Redex and other cleaners, do they work?

[britishsligean]

I'm considering getting some Redex or an alternative to clean out the fuel system on my 02 52 1.2, it is having varying mpg, i get anywhere between 100-125 miles on the first 1/4 of the tank, but it's not consistent and occasionally feel the cylinders firing when idling and the car feels less responsive in higher gears when accelerating, i use 3 different places, 1 is an independent supplier that does a lot of bulk supply, mostly kerosene or boiler diesel to houses but also does regular petrol and diesel, i used them for a long time and found the fuel to be very genuine, i use a local Tesco when i get a voucher for money off and find that to be ok, but brings me closer to the lower range, then i use a branded station which i find to be good, but erratic, i use them the most, all of them generally tend to be on the upper price of sides, i found that the cheaper places seem to thin their fuel so avoid them like the plague, however the previous owner used the cheapest place all the time and by cheapest i mean a good 3-5 cent (i live in Ireland by the way) cheaper. Long winded part aside would it be worth my while using it for say 2-4 fills then leave it or is there something better out there to clean the system out? Also which one should i get, the injector one or the fuel system one? I've heard people recommend a higher grade fuel, but we only have 1 grade of fuel for both petrol and diesel (yes we have colored diesel but it's for agri uses only)

 

[Marcus_550]

I'm on stage 2 on my mk4 ibiza cupra 1.8 20v turbo, owned it over 2 years and only ever put v power in, took my inlet manifold off and you can see the valves, anyway the valves were clean as hell and its never had any cleaners in bar v power, from what i heard the cleaners do very little, so could try a few tanks of shell v power and go from there ?

 

[cupraslayer]

Any redex that you put in there won't do any harm . I treat my tank once a year to redex . For the sake of £2 ( in our money ) it won't break the bank and will either fix it or not .
Don't forget fuel levels will fluctuate with urban and non urban journeys .

 

[britishsligean]

Marcus as I said where I live we only have 1 grade of fuel which for me is super unleaded, Shell don't operate where I live so no vpower here. As for my milage calculation it is based on driving the same roads in between peak times, and next to no urban driving other than passing through a village

 

[RUM4MO]

Generally speaking, the "main brand" international operators will be adding a reasonable mix of fuel additives to their tankers at the filling point, in your case probably docks. So, if you stick with Esso, BP and who else operates there, you should be getting enough cleaners, but as it sounds like you don't tend to use these it could help to use Redex. I've used Redex in the past and found that it even improves the MPG of the tankful that it is in, though with the modern version it seem not to do that, though maybe it is still cleaning up the fuel system. Possibly you need to try spraying carb cleaner down the throttle body as that area can get gummed up a lot. Spark plugs - have they been replaced at the usual time, well maybe every 4 years/3000 miles?

Edit, air cleaner, is it getting replaced at the correct time?

 

[britishsligean]

I replaced the tyres, spark plugs, air, oil and cabin filters and the oil 5000 miles a go, I just done discs and pads, I am trying to replace everything that needs replacing during its life as I have no clue what was replaced as there was no service book with the car

 

[Chino_UK]

I like redex, but recently tried millers eco power. Car feels really lovely with that and super unleaded.

 

[gd_85]

A while ago 5th gear did part of a show looking into restoring lost power. They did a service etc... But also used redex and found it did help.