DIY Cleaning Diesel Injectors | Technical matters | Back Room Forum

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Fri 22 Apr 2005 05:20

DIY Cleaning Diesel Injectors - Clouddz

Hi, I have a Diesel Astra Isuzu engine-done 130K and its a bit lumpy and smokey on start up and I was told to put redex diesel in the tank to clean out the injectors but it hasnt made any diff. So as the car isnt worth enough to justify getting them cleaned professionally, I was told to pour Redex directly into the Fuel filter and start/turn over the engine to clean out the injectors....I know this sounds crude but as a DIY method is it worth doing/would it damage the engine?

Would appreciate your comments.

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Fri 22 Apr 2005 09:51

DIY Cleaning Diesel Injectors - wemyss

A mate who was once a Vauxhall mechanic works for a Company which has a very large fleet of Vectras tells me they always do this on servicing but use Forte.
He did it on my Vectra also. He didnt fill the filter of course but poured so much out a can.
He says they think it a waste to put it into the fuel tank.

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Fri 22 Apr 2005 11:21

DIY Cleaning Diesel Injectors - Collos25

Do what most truck firms do ,put a pint of petrol in the tank ,thats all all these fancy cleaners are.

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Fri 22 Apr 2005 13:02

DIY Cleaning Diesel Injectors - Rishab C

I agree with you Andy, that what I do, fill up a 5 litre can for the mower and put some in the fuel tank of my diesel. It also seems to make it go better (although can make it take a bit longer to start when cold)

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Fri 22 Apr 2005 13:09

DIY Cleaning Diesel Injectors - Altea Ego

Hmmm

So If I toddle down to the garage and get me a couple of litres of petrol in a can, and add a pint to each 70 litres of supermarket diesel fillup? Methinks I might give this a try. It would work out cheaper then the fancy brews of diesel or any addatives.

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Fri 22 Apr 2005 14:27

DIY Cleaning Diesel Injectors - Collos25

You only need to do this once a year not every 70litres

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Fri 22 Apr 2005 15:44

DIY Cleaning Diesel Injectors - Civic8

>>It also seems to make it go better

Not heard of that before.Everyone that I know thats put in a few litres of petrol by accident.Say the engine has lost power
--
Steve

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Fri 22 Apr 2005 17:57

DIY Cleaning Diesel Injectors - Roly93

Putting petrol in a diesel engine can damage the injector pump due to loss of lubrication which the diesel normally provides. I would say that the best plan would be to put the injector cleaner in the filter housing as previously described.

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Fri 22 Apr 2005 20:09

DIY Cleaning Diesel Injectors - Clouddz

Ah...I see what your saying about the Petrol, I even tried that but I only put in 80ml to a full tank and I didnt see any diff. but I was worried about screwing the fuel Pump.

Anyhow I have been looking on the net and found 2 Fuel additives that are recommended 1- Millers Diesel Power Plus(by HJ in the archive) or Forte, does anyone know which one is better or has more "kick" to clean out the injectors?? Another thing is where do I get Forte? I only found Millers on the net.

Ive read that some people use 1 bottle for the filter another for the tank? is that too much? the forte is 400ml BTW.
I want to change the fuel filter at the same time and I was wondering if I should pour the stuff into the old filter and run the engine, then throw the filter and fit the new one? Or is it ok to put the stuff into the new filter?

And finally do these cleaners have a long lasting effects? as I've seen most comments are to do with "quick fixes" for MOT Emission?s test.

Many thanks

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Fri 22 Apr 2005 20:25

DIY Cleaning Diesel Injectors - Civic8

I gather Millers is very good.But I would not put into filter.Its made to work with the diesel not almost neat.I can see it may be a quick fix. But could cause longer term costly problems..I would suggest if you wish to use an additive Follow *instructions* to the letter..And forget what anyone else tells you.If you do it wrong and a failure occurs you wont have any comeback on company that supply!
--
Steve

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Fri 22 Apr 2005 23:25

DIY Cleaning Diesel Injectors - Ford Dagenham

Hello.

I was in a petrol station the other day and i was filling the mondeo up.

I saw a man with a range rover diesel.

He put in 10 litres of unleaded then the rest of the tank of diesel.

Inbetween filling the different fuels he shook the car as to mix it up.

Very strange activity.
--
(iam not a mechanic)

Martin Winters

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Sat 23 Apr 2005 12:57

DIY Cleaning Diesel Injectors - TrevL

There's an article by HJ somewhere that advises against putting petrol into the more modern diesels.....can't find it at the moment though. It was something to do with refined design and pump/injector specs. It was standard procedure when I got my first diesel in '85, but this was more to stop winter fuel waxing.

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Sat 7 May 2005 18:07

DIY Cleaning Diesel Injectors - Clouddz

Update:

I got hold of a 400ml bottle of Forte and got a VX Fuel filter and poured it neat into the filter and topped up with diesel and reconnected everything. I expected it to run at a higher idle but it didnt, it started normally so I presume it isnt really that bad putting it in neat. Anyhow I booted it up the M1 and I must say that I didnt see any smoke from the exhaust as I have seen before on occasion. I hope it cleaned out the injectors and I'll get some better MPG as currently Im only getting around 35MPG although Im not that easy on it.

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Fri 8 Mar 2013 10:15

DIY Cleaning Diesel Injectors - zigggyxtype

Hi I'm new to this forum and have been reading your comments re injector cleaning. I am an owner of a 51 115 hp mondeo, which was suffering bad with the injector problem so much that i would regularly check to see if I had the hand break on. I tried the fuel tank additives and slowly it made a differance, however not enough. So i bit the bullit and bought the X Type. Same car i know. The misses got the Mondeo. As she is still learning to drive and likes to drive everywhere with foot flat on the floor, came back one day and said there is something wrong with the car as it seams to be going better. I questioned this and she said when throttleing down a big cloud of smoke came out and since its been like a rocket. Curius I took it for a drive and blimy its like a new car. So addiditives do work but surggest a bit of help by driving like a turbo nutter b********. By the way the lorry drivers used to put a gallon of petrol in the lorrys years ago to stop waxing in the winter, however i would not recomend this as new fuel should not need this and also the new cars would see this as contamination, also destroying any seals that are made of rubber in the pump. Cheers everyone, sorry for grammer and spelling

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Thu 1 Aug 2019 17:57

DIY Cleaning Diesel Injectors - Mark Nolan

I learnt a trick by a very good mechanic he poured forty diesel fuel cleaner directly

into the my Merc vans fuel filter after changing it. Yes, He poured the full contents of the can in.

A load of black smoke came out, I mean a lot!. Then I drove all over the EU, 14,000 miles.

It ran like a dream. I recommend it, but check with your mechanic first.

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Thu 1 Aug 2019 19:33

DIY Cleaning Diesel Injectors - gordonbennet

I learnt a trick by a very good mechanic he poured forty diesel fuel cleaner directly

into the my Merc vans fuel filter after changing it. Yes, He poured the full contents of the can in.

A load of black smoke came out, I mean a lot!. Then I drove all over the EU, 14,000 miles.

It ran like a dream. I recommend it, but check with your mechanic first.

An old thread indeed, but you are quite right about Forte being a good fuel system cleaner.

I've never put the entire contents in the fuel filter, i was always told to stick half of the bottle in the filter and the rest in the (only about half full) fuel tank.

Haven't needed to use it myself for a long time, instead i use Miller's fuel treatment in every tankful which does the trick for me.

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