Ian A
RMS Regular
I'd like to see a before and after of the valves from an intake clean.
I've heard it's good for carbon deposit cleaning on TFSI engines.
I've heard it's good for carbon deposit cleaning on TFSI engines.
terra clean?
- Thread starter spartikus
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It just sounds like herbalife for cars. Doesn't give you anything more than you would get from a good service. There seems to be agents popping up everywhere. Anyone doing it seem to be just guys who can't really make a living as mechanics so they are pushing this instead.
Cro
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Surely the dpf clean that they do must do what it says on the tin
pablo
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They need blasted they get so bad.
Keep an eye out for a company called BG Products, they have a new Air intake and emissions service tool in development. It chemically induces the Dpf regen process without using the engine management system. I have seen it in action and it works. Dpf recovery is something that we will have to do more and more as vehicles fitted with euro 5 and above start to age.
We need to be properly diagnosing faults with Dpfs etc and finding causes of faults not applying one hour magic treatments that we market the life out of, it's just a get rich quick scheme.
Mark_C
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If it's run as a fuel, it's not going to work.
TFSI are direct injection, the injectors don't spray anywhere near the valves.
Ian A
RMS Regular
They offer an intake cleaner as well.
dingle
RMS Regular
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It's not a gimmick - having had it done I'd say I was pleased with the results although it's a bit pricey. It's not something you do on a car that you're sending down the road in a couple of months time. It just needs to be half the price to make it a no-brainer.
Ruairi83
RMS Regular
I spoke to phelim at donegal terra clean when doing my a4 last year. He said the price is like that because terra clean themselves wont lower price for agent. He said he wanted to do a trial offer for garages etc to give 50% off for 1 car to show how good it was and he would buy a bulk order and they daid they dont offer any discount as the product is set price for agents.
Rob
RMS Regular
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I recently had 2 vehicles terracleaned, each for a specific reason, and I remain to be convinced that it has made any difference. I thought it would be most noticeable on my 110k caddy van by freeing up some power and improving mpg, but I can't feel any difference whatsoever. My own conclusion, is that none of my vehicles were suffering from coke deposits and hence thats probably why it has had no apparent effect. The good thing though, is that on two high mileage diesels it will have refreshed the fuel system and should extend the life of it a good bit.
svensktoppen
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dingle
RMS Regular
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I did aye - and to answer that question I'll lazily copy my post from the GT4 owners club when it was a hot topic over there:
About the car:
1994 JDMST205 approx 87k on the clock, always ran on BP Ultimate. I do about 4-5 k a year, change the oil twice annually. I also use Forte petrol treatment and Forte engine flush for each service. Only mods I have is a 2.5" powerflow cat back exhaust, k&n panel and a boost controller running a max of 1.1 bar. Distributor cap, rotor arm, leads, plugs and fuel filter changed prior to this exercise.
About me:
Firstly, I have no connection with Terraclean and have only decided to do this in the interests of science (I use the term loosely) and an interest in maintaining my car to the highest possible standard.
I am a fairly conservative driver, like anyone I put the foot down when I'm in the mood but the rest of time I drive very steadily and legally.
About the process:
I have been monitoring my mpg (which I will post below) and also had a basic emissions test carried out the day before the terraclean. I rang the guy up, negotiated a price for doing 3 cars and he came to my work with a van, mobile terrclean machines and and an assistant. In total they were there for about 3 hours (my mates cars are oil burners which runs off a different machine so he could do 2 cars at once).
After they spent some time poking around the GT4 engine bay they eventually found what they needed to hook their machine up - It was their first time under the bonnet of an ST205 and of course it's never straight forward!
The terraclean ran through the car for about 45 minutes or so, they disconnected, got the car running again and I went for a quick blast to make sure all was well. I then refueled, ran another tank through for a few weeks, then went back for another emissions test - all the while monitoring fuel economy.
Results:
The qualitative - No point labouring on this as it's down to my perception. However I think that the car runs smoother, pulls better in the lower revs e.g. it copes with 4th gear around town better than before. My diesel friends also reported similar, the guy with the A3 said his seemed much quieter. That's all I'm going to say here as perception cannot be proven.
The quantitative:
- MPG Before - Ranging from 23.2 to 24.4 - There was however one exception to this back in December where it hit 25.6mpg however looking back at my diary I wasn't doing my normal commute to work had done a couple of longer motorway trips as I was attending a training course.
- MPG After -First fuel up 25.6mpg (normal driving routine commuting etc), I fueled up again and I was surprised to see it was up slightly again to 25.9mpg. I will say that on this tank I was driving more enthusiastically than I was last month as I was investigating the other "benefits" of terraclean so needless to say I am pleasantly surprised to see another marginal increase!
- Emissions before - Went to a local garage with a CO tester. Warmed the engine on the way there, put it straight on the machine, revved it up a few times then let things settle for a minute or two -Steady reading of 0.5
- Emissions after - Ran the car for a few weeks after the terraclean then performed exactly the same routine as above. After a few minutes on the tester the value constantly flicked from 0.3 to 0.4 and back again - Obviously this machine needed more decimal places but it's fair to say the real value is somewhere between 0.3 and 0.4.
Conclusions:
My gains were marginal but real and measurable. This was just a bit of fun to satisfy my curiosity and wasn't exactly carried under lab conditions but it's enough for me to be convinced that terraclean does make a difference and does not quite deserve the label of "snake oil".
svensktoppen
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Very nice to see actual numbers, and a bit of rigour - respect for that 
Very modest improvements there, well within your normal range of mpg before. I know with my own cars a variation of a couple of MPG for identical driving is normal. Nothing is ever exactly the same. Just tyre pressures can do at least as much. Never mind weather and winds and traffic flow and all the rest of it.
What do the numbers look like now, a year on?
You mentioned you serviced the car with new spark plugs, etc., before the procedure. Was that just before as well?
Very modest improvements there, well within your normal range of mpg before. I know with my own cars a variation of a couple of MPG for identical driving is normal. Nothing is ever exactly the same. Just tyre pressures can do at least as much. Never mind weather and winds and traffic flow and all the rest of it.
What do the numbers look like now, a year on?
You mentioned you serviced the car with new spark plugs, etc., before the procedure. Was that just before as well?
dingle
RMS Regular
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Very nice to see actual numbers, and a bit of rigour - respect for that
Very modest improvements there, well within your normal range of mpg before. I know with my own cars a variation of a couple of MPG for identical driving is normal. Nothing is ever exactly the same. Just tyre pressures can do at least as much. Never mind weather and winds and traffic flow and all the rest of it.
What do the numbers look like now, a year on?
You mentioned you serviced the car with new spark plugs, etc., before the procedure. Was that just before as well?
Yeah improvements were modest, although if you want to really over-analyse it, one could argue it's approx 10% improvement - You're dealing with 20 year old performance jap scrap so an improvement of 2mpg is not to be sniffed at. The graph actually gives a better (longer period of time) picture where you can see the improvement was sustained over the next few months so I'm prepared to say this is not just an anomaly.
The new plugs etc were before any measurements took place (not just before the terraclean as that would invalidate the whole study).
A year on? you'd have to ask the new owners! I let it go in December, although the guy that bought it drove from Scotland to Warrickshire nice and steady and says he returned 30mpg.
Results will vary from car to car depending on condition and many other variables e.g. new plugs and leads could transform one car but make little difference to another.
In my case I'd tirelessly maintained my car over the last few years and I guess this just squeezed the last 10% out of it.
People also need to realise, this isn't a magical mod, it's just maintenance, some will benefit more than others. The terraclean guy said himself, people turn up with problem cars, flashing error codes etc and expect them terracleaned away only to be disappointed.
Rob
RMS Regular
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I did not measure anything so I cannot say my perception is correct, but when you drive something every day it would be fairly apparent if the hype behind this treatment were to be true. I.e. that it can give benefits that you feel immediately after taking it for a drive.
I agree entirely though with what you say - it is good maintenance and for what I paid I don't have many regrets.
I agree entirely though with what you say - it is good maintenance and for what I paid I don't have many regrets.
KERR'S TYRES
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Terraclean will be preforming a demo at our" RMS BBQ" on Sunday 22nd march, all welcome, means you get to see the benefits first hand.
Elaine
Kerr's Tyres Ards
028 9182 0600
terracleanni
New Member
Have a look at my Facebook page or website I've had nothing but great results and feed back. Www.terracleanni.co.uk
terracleanni
New Member
Thank you dingle you have done you homework. Glad you and your friends saw an improvement one way or another.
Cro
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Can't speak for the intake clean but Neill @terracleanni cleaned my dpf no problems at all and will happily go out of his way to help out any other way he can. Top bloke, could definitely recommend his work
hutchy_belfast
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Did it bring a dpf filter back from the dead? That would be handy for a lot of folks.
Cro
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Yeah hutchy forte wouldn't sort it and this did so can't ask for much more than that. Just preventative measures now I know more about how the dpf works
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