Redex petrol system cleaner

Merlin5

Merlin5

Merlin5

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Joined
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Finchley, London
Hi guys. Just wondered how good Redex is if anyone here uses it?

My fuel consumption on my 1.6 Auris is good when sitting at about 56mph on motorways, it gets me about 52mpg. But most of my driving is short journeys in town and the mpg is awful. I was getting considerably more in the summer but now I'm getting about 23mpg.

Members on the Toyota forum I go to say that's not bad for this time of year and recommended Redex to help increase mpg. Does it work well and likely to save me more fuel than the cost of the bottle? Only £4.99 at europarts for a 4 shot bottle.
 
MrRockliffe said:
Better off just putting premium fuel in your car :)

Edit: I don't think either would increase MPG though
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Well a member on the toyota forum said "You may want to put some petrol injector cleaner into the tank, this will help a bit with consumption and will clean the internals plus stabilise the fuel. Redex red bottle does a great job."
 
Fuel economy goes down in winter especially if you do short journeys not allowing the car to properly warm up (not that you should sit there in idle allowing it to warm up, that would use more fuel).
 
Merlin5 said:
Well a member on the toyota forum said "You may want to put some petrol injector cleaner into the tank, this will help a bit with consumption and will clean the internals plus stabilise the fuel. Redex red bottle does a great job."
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Premium fuel has the same additives as Redex

The problem with posts like that is that typically people cannot back this up with actual proof.


I believe there's a guy that works for a one of the top fuel companies on here that has provided input into what premium fuel actually does for your engine.
 
Now...anecdotal I know but here we go...

I recently picked up a 2005 rav4 to use as a bit of a beater.
Anyhow, it had the dreaded variable vane failure on the turbo which I went in expecting to have to strip the turbo out and clean it or replace it.
Id had a diagnostic carried out on it to confirm this and that it wasn't something else in the system and the guy at the garage recommended using Wynns turbo cleaner.

I thought the usual snake oil shenanigans but then considering it was like 8 quid bought a bottle and added it to a full tank.

Within 30 seconds of starting it up after adding it the engine warning light that had been stuck on and couldn't be cleared went out.

The turbo was revving freely and although a bit lumpy no longer put the car in to limp mode.

Ran another through and now there's no lumpyness, power delivery is good, no smoke.

Basically...it worked.
 
Dis86 said:
Now...anecdotal I know but here we go...

I recently picked up a 2005 rav4 to use as a bit of a beater.
Anyhow, it had the dreaded variable vane failure on the turbo which I went in expecting to have to strip the turbo out and clean it or replace it.
Id had a diagnostic carried out on it to confirm this and that it wasn't something else in the system and the guy at the garage recommended using Wynns turbo cleaner.

I thought the usual snake oil shenanigans but then considering it was like 8 quid bought a bottle and added it to a full tank.

Within 30 seconds of starting it up after adding it the engine warning light that had been stuck on and couldn't be cleared went out.

The turbo was revving freely and although a bit lumpy no longer put the car in to limp mode.

Ran another through and now there's no lumpyness, power delivery is good, no smoke.

Basically...it worked.
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Interesting, thanks. For £4.99 I get four shots. I've been told to put a shot in when my fuel gauge is down to 2 bars. I guess it's worth a try.


MrRockliffe said:
Premium fuel has the same additives as Redex

The problem with posts like that is that typically people cannot back this up with actual proof.


I believe there's a guy that works for a one of the top fuel companies on here that has provided input into what premium fuel actually does for your engine.
Click to expand...

Also interesting. I didn't know that premium fuel has the same additives. I currently pay £113.9 for regular unleaded at Tesco and I see their super unleaded is £121.9.
I don't know which is more cost effective out of Redex and premium fuel. It depends on how long a single shot of Redex works for.
 
Merlin5 said:
It depends on how long a single shot of Redex works for.
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It's a single shot per tank of fuel but for the sake of getting it all from the same place premium petrol seems like the better option :-)

I use premium petrol for a few fuel refills every so many miles to clean the engine a bit but I can't say I ever notice a difference in fuel economy
 
MrRockliffe said:
It's a single shot per tank of fuel but for the sake of getting it all from the same place premium petrol seems like the better option :)

I use premium petrol for a few fuel refills every so many miles to clean the engine a bit but I can't say I ever notice a difference in fuel economy
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Yeah, I was thinking that maybe one shot of Redex or one fill up with premium fuel would clean the system and that I may only need to use either every few fill ups?
 
Merlin5 said:
Yeah, I was thinking that maybe one shot of Redex or one fill up with premium fuel would clean the system and that I may only need to use either every few fill ups?
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I would use it continuously for a number of refuels every 5 thousand miles or so - I would imagine it needs a while to clean stuff, especially if there are 30k miles+ of build up.
 
Low 20's isn't uncommon for cars in stop start town driving - no matter what the size of the engine is. Constantly speeding up, then braking is the epitome of wasting energy.

However, it never hurts to check a few things - firstly, is your car up to date on it's servicing? Most cars have a servicing once every 12 months or so and every 12-15k miles. Has it had things like spark plugs/air filters done or is the car on 100k miles and still running it's factory fitted air filter and spark plugs.

Secondly, are your tyre pressures set correctly? I know this won't make so much of a difference in town, but good to check.

Thirdly, don't bother with Redex, it isn't worth it. If you want a genuine fuel system cleaner which is scientifically proven to work, buy something with PEA (polyetheramine) in it. There aren't many of these products on the market as they're more expensive that the snake oil ones which are cheap enough that people will buy them just on the off chance they work.

https://www.powerenhancer.co.uk/tec...plus-petrol-fuel-injector-system-cleaner.html

This is a good product (use voucher code "Jaguarclub" to get 20% off) for £13 delivered. This is basically a high concentrated detergent which normally is found in premium fuels in lower quantities.
 
Gaygle said:
Low 20's isn't uncommon for cars in stop start town driving - no matter what the size of the engine is. Constantly speeding up, then braking is the epitome of wasting energy.

However, it never hurts to check a few things - firstly, is your car up to date on it's servicing? Most cars have a servicing once every 12 months or so and every 12-15k miles. Has it had things like spark plugs/air filters done or is the car on 100k miles and still running it's factory fitted air filter and spark plugs.

Secondly, are your tyre pressures set correctly? I know this won't make so much of a difference in town, but good to check.

Thirdly, don't bother with Redex, it isn't worth it. If you want a genuine fuel system cleaner which is scientifically proven to work, buy something with PEA (polyetheramine) in it. There aren't many of these products on the market as they're more expensive that the snake oil ones which are cheap enough that people will buy them just on the off chance they work.

https://www.powerenhancer.co.uk/tec...plus-petrol-fuel-injector-system-cleaner.html

This is a good product (use voucher code "Jaguarclub" to get 20% off) for £13 delivered. This is basically a high concentrated detergent which normally is found in premium fuels in lower quantities.
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Actually, never been serviced since I bought it in April with a new 1 year MOT. But have only driven about a 1000 miles since then. I agree though and I want to have it serviced. I already called my mechanic before seeing your post asking him to come check my brakes because I noticed a burning smell today from the rear offside. I think something might be sticking. I'll get him to also service the car and check and change plugs, filter and oil.

I pumped up my tyres a few nights ago. I'm not sure though if I have a slow puncture or valve leak on one tyre because I had a problem getting it to inflate.

That stuff you linked certainly looks good. But is only good for 60 litres and if it doesn't improve the mpg much might not really be worth it?
 
Tried something similar awhile back on an older vehicle that was running a bit rough - after around 50 miles or so (probably how long before the mixture was circulating) was noticeable in that it had a little extra poke and way way smoother, once it had run through the tank though straight back to how it used to be. Tried it again an same result. Difference to MPG was within margin of error though I saw a small improvement.

My conclusion was supermarket fuels are **** and it was basically mimicking having higher quality fuel in there - but sadly not easy to get anything else around here without significant mark up.
 
Toyota use a fuel system cleaner as part of the service (well they did when I had mine). So don't bother. For some reason it didn't appear on the bill though.
 
Tesco often do redex half price, so I buy it at that price, I have several in the garage I use now and then.

I have no idea if it's doing anything though.......
 
Minstadave said:
Hes going to spend more on Redex than any potential benefit will save home (which is going to be zero from my experience with Redex - its useless).
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Unless it is port injected it's always zero benefit as far as valves are concerned. These products are all just a relic of that era. Also blocked injectors would cause misfires, not reduce economy.

thewanted said:
You’ve done 1000 miles in 8 months and you’re worried about fuel consumption? I don’t get it.
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Yep, any measure of economy the OP has will be massively volatile and be affected by the differing environment across that large of a time period, especially with short journeys.
 
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