Went a bit mad servicing lol......

[GavTheMighty]

I not that long ago got a White 1998 Vauxhall Corsa B 1.0 3 cyl 52k on the clock service history £450 woot and at first it had it's issues.........Idle control was messed up but I fixed it and the git I bought it off didn't seem to notice the car had not a drop of oil or water in it or the broken spark plug which had fouled up one of the cylinders but after a bit of work got it running nice and its been pretty much perfect since and I managed to get myself some Sxi alloys with 4 new continental premium contact 2 tyres for £80 total bargain 185/55/R15's. Got a new coil pack too as mine was a bit fouled up and a spare maf bosch since it was cheap (just in case)

So I am one of those people that like to service my cars and I like to do it properly but I think I went a bit mad lol, After the way the last guy treated her I decided it needed a good clean out and service so picked some products that I have used in the past or read very good things about.

Genuine Vauxhall Service kit (I don't beleive in a lot of after market stuff especially when it comes to things like oil filters) £35
Mobil Super 2000 X1 10w-40 Semi Synthetic Engine Oil 5 litres. £24
Millers Oils EP 75w-80 GL5 high quality gear oil -3 Litrea, £21
Oil sump plug and washer. £3
BG44K 325ML FUEL SYSTEM CLEANER (read very good things about this stuff not cheap like STP or Redex but supposed to be the dogs dangly bits) £20
Extralube ZX1 Micro Oil Friction Eliminator 250ml (Put this in every car I ever buy it really does work I have actually heard engines quieten down after using it) £17
Liqui Moly Engine Flush ( TUV Approval)unlike Forte. (read good things about this engine flush so thought I'd give it a shot) £6.50

So am I the only insane person that over does his service or are there any other mad gits out there?

I will post some pics this week of the car but apart from the alloys it's just a standard white.

Gav.

[Adam-D]

nope. i service my cars more than normal.
do regular oil changes.

one of my cars get a change every few k

[DoDaniel]

Servicing regularly is not a bad thing at all, you want to keep your car running as long as you can so why not look after it well.

Also about the Extralube ZX1 Micro Oil Friction Eliminator, does it actually work. My car has recently been feeling a bit weird when going into high revs i.e. 3500 or higher. Would this oil treatment help me with that?

[GavTheMighty]

That I cannot answer what I do know is that it has been around for a while now and has almost always had good things said about it many a story of how even when someone had an oil leak and the engine was bone dry it got him home without any damage to the engine with this stuff inside. I have found that when you have a tappety engine or when it seems to run a little rough or especially high mileage it smooths things out a lot. It certainly wouldn't hurt but I cannot say if it will help your car for starters no offence but it feels a bit weird is a bit vague? Bit more specific on your symptoms and someone might be able to help? If your car isn't accelerating at the higher revs as it should could possibly be the injectors but this is a stab in the dark. For all I know you might have a carb driven car?

If it was the Injectors you can add ZX1 to fuel and or Oil. But as above I will be using ZX for the oil and BG44K FUEL SYSTEM CLEANER for the fuel. If BG44K is raved about by Merc drivers then it's good enough for my little vauxhall lol. I would like to point out I am not here to sell ZX to people by the way I just realised I am starting to sound like an advertisement just from my own personel experience it's good stuff. I have used STP and Redex and all the standard brands in the past and truth be told I feel like they made poo all difference.

[DeanK]

Hey, is nice to find another bloke who loves and looks after his cars properly

When you said about how the owner hadn't noticed any water and no oil it reminded me of when i bought mine lol, head gasket blown no oil, too much water, and no transmission fluid. What i did wanna say was about the Extralube ZX1 micro oil friction eliminator, its funny to see how you've found great reviews about those type of products but i've read that we should all steer well clear of them, let me explain.
When i bought my baby i found out her gasket was gone and that she ran on (it might have not been the same as that you use) after market additives for your engine, that are meant to stop all friction and quieten down the engines and she was TOTALLY clogged up with that stuff (ill put up a photo), like you can get these products which "Stop all engine oil leaks!" and that's what your engine looks like after using those products for a while. Reading from the Haynes 4-Stroke Performance Tuning Manual, the guy goes on to say that those products should only be used in an emergency, sort of to get you home so you can book it into a garage to get it sorted, NOT to be used as a long term use because it'll end up looking like my baby lol. Same with that Rad Weld, Redex stuff you can get.
What im trying to get to is that i can see the attraction these products have to the enthusiast but in the LONG TERM it will end up damaging your engine, as long as your using great oil and genuine service parts there should be no need for the engine needing even more additives.

[GavTheMighty]

You are correct to a degree most additives are total crap and really not needed, But what your talking about is stuff like Stop leak, K-Seal etc these are not good things to use unless as a very temp measure untill you can get your car sorted. For example I used K-Seal with a suspect headgasket failure on my Porsche 924S because on that car it will cost me around £800 to sort the headgasket and not an easy job to do yourself and I simply didn't have the money so this was put in as a temp measure untill I can do it properly and when I do get it done the engine will be stripped and cleaned so won't be an issue but I certainly wouldnt use this stuff as a perm fix for anything.

As for the additives I used well Extralube could be like a suger pill for all I know? something that helps more in my mind than reality but it certainly shouldn't harm your engine this isnt the same as using stop leak, K-seal etc which is basicly an internal liquid gasket which can of course gunk up your engine. At the worst it's just thickening up the engine oil for worn or high milage cars and best it actually does what it says on the tin and protects a lot of components by creating less friction. I wouldn't recommend the product if I hadn't used it before. Never had any engine problems using this stuff in any car I have owned at least nothing related to it anyhow.

The funny thing is as I have said in another thread the product I actually found to be really good and did notice a big difference from was the one I had NOT used before. BG44K 325ML FUEL SYSTEM CLEANER the car after being driven for a few days was revving freely and there was a difference and that wasn't just in my head. The little 1.0 engine would struggle badly to stay in 2nd gear at anything above 20 mph after using this stuff and this was before any service items or lube etc was then happily going to 30 mph and not sounding like it would explode.

Overall my opinion is this, If you have a car that you service on a regular basis that has no known issues then don't go buying additives or crap that says gives your car extra horsepower etc it's tosh and could actually do more harm than good. Try and stick with genuine products there have been many tests done to show things such as Oil filters for example have worse oil flow and offer no improvemnt than most genuine products so spend the extra few pennies don't go buying aftermarket crap because it will save you £5 - £10 false economy springs to mind.

If you have tried many products and suspect some of them to be good such as this extra lube stuff and you get a car in the condtion mine was in no oil, no water etc then the choice is yours I figured it would help and it certainly hasn't harmed my engine is running sweet as anything. And the fuel cleaner stuff certainly was worth every penny in my mind. Another thing to share for those of you that buy these cheap air inducton kits etc.......DON'T they are a total waste of your money unless your buying a very expensive enclosed unit these induction kits do nothing the fact is because they tend not to use cold air pipes etc they are just open filters that replace your airbox they are sucking in more hot air which is less dense and will help your engine not at all. And quite honestly the only possible improvemnt you might gain is a louder noise if thats your kind of thing. Especially the people out there with a 1.0 or 1.2 I mean really??? Want extra horsepower buy a car with a bigger engine lol.

Anyway there ya have it my outlook on the whole looking after your car thing.

[DeanK]

Yeah i totally agree with the additives and i have heard about that BG44 K325ML FUEL SYSTEM CLEANER before but in my opinion i've sort of been "scared" if you like, to use any additives because i've always heard all the bad things about those other cheaper additives which really aren't needed. How do you use it? Is it a monthly thing or what? Anyway we all have out own ways of choosing different products.

Also i might have to disagree with you about the Induction kits, i think they do make a difference, if you do it properly with the air ducts it will increase the air flow to the engine, there's no doubt about that, that's why K&N and all the other products can say that it will increase performance, as the induction kit will get rid of the restrictive passages the air has to travel through before the throttle body (You probably know all this) but...
I agree with you even more about 'Charge density' though, now the element is not all closed up it is now unfortunately breathing hot, low-density air, which i think is almost even worse, its amazed me before the difference an engine feels when its driving in a cold dry night compared to a hot, humid summers day.
But i think there are ways around this though.
Apart from buying the fully enclosed cold air induction kits, You can purchase a few cold air ducting hoses, fabricate something to close around the air filter to try to reflect some of the engine heat away, you can wrap the exhaust header and down pipe with the exhaust wrap which i personally think is a great idea, but again... that makes problems in itself now that the heat can't dissipate some of it has to go back into the head, which then will increase the temperature of the engine and mess up combustion.... i guess you can then try and increase the cooling of the engine but its how much you really want to spend on your car for those few extra horses... Another could be ripping through your bonnet for some bonnet scoops which will get cooler air into the engine bay, but AGAIN if you do this wrong, you will have a lot of air turbulence in the engine bay and if your air filter element isn't waterproof your gunna have a problem there as well lol.

Sometimes these products work really well and sometimes is just a waste of money... i personally think its down to the knowledge and experience of a 'Tuner', a 'Modder' if you like, that can make most of the difference when it comes to this subject.

The joy of tuning...

DK

[GavTheMighty]

Yeah i totally agree with the additives and i have heard about that BG44 K325ML FUEL SYSTEM CLEANER before but in my opinion i've sort of been "scared" if you like, to use any additives because i've always heard all the bad things about those other cheaper additives which really aren't needed. How do you use it? Is it a monthly thing or what? Anyway we all have out own ways of choosing different products.

Also i might have to disagree with you about the Induction kits, i think they do make a difference, if you do it properly with the air ducts it will increase the air flow to the engine, there's no doubt about that, that's why K&N and all the other products can say that it will increase performance, as the induction kit will get rid of the restrictive passages the air has to travel through before the throttle body (You probably know all this) but...
I agree with you even more about 'Charge density' though, now the element is not all closed up it is now unfortunately breathing hot, low-density air, which i think is almost even worse, its amazed me before the difference an engine feels when its driving in a cold dry night compared to a hot, humid summers day.
But i think there are ways around this though.
Apart from buying the fully enclosed cold air induction kits, You can purchase a few cold air ducting hoses, fabricate something to close around the air filter to try to reflect some of the engine heat away, you can wrap the exhaust header and down pipe with the exhaust wrap which i personally think is a great idea, but again... that makes problems in itself now that the heat can't dissipate some of it has to go back into the head, which then will increase the temperature of the engine and mess up combustion.... i guess you can then try and increase the cooling of the engine but its how much you really want to spend on your car for those few extra horses... Another could be ripping through your bonnet for some bonnet scoops which will get cooler air into the engine bay, but AGAIN if you do this wrong, you will have a lot of air turbulence in the engine bay and if your air filter element isn't waterproof your gunna have a problem there as well lol.

Sometimes these products work really well and sometimes is just a waste of money... i personally think its down to the knowledge and experience of a 'Tuner', a 'Modder' if you like, that can make most of the difference when it comes to this subject.

The joy of tuning...

DK

Well I just used it as a one shot thing just to make sure the injectors were clean etc as I suspected they had become a little clogged with some hesitance on acceleration. Seems to have done the trick though I was showing the other half today in fact as she had seen the car struggle to get over 20 Mph in 2nd and I pushed it to 40 which it achieved pretty fast for a 1,0. I suppose if I was going to be a regular user of the stuff I would do it once a year at most along with a service depending on milage you do of course. Not only is it expensive stuff but I agree that dumping additives in your engine on too regular a basis wouldn't be something I would do. Oh and it just goes into the fuel tank with a tank of petrol.

And yes if you use heat shields, induction pipes etc......they can be usefull but look at the effort for so little gain if once again we are talking about 1.0, 1.2 cars it's almost laughable. I have a Porsche 924S when new put's out around 160 bhp and I have used K&N panel filters etc which is fine if your just replacing a standard Air filter, But you seem to forget that a lot of people get cheap induction kit's with no cold air feed pipes just an open air filter that replaces the air box etc and as we have been talking about with the density of air being worse the gains are very little if any. We were discussing this on the Porsche forums where it has actually been tested and a gentleman got a K&N filter not the type that sits in the airbox but the type that replaces it and the tested performance difference was 1-2 bhp and considerable more hot air entering the engine the temp rose by quite a bit. So worth it for £80? Personally I think not. But hey ho.