Oil/Engine Treatments - Do they actually work?

Caporegime
Joined
19 Apr 2008
Posts
26,399
Location
Essex
My Fiesta (1.4 Zetec, 74k on the clock) is munching through oil like there's no tomorrow (½ Litre for every 500 miles).

I suspect perhaps the wrong grade of oil was used on it's last service (before I bought the car), I have been topping it back up with Semi Synth 5/30 and I reckon I've changed about 3L now. I'm going to get the engine nice and warm and get all of the oil out of it, change the filter and fill it back up with Semi Synth 5/30. Is it worth using an Oil treatment such as Wynns or Slick50 to slow down oil consumption. They all make bold claims such as:

  • Reduces oil consumption dramatically
  • More MPG!
  • Reduces wear and friction
  • Less smoke
  • Protects your Catalytic converter
  • Converts exhaust emissions to pure solid gold*

Do they actually make any difference or will I be wasting my cash?

*I Just made that up :p
 
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EDIT - Seems 5w/30 is the recommended stuff, thats a lot of oil being burnt though considering the cars milleage, I can't see the Oil Treatment making that much difference tbh
 
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Should have added i wouldn't bother with either (Flush or Additives) but i was being lazy, so yes tbh if its using lots of oil you need to find out why, it pointless trying to fix a broken leg with a sticking plaster.

Different grade oil could fix this but i was under the impression the 1.4 / 1.25 engines are very sensative to using the wrong grade oil.
 
Would a compression test on the engine be worthwhile? It's either going to be the piston rings or the bottom end - I'm fearing the latter as this is common on 1.4s. How could I find out of the bottom end is worn as the engine isn't actually knocking.
 
He was talking about bottom end wear also, wouldn't reflect anything to do with burning oil but if the bearings are worn the oil pressure should be down?
 
dunno, i just thought an oil pressure test was they plugged an oil pressure gauge into a sender and it tested to see if the pump was maintaining pressure properly.
 
Double it? Thats triple and then some. If mine was burning that much the engine would be out by now!

Tom you must miss topping a car up with oil every 5 mins, wanna swap my Fiesta for your Clio? :p
 
Oh and if you want to give an additive a try you could try out Forte Seal Conditioner. I've heard good things about this product. I gave it a go in my 3 Series but it didn't solve it so I think the rings were ****
 
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