EDT treatment

[rodent279]

Just had the car, a 2005 Micra 1500 diesel, serviced at the local independent garage.
For the 2nd time, they offered me EDT treatment, £99. For those who don't know, this is a power engine flush that claims to rid the engine of contaminants. I said no.

What's the hive mind view on this stuff? My view is that it's unnecessary, as regular oil changes with detergent based oil should do exactly that. The only thing it is going to flush is my bank account of £99!

Edited February 3, 2020 by rodent279

[great central]

Are they a true independent, as in one owner and a few staff, or part of a local chain?

A friend of my son was an MOT tester working for a true independent some years ago. One man and a few staff providing an excellent service to a smallish town. Owner decided he wanted to retire so sold the business to a small local chain.

New owners came in and immediately started to question any MOTs passed without any work needing done. Told my son's friend to find, or if necessary make up, chargeable work. Having been used to being totally honest with, and trusted by, customers this didn't sit well with him. The second week of this he packed his tools and walked out mid morning!

I won't name the company for obvious reasons but they do take liberties in all ways, for example, there were several large trees partly obscuring a recently opened new site. They had applied to cut the trees down but local authority refused as they were on LA land, one day the trees suddenly weren't there.

Our son through a friend found a very good small garage who does all our work now, for instance he only charges £20 for an oil change, we supply the oil and filter at best price we can get it.

Never heard of this treatment and like you I can't see much value in it if you have regular oil changes with good quality oil.

[polybear]

1 hour ago, great central said:

New owners came in and immediately started to question any MOTs passed without any work needing done. Told my son's friend to find, or if necessary make up, chargeable work. Having been used to being totally honest with, and trusted by, customers this didn't sit well with him.

 

That's the sort of conversation you want on video.  And then send it to the MOT Authorities, copied to Youtube....

[rodent279]

I believe they are an independent. They are desperate for me to MoT my car with them, but I take it to the local authority testing station. They are not allowed to do commercial repairs, so they have no interest in finding reasons to fail it.

[Pete the Elaner]

I am happy for a MOT to find genuine issues. Things like tyres & brakes can be checked by the owner (me) but for structural things like suspension & mountings, it really needs to be on a lift.

I don't like being cheated though & have heard of this sort of cheating from more than 1 place. Is there anything trading standards can do?

[rodent279]

Probably, but I guess you need proof.

What impressed me about the council Most place was that when I first took my car there, they failed it, because the gasket on the fuel filler cap was missing.

We've had the car (a Morris Minor) since 1986, and it's never had a gasket under the filter cap, and this has never been brought up before. I checked, it is a valid MoT check item, and can be failed if missing, and there should be a gasket. I made one to fit, it passed.

That have me confidence that they were thorough.

[Phaeton]

Going back to the original question I would look at it in pure commercial terms, what is the mileage benefit of having the treatment, if you are going to get 2 more miles to the litre, how many litres will it take to ge your £99 back.

[rodent279]

I don't have the leaflet to hand, but they make claims about improved mpg and reduced CO2 emissions. How you hold them to that I don't know. How do you prove you haven't got your extra 2mpg or whatever? How do they prove you have?

 

[didcot]

Isn't that the same as Redex, although filling the carb and booting it down a dual carriage is probably frowned up these days.

 

Gaining extra mpg is dependant on a number of factors, not just a power flush.  Things like fuel quality, (supermarkets supply at the lower end of the standard), injectors, spark plugs, timing, town driving v motorway driving etc. Town driving is more likely to produce carbon than motor way driving. At higher revs you get a hotter, cleaner burn. To actually measure the extra 2 mpg is going to be near impossible. As already said regular servicing is probably more effective!

[friscopete]

4 minutes ago, didcot said:

Isn't that the same as Redex, although filling the carb and booting it down a dual carriage is probably frowned up these days.

 

 

When i worked in motorcycle shop in the  60's ( lousy job but someone has to do it ) our usually service for Honda 50's and scooters in general use by little grey commuters  was to take them for a belt down the Eastern Avenue .There was usually a loud bang followed by an immediate increase in speed. Job done .Then we did the service .

[polybear]

2 hours ago, Pete the Elaner said:

I don't like being cheated though & have heard of this sort of cheating from more than 1 place. Is there anything trading standards can do?

 

Raise your suspicions to Trading Standards.  They can always submit a "good" vehicle with no faults for test and see what happens.....

[Kingzance]

In the spirit of Wheeltappers as a whole, EDT is another of those commonly used acronyms, viz:

Eau de Toilet (it’s a bit windy today) or

Erectile Disfunction Treatment (something in common with how your exhaust gases are sampled?)

 

Hat, coat, door........

[rodent279]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Raise your suspicions to Trading Standards.  They can always submit a "good" vehicle with no faults for test and see what happens.....

I don't really think they are cheating anyone, so much as selling something that isn't really worth the money. It's a bit like water filters, that are reputed to remove all the nastiness in tap water-they are creating an idea in the customers mind that there is a problem, then saying here is the solution.

[rodent279]

5 hours ago, Phaeton said:

Going back to the original question I would look at it in pure commercial terms, what is the mileage benefit of having the treatment, if you are going to get 2 more miles to the litre, how many litres will it take to ge your £99 back.

I don't have the leaflet to hand, so I can't quote the claimed savings. A quick calculation, assuming avg 45.4mpg, which is 10m/ltr, and fuel at £1.30/ltr, equals 13p/mile in fuel.

If the treatment reduces fuel consumption by 10%, then 45.4mpg is now 49.94mpg, which is 11m/ltr, and cost per mile is now 11.8p. That is a saving of 1.2p/mile. It will take over 8300 miles to recoup the £99 outlay.

That is less than our annual mileage, so it would pay for itself in under a year, and assuming 10000 miles annually, would knock about £20 off the annual fuel bill.  

But cycling to work an extra day a week would save me ~£1.50 a time.

I've only got to cycle to work an extra 12 or 13 days a year, and I'd make the same saving.

So all in all, saving £20 on an outlay of £99 doesn't seem very good value for money.

Edited February 4, 2020 by rodent279

[royaloak]

Modern cars with all the emission gubbins and sensors for everything WILL need it if they are only used around town because the engine never gets (properly) warmed up or used at high enough revs to clear things out.

 

Cars used on a mix of town work and longer distance trips DONT need it IF the engine is given a suitable blow out every once in a while (put it in 3rd gear and floor the throttle until 4500 or 5000 rpm (subject to speed limits and conditions obviously), let your foot off and do it again for  several times to get the gasses flowing and a decent bit of heat into the components, if the engine is just pootling along at very low revs (even at motorway speeds) then it is LIKELY to need it because nothing gets hot enough to burn off the built up deposits.

 

If the car is only really used on long distance runs it WONT need it at all.

 

Its a question of use and driving style.

[royaloak]

2 hours ago, didcot said:

Isn't that the same as Redex, although filling the carb and booting it down a dual carriage is probably frowned up these days.

Its fine if done at a suitable time of day, I take the other halfs Fiesta for a 'full throttle decoke' every month or so as it just used for the school run and the odd local trip so a good blow out and warm up does it the world of good.

[rodent279]

It's used for a good mix of local/short distance work, and longer distance runs.

[Damo666]

47 minutes ago, royaloak said:

'filling the carb and booting it down a dual carriage' ..... does it the world of good.

 

I read this as 'it does the World good' and thought; fossil fuel - eh?

 

Edited February 4, 2020 by Damo666
added other quote for context

[polybear]

3 hours ago, rodent279 said:

I don't really think they are cheating anyone, so much as selling something that isn't really worth the money. It's a bit like water filters, that are reputed to remove all the nastiness in tap water-they are creating an idea in the customers mind that there is a problem, then saying here is the solution.

 

Sorry - I meant this comment in relation to Great Central's post yesterday regarding the MOT Centre inventing problems...

[mikes rail]

I had the EDT done on my last van following advice from garage ( independent outfit) but found no notable difference in running and would not use it again

[royaloak]

4 hours ago, rodent279 said:

It's used for a good mix of local/short distance work, and longer distance runs.

Shouldnt need it then.

 

These 'clean ups' can prevent problems occuring by removing deposits before they are detected by the sensors, and can be used after the money light has come on to try and clear the problem before a garage use the scattergun approach to changing components.

Edited February 4, 2020 by royaloak

[rab]

7 hours ago, didcot said:

Isn't that the same as Redex, although filling the carb and booting it down a dual carriage is probably frowned up these days.

 

I remember my dad doing that with his 100E.

We lived at the bottom of a fairly steep hill

and by the time he got to the top we couldn't

see the car through the blue haze it left behind.

[didcot]

Saw an episode of David Jason's new series on one of the Sky channels where he said he rigged up a bottle of redex that he could squirt into the carb of Trotters van on the move to make it smoke. He was a trainee mechanic prior to becoming an actor.

[Bert Cheese]

A friend of mine has a small independant garage and has recently bought an EDT machine outright after renting one for a couple of years...he was cynical himself at first but reckons it has been a good thing overall.

I had my Golf 2.0 TDI done on the original machine a couple of years ago more out of interest than anything else as I know it is a clean engine (for a filthy diesel anyway!) and it was quite therapeutic to watch the machines filter fill with various muck all the same.

We tested the emissions before and after, and there was a slight drop though not significant which was what we predicted anyway as the vast majority of my miles are done on the motorway and its always serviced to the letter.

 

Where the machine has proved its worth is as a tool for dealing with older and badly maintained/serviced vehicles...there are a lot of them out there and trying to educate some of the owners is generally a thankless task.

The EDT rig has made some significant differences here with emissions and some types of poor running, and also has a very visible effect as people are able to observe their vehicle being treated before handing over their £99...

[PatB]

On 04/02/2020 at 20:44, friscopete said:

When i worked in motorcycle shop in the  60's ( lousy job but someone has to do it ) our usually service for Honda 50's and scooters in general use by little grey commuters  was to take them for a belt down the Eastern Avenue .There was usually a loud bang followed by an immediate increase in speed. Job done .Then we did the service .

My CZ 250 Sport (stop laughing at the back, there) Twin was a bit like that. Being an ancient tech, piston-ported 2-stroke, used around town the exhausts would fill up with an evil, black porridge of soot, unburned oil and condensation. First thrash down the Keynsham Bypass resulted in something resembling, and I quote an eyewitness, "a 737's contrails but at ground level and blue" until all the crud had burned out or been ejected. That, of course, was back in the days when unburned hydrocarbons were still good for you.