Car engine question(s), fuel additives, etc

[Captain Virgil Hilts]

Originally posted by Ripsnort
I'd highly recommend never to change the tranny oil on Ford's made during the time that the tranny's were outsourced to Italy , I believe that was during the 1990's...We had a '91 F150 and '99 Explorer. Both times I had the tranny fluid changed at around 90,000 miles, both tranny's began slipping within 5,000 miles of the change.

The problem there is that the transmission was going to fail anyway, the new fluid just cleaned the insides real good and made it happen sooner.
Neither of the transmissions for those applications was much good to begin with. When you build them, they require $300+ in upgrade parts to fix the factory flaws.

Now, I will agree that if you have not changed it in the 1st 50K miles, just don't bother, either trade the vehicle or replace the transmission when it fails.

In any event, if you intend to keep a vehicle, change the transmission fluid at least every 24K miles, regardless of what some moron salesman or service writer tells you. There is no fluid, at any cost, synthetic or mineral, that offers any protection or cleaning ability after 20K or so, even under excellent driving conditions. If you have a truck or an SUV that you use as a truck or SUV, change it every 12-15K, and put an external cooler on it.

[LePaul]

Originally posted by rpm
Techron really does work. But be careful, it's stong stuff. Don't exceed the proper ratio.

Word

I used to work at a Saturn dealership back in 1996.  They were always pouring this stuff in after a servicing.

I noticed a good improvement using it on all my vehicles to date.  I suggested it to a friend who has a Chevy Silverado, V8 with not so impressive mileage...he made some small gains.

Usually $6-$7 at the local Super WalMart, etc

[BigGun]

Originally posted by Captain Virgil Hilts
In any event, if you intend to keep a vehicle, change the transmission fluid at least every 24K miles, regardless of what some moron salesman or service writer tells you. There is no fluid, at any cost, synthetic or mineral, that offers any protection or cleaning ability after 20K or so, even under excellent driving conditions. If you have a truck or an SUV that you use as a truck or SUV, change it every 12-15K, and put an external cooler on it.

So if Manufaturer, in this case Mercedes Benz, recommends changing transmission fluid at 75k miles, you would just disregard and do it at 24k? My mechanic, all he works on is MB and is very good, recommends doing it at 60k to be safe. Just seems silly to disregard what experts recommend & do it 67% early. Just fluid for tranny is over $200.

[Captain Virgil Hilts]

Originally posted by BigGun
So if Manufaturer, in this case Mercedes Benz, recommends changing transmission fluid at 75k miles, you would just disregard and do it at 24k? My mechanic, all he works on is MB and is very good, recommends doing it at 60k to be safe. Just seems silly to disregard what experts recommend & do it 67% early. Just fluid for tranny is over $200.

The "experts" for the most part either want to sell you a new car, or sell you a transmission job, in a few short years. On the other hand, I'm in Tennessee, and as such, I have no interest in selling you either, I only offer advice from knowledge gained over two decades of transmission work. I don't even build transmissions for those cars anymore, although I did for years. Here, as recently as 5 years ago, we got $2500, wholesale for an overhaul on a Mercedes transmission. Guys I know from California laughed at how cheap we were. That's 12.5 fluid changes worth of fluid. Feel free to do the math.

All those maintenance mileage intervals are for "normal" driving. Anyone here do any "normal" driving? Normal means no stop and go traffic, no extreme temperatures, no more than 1-2 people in the car, no towing, no cargo carrying, no short trips, no running without a warm up, and so on. I don't know a single "normal" driver and never have, out of THOUSANDS of customers, not to mention friends and family.

I don't pay $200 for 5 CASES of Royal Purple (best on the market) synthetic automatic transmission fluid. Two hundred bucks for enough fluid to change the fluid in one transmission one time is a total ripoff. Any name brand fluid that meets the API (American Petroleum Institute) fluid spec for that car will work just fine, and anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar. In order to sell fluid, or oil for that matter, under an API certification, it has to possess all of the qualities, and contain all of the bases and additives specified for that oil or fluid. Oh, and Federal law REQUIRES that all automatic transmission fluids be compatible, and not do any damage if mixed or used in the wrong vehicle for a short period of time. That should tell you that automatic transmission fluids are all very similar. For the most part, the mineral base is the same for mineral base fluids, the additive package is different to allow for the use of different friction materials. The synthetic bases are mostly the same as well. Several manufacturers have "special" fluids, however, they DO NOT make their own fluid. They CANNOT even force you to use their fluid under threat of warranty revocation. They CANNOT keep any company from making a fluid for their transmissions, the only thing they CAN do is prevent anyone selling fluid that does not meet their spec from claiming it does.

And simply put, there ain't no automatic transmission fluid on the market today, anywhere, at any price, that will maintain all of the protection, cleaning, lubrication, and friction modifying properties for more than about 24K miles. It can't be done. It goes through too many heat cycles, absorbs too many oxidants, creates too many acids, retains too much foreign material, and loses to many additives. There ain't no such thing as magic 75K mile lubricants, the technology just does not exist, I don't care what name brand is on the container.

[Captain Virgil Hilts]

You'll have to pardon my rather blunt and frank delivery on some of these subjects, but after suffering all the misinformation and disinformation in the industry for decades, I have little tolerance for it.

With regards to the original subject of the thread, unless you are using the worst gas I've ever seen, it is highly unlikely you have done anything to stop up your injectors, Wolfala. It is likely that there is nothing wrong with your injectors. You probably need to take the car to the dealer if it is under warranty, and have them fix it.

Regarding Techron, industry tests show it to be the best of all additives, and far superior to maost of the others. It is much better than the garbage in the much praised Amoco 93 crap, which is actually among the worst out there.

[JTs]

dont forget to check fuel filter

[Wolfala]

OK, I read all of this. I'm thinking the MAP sensor also - b/c its a hesitation between 1200 and 4500 rpm. Only have used Shell 91 for most of its life - had to use 87 when 91 was out of stock, but less then 4 times during the cars life.

Excellent responses from everyone - should sticky this ****.

Wolf

[ATA]

Originally posted by rpm
Not nessessary to change the plugs that often anymore. If you have newer platinum plugs they are designed for 100,000+ miles.

If you see writen "life time" spark plugs it means that the life time of a spark plug is 100000 miles.
Look in the service book

[ATA]

Originally posted by Wolfala
I was looking over an older thread (http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=144440&highlight=MTBE) and it got me thinking. I've got an Acura TSX, 2004 with about 32,000 miles on it. I have noticed that there is some hesitation when I tap on the throttle, so i'm suspecting fuel injectors maybe being clogged or something to that effect.

What is the deal with Techron and those small bottle additives? Is it the kinda thing that actually does work or is it just pissing away 30 bux for the treatment?

Wolf

Additives at 32000?I dont think so,they cant get clogged that fast,first fuel filter change is around 60K i think or so.
Try changing gas stations first:).Most likely quality of fuel is very low.Shouldnt you use 93 and up?

[mora]

I've not read all the replys here, but here's my  2 cents. Fuel injector problems are very rare. When a fuel injector does develop a problem, then it's usually a manufacturing or material problem. When using a standard gasoline in a western country, there should be no need for any injector cleaners. Service should be done at specified intervals and there's no reason to change any parts earlier than at specified intervals. Sometimes the motor oil is an exception, if you are using mineral oil then it should be chaged every 6 months, no matter what the mileage is, if using synthetic oil it should be changed once a year. Spark plugs can take considerable mileage these days, a 60.000 miles reneval interval is common for platinum spark plugs.

[mora]

About O2 sensors.. The early "low" emission vehicles of the '70s and '80s had electronically controlled carburetors, and their Engine Control Unit relied almost solely on the O2 sensor when deciding the correct air-fuel mixture. in these vehicles an O2 sensor malfunctions can cause considerable problems on the running of the engine.

In newer vehicles with fuel injection the ECU gets data from many different sensors, and the O2 sensor is only used for fine tuning the air-fuel mixture(in some pre-1995 or so systems it might not be so). There's no major benefit from "pre-emptive" changing of the O2 sensor in these vehicles. If an O2 sensor problem develops, the driver will most likely just see an illuminated "check engine" or the car will just simply fail the smog test. There's usually no additional harm done if the car is driven with a faulty O2 sensor if the engine is running well.

[mora]

Originally posted by Wolfala
OK, I read all of this. I'm thinking the MAP sensor also - b/c its a hesitation between 1200 and 4500 rpm. Only have used Shell 91 for most of its life - had to use 87 when 91 was out of stock, but less then 4 times during the cars life.

Excellent responses from everyone - should sticky this ****.

Wolf

MAP sensors can be checked with a vacuum pump(it reguires a pump with a scale, so an ordinary "Long John" model doesn't do the trick) and a multimeter or an oscilloscope. It might save some $$$ to have it tested before buying a new one.