ring defect in the 3-litre engines. One tech (screen name here was Real Tech) acknowledged that 3-litre S-Type owners should not be surprised if their injectors require a good cleaning at 30,000-mile intervals, and he also pointed out that some owners may do just fine. He also suggested Techron if I wanted to avoid or minimize injector problems. He had no skin in my game - why would he intentionally mislead me? I remember printing out his responses to several of my questions and filing that document in my S-Type folder. I'm sure I still have it....

Nevertheless, I'm glad you've avoided fuel injection issues to date. So have I. Does the Techron help? You don't believe so, but I believe it may be a contributing factor. It's inexpensive enough that I have no problem continuing to use it as part of my oil & filter changes....

 

Bull,

Congrats on your new daughter, and glad to hear that everyone is doing well. Now, go get some sleep....

 

If you look at my profile, I live near Montreal so cold weather driving is a familiar subject. We don't call 20-30 *F weather 'cold' here but that's another subject.

I haven't used gas line antifreeze in over 30 years. Cars used to have vented gas tanks and in theory could collect water via condensation over a period of time. Again, in theory. Everybody knows somebody that has an uncle whose friend might have had a problem once but......

Today's cars have sealed fuel systems meaning that unless water is maliciously poured in, gas line freezing is unheard of.

This is aided serendipitously by the very evil E10 gas we all must use. A positive way of viewing it is that it's 10% gas line antifreeze.

 

Is this restricted just to 3.0 S-types or all S Types? Why? Is there a design defect with the injectors? Do all cars with these brand of injectors suffer? If so, why is this not better known? Did they fix the issue? etc ad nauseum.

Sorry, and with all due respect to the techs (from the point of view of being one myself, albeit not on Jags) it's real easy to latch onto well intended advice but if I followed every bit I've heard I'd be in the poor house and too afraid to use the car in case bad thing happened because of something I might have missed.

 

I've used cleaning additives over the years and only find them any use when you regularly use poor quality fuel. I only ever put Shell into my XJR, but tried some 44k - old habits die hard, didn't make scrap of difference, it certainly has on previous cars, so I've decided to stick with quality fuel and forget the additives.

 

I was thinking from a preventative stand point, not a existing problem/fix solution.

 

I'm always amazed that there are people having absolutely no interest in, nor experience with, a thread's topic, yet can neither ignore the thread nor read the posts in silence, rather they are pulled inexorably to the keyboard to denigrate the subject and by extension, the people trading their honest, real-world experiences with different brands of it.

Really? 30 yrs at an automotive OEM and you can still ask such a question? I take it you didn't have much opportunity to witness the decision-making process of large corporations during those 30, let alone participate in it, otherwise you wouldn't throw that out as a serious rhetorical.

Sure there is, at least with respect to economy. That is established within this thread. Durability/Reliability perhaps a bit harder to establish conclusively. Consider the member who gives an additive a try, finds that his/her auto runs more to his liking, experiences improved fuel economy and continues using it. Perhaps he/she discontinues use for a time to investigate whether the improvement is a result of favorable winds and traffic conditions, finds the correlation valid over several such trials and then takes a decision as to whether or not the improvement merits the added difficulty of fueling wrought by use of the product. Here we have the same driver, same routes, same vehicle, before and after. Climatic conditions vary, but otherwise a controlled experiment. Is there a credible demonstrable difference in economy between a guy in the SW USA driving 15 yr old 4.0 XJ predominantly in highway conditions and another primarily sitting in stop-n-go congestion in a 13 yr old 4.0L XJ in the Northeast USA if one is using additives and the other not? No, but despite the cars being of the same series and powertrain and developed for the same market, there is little correlation.

A lot of words, but my point is, for those of you who are so inclined, start a thread of your own entitled "FUEL ADDITIVES are a waste of your (flippin') time, MONEY, and will wreck your engine and doom your soul to Heck!" and those who like to argue will no doubt weigh-in on it. But if you never used 'em, don't like 'em, and never intend to...and you simply must post, why not, "I've done background research and become convinced they don't offer a tangible benefit." and move on to a thread that interests you?