Add Blue?
Before common sense took over and I decided to hang onto my lovely 2011 Mercedes ML300CDI which I have had since new, I was idly looking around for a suitable replacement without much success.
I am a lover of big lazy Turbo Diesels that put out loads of lovely torque at very few revs. They are now like hens teeth, with only a few manufacturers still producing such a beast, and as I am now retired I cannot afford to pay out well over £45,000 for those that are still made.
Almost every other tow car now on offer, has an engine in the 2 or up to 2.2 Litre 4 cylinder Diesel class, which this old dinosaur does not like. Not enough low down torque for my liking.
But one thing that did attract my interest was that a few of the very newest diesels were fitted with an Add Blue system which apparently really cleans up the emissions enough to make them compliant with even the strictest EU6 regulations. Some others claimed to be Euro 6 compliant without the add Blue.
To this old warhorse the Add Blue system itself seems a bit similar to the very old method of introducing oil to the old 2 stroke engines fitted to Saabs and Wartburgs in the 60's i.e. you filled a separate tank in the engine bay and the system introduced the contents to the engine automatically.
The Add Blue appears to be administered in basically a similar way, in that it is stored in a separate tank somewhere in the car, and is fed into the engine exhaust system in order to clean up the noxious waste.
I know that the system is now common on HGV's etc and also PSV's so it is proven technology.
So my reservation comes with the cost per mile. I understand that Add Blue is quite expensive, but on average a tankful lasts about 800 miles. The Engine will not run without it. So how much extra does add blue add to the normal cost of running your diesel so fitted?
Are we now being forced to abandon the diesel and turn back to Petrol or Hybrid power. But none of them yet offer the sheer "grunt" of a good old big diesel!
Can one of the clearly knowledgeable engineers on this forum help please?
TF
Comments
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A tank of AdBlue will last a lot longer than 800 miles - circa 4,000-6,000 miles in most VW's for example (12-13 litre tanks).
I know that you are a big fan a big diesels but modern 2 litre diesels are more than adequate for the vast majority of caravans and use a lot less fuel and are now capable of as much as 500NM of torque, how much more do you need ?
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I know that you are a big fan a big diesels but modern 2 litre diesels are more than adequate for the vast majority of caravans and use a lot less fuel and are now capable of as much as 500NM of torque, how much more do you need ?
Rule of thumb is that you need more cyclinders than doors
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I believe the add blu will last much more than 800 miles.. My daughter has a VW Sharan with this system and if i remember correctly it had done about 14000 miles before the warning appeared on the dash that the add blu needed attention/topping up , the warning
gave about 1500 miles warning. The dealer did it at a cost of about £13 so not too expensive, i have since heard of some cars being "topped" up at service time but don't know if that is common practice.0 -
Done 24k in my 2L Audi. And topped up the add blue three times.
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Our Q3 has now had 4 AdBlue top ups in 13,000 miles. The first 2 were done in our workshop (I work for a multi franchise dealer with SEAT in the group). The 3rd top up was done at Audi who charged £1.50 a litre but also did a safety check, software update
and wash/vac whilst it was in. The last fill I bought a 10 litre container from the local BP station for £13 and my husband filled the car himself. This is the way we will go in the future. In a nutshell we need 10 litres every 4,000 miles.0 -
So my reservation comes with the cost per mile. I understand that Add Blue is quite expensive, but on average a tankful lasts about 800 miles. The Engine will not run without it. So how much extra does add blue add to the normal cost of
running your diesel so fitted?Hi TF, it's a bit of an how long is a piece of string thing! We have a 2litre Q5 and I have always done the top up using 10 litre containers costing from £11 to £19. I do quite a lot of miles and your driving style and ammount of towing will have an affect
but, compared to other costs it is minimal.0 -
I have just changed my freelander 2 for a insignia sport tourer. It is 170ps auto elite nav, i have looked at the manual and it looks as though it will do between 6000 to 7000 mile before the 1500 mile warning light comes on to top up. The adblue tank holds
7.5lts. At around £13 for 10lts it is not expensive to run. One thing to remember is that adblue has a shelf life of 18 months in sealed container when purchased but once the container is opened its life is reduced dramatically.0 -
If I do later decide to downsize, the most likely vehicle out of all that I have tried is the new Tiguan fitted with the more powerful 190ps diesel engine Inc Ad Blu!
TF
Have you thougt about the 240 PS BiTurbo version?
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Can you top up the add blue on the comercial area on fore courts............
Not at the one I tried - I thought I could get Adblue for 63p a litre at our local garage but it appears there is some sort of interlock on commercial vehicle tanks which prevents the pump discharging into a container - I suppose it's to stop it inadvertently being put into the diesel tank. So I have to use the 10 litre containers which our garage sells for about £12.
With my 3 litre V6, 263PS Touareg, I get about 7000 miles between top ups and that includes a fair amount of towing the van. The filler kit was about £10, so the DIY route is certainly much cheaper then letting the dealer do it.
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catherinef, No, I think that its only recently been introduced, sounds good, but is it optimised for speed or low down Torque?
If the latter definately worth a look!
TF
500NM at 1,750rpm - more torque than many V6's
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Before common sense took over and I decided to hang onto my lovely 2011 Mercedes ML300CDI which I have had since new, I was idly looking around for a suitable replacement without much success.
I am a lover of big lazy Turbo Diesels that put out loads of lovely torque at very few revs. They are now like hens teeth, with only a few manufacturers still producing such a beast, and as I am now retired I cannot afford to pay out well over £45,000 for those
that are still made.
Almost every other tow car now on offer, has an engine in the 2 or up to 2.2 Litre 4 cylinder Diesel class, which this old dinosaur does not like. Not enough low down torque for my liking.
But one thing that did attract my interest was that a few of the very newest diesels were fitted with an Add Blue system which apparently really cleans up the emissions enough to make them compliant with even the strictest EU6 regulations. Some others claimed
to be Euro 6 compliant without the add Blue.
To this old warhorse the Add Blue system itself seems a bit similar to the very old method of introducing oil to the old 2 stroke engines fitted to Saabs and Wartburgs in the 60's i.e. you filled a separate tank in the engine bay and the system introduced the
contents to the engine automatically.
The Add Blue appears to be administered in basically a similar way, in that it is stored in a separate tank somewhere in the car, and is fed into the engine exhaust system in order to clean up the noxious waste.
I know that the system is now common on HGV's etc and also PSV's so it is proven technology.
So my reservation comes with the cost per mile. I understand that Add Blue is quite expensive, but on average a tankful lasts about 800 miles. The Engine will not run without it. So how much extra does add blue add to the normal cost of running your diesel
so fitted?
Are we now being forced to abandon the diesel and turn back to Petrol or Hybrid power. But none of them yet offer the sheer "grunt" of a good old big diesel!
Can one of the clearly knowledgeable engineers on this forum help please?
TFWrite
Man after my own heart. Ain't no substitute for cubes, as the yanks say. I have a 4.2V8 twin turbo diesel using add blue for euro 6. 6000 miles per tankful, and costs circa £65 per refill, done by the dealer. My blue tank is under the boot floor, filled
from inside the boot and I really don't fancy doing it myself with such highly corrosive stuff.0 -
We have 2015 tiguan . Tank holds if I remember 12 Lt s ,dealer ship supposedly topped it up at about 2500 miles from New ( they don't come with full tank ) . 1500 miles left came on at 6000 miles . I filled it up to the top with 10 Lt s ', Comercial stuff
, it's all the same basically synthetic urine . So try not to spill . I think vw sell 10 litres of the stuff quite reasonably now .0 -
My LR Discovery Sport has just had its first top up of ad-blue after 7,000 miles, more than half of that towing a Bailey Unicorn series 3, including a trip to Italy via Switzerland and back via the Black Forest. I have a 5 year service package with the car
under which the dealer tops up the a-b when required at no charge. As far as 2 litre cars are concerned, mine bounded through Switzerland with no great effort. I have also just done the Land Rover Experience in a Discovery Sport and what it was able to do
(on normal road tyres) was amazing. I love it!0 -
Even with a 10,000 annual inclusing towing around 3000 mils a year, the AdBlue is topped up only at the annual service on a Merc.
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Our Merc has done around 7200` around 3800` towing to Italy in June and S of France in September topped up with 5e worth of adblue so far and car is still indicating 11000` of adblue full tank is 15000`, so cost is not an issue. Topped up at a garage near
Chamonix quite a few garages on the continent have adblue pumps for cars.0 -
Interesting film on how it works.
http://www.landrover.co.uk/ownership/euro-6-emissions-standards.html
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I asked at a garage in Powburn, Northumberland, near the CC site if it was ok to fill my adblue tank using the HGV facilities. The lady told me that several cars had used them.
My Yeti seems to be using just over a litre of Adblue per 1000 miles. Skoda sell it for £13.30 per 10 litre drum and our local car spares have it for £10. Takes only a couple of minutes to top up every couple of months.
Keith
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SELL , like Your Volvo , I have a Euro 6 engine in My 2.2 Ssangyong Korando ( no ad blue ) My take on the ad blue is manufactures complacency and cost cutting . How I see it is the manufacturer uses a Euro 5 engine , they then add the ad blue system to bring
the emissions down , which then makes it Euro 6 compliant . To Myself it's a stopgap untill they develop a Euro 6 compliant engine without the ad blue. I do stand to be corrected though
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The euro VI cars that don't use ad-blue have to use a sytem whereby the amount of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) is turned up to recycle the NOx trapping catalyst. By increasing the EGR the engine generates less power and more soot particulates, so the
DPF has to work harder, will use more EOLYS and will need replacing earlier. Ad blue allows NOx to be reduced without this loss of power and also reduces the particulate load on the DPF. So it isn't 'lazy' it's just the way some engines achieve NOx emissions
that comply with Euro VI without compromising engine performance.0 -
I'm no Chemist but as I see it. . . .Adblue=Aqueous Urea Solution, Urea=Urine/pee. I think I've come up with a workaround to buying Adblue, a cunning plan indeed
.
Seriously-is the Urea really what I think it is?, if so then why is it so expensive?0 -
I wouldn't like to work in the German 'wee factory' that churns that out
. I find it really odd, I know they used it back in the day for curing
leather-Engine addition?0
