Does anyone use an additive in their fuel on a regular basis? if so, what and why? There are countless bottles of stuff you can buy at the local auto parts store. My question is do any of those help our MINIs? I'm in Dallas so I can't find fuel without ethenol, wondering if anything would be beneficial to add occasionally to counter act it and/or for general good health of my engine. Thanks!

 

The owners manual recommends Tecron (sp?). I normally run a bottle of Lucas through every 3K miles. My first 3K on the CMS I went with the Tecron. The second 3K I found out the hard way the the bottle of Lucas will not fit in the CMS fuel spout!! Grrrrrr... that was a mess! I'm not sure if I will go back to the Tecron this week (just turned 9K) or stick with Lucas and a funnel!!

Whether or not either product "really" helps out, I don't know but, what could it hurt! I do know on all my previous vehicles the Lucas always seemed to help things run smoother.

 

haha 5280, I had the same experience. like a honey leak, isnt it? thick, sticky and a ginormous mess. I think both of them work quite well, so Ive taken to going the funnel route as well. I also toss in some Marvel Mystery oil in the gas and the crankcase. seems to keep the lifters quieter. Que Sera.

 

I owned an older C-Benz for a while, and a dose of Techron once a year made a noticable improvement in idle smoothness.

I've continued using it every so often on our other cars thinking of it mostly as PM versus addressing ill behavior.

I'd ponder how much fuel-system clogging would actually form, given the line pressure our cars run, but I'm not really sweating $7 once a year I suppose.

My $.02

 

If you must have Techron, just buy Chevron gas, it has Techron already in it.

Techron is a detergent for gasoline, all name brand gas have their own detergents.

I buy Costco gas, it has detergent added also. I don't add anything to my gas.

Dave

 

I have used Techron several times and experienced some improvement in reducing what little existing engine vibration but no change in mpg. Our Mini repair shop recommends BG44K and sofar I have noticed better engine response and now there is very little engine vibration. I must admit that BG44K makes a difference. I will continue to use it.

 

I use Amsoil P.I. performance improver every 4k miles. It's amazing how well it runs when I put a bottle in. It has woken up my mothers 3 series with 110k it's like a brand new car.

 

thanks for the feedback folks, gives me some good choices!

 

i put techron every 5k as recommended by the dealers.