Should I use fuel additives with my AdBlue diesel engine?

QUESTION

Hi John,

I have a 2017 Jaguar XFR diesel and I love everything about it. It has been reliable, cheap to run and service, and the 2.0-litre turbocharged 'Ingenium' diesel engine is brilliant (albeit sounding a bit clunky when it’s cold) and the finish is first class. I am required to put in AdBlue. I convinced my wife that this would be better than lugging a caravan around.

I also have a 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited (fully optioned), built pre-Fiat, in the Daimler Factory in Austria. It can tow 3.5 tonnes, and it tows our little 3-tonne boat everywhere without trouble. It is beautify finished and runs very well. We have also been off-roading over the Flinders Ranges many times, which has been a real treat.

The Jeep has done over 330,000kms and has never given us any problems whatsoever. When we service it, if it needs things replaced for maintenance, we get it done. We also only use Cooper AT tires which love off-roading, are quiet on the road and seem to last forever. It is not worth anything, so we keep it in the garage, for when we need to tow the boat.

I was told to put a fuel additive in the Jeep and give it a run once every few weeks. The fuel additive is apparently supposed to help the injectors etc. We put in Chemtech Diesel Power Fuel Additive.

Can I also put the Chemtech Diesel Power Fuel Additive in the Jaguar with AdBlue, and would it be beneficial for Jaguar?

Your always gratefully-received advice would be appreciated.

Warm regards,

Michael

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ANSWER

Michael,

In general I don’t think there’s any benefit to using fuel additives. (I can see the case for things like using octane boosters in areas where high octane petrol is unavailable, or an additive to stop non-alpine diesel turning to wax if you drive onto a mountaintop in winter…)

See, as someone who studied engineering, I struggle to see what the operational problem is with fuel, which the manufacturers of additives claim to be solving. When you read their claims, they’re simply unsupported by evidence - many of the claims are just flat-out horseshit mate.

AdBlue is injected into the exhaust flow, and its purpose is to catalyse oxides of nitrogen into chemicals less harmful to human health. Thus AdBlue and fuel/additives never interact with one another.

When you ask ‘will it be beneficial’ I’m struggling to see a problem or defect/issue that you are trying to solve. You yourself state that it runs brilliantly. I’d suggest it’s unlikely to run even more brilliantly with that snake oil in it.

Fuel additives are generally useless, and the best you can hope for is that they do no harm. And if your engine is supposed to use AdBlue, make sure you do that.

Hope this helps,

JC

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