Did I miss something?

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Wasn't so many years ago, that Auto-RX was very heavily discussed here. I just tried looking through several pages here in the additives, and doing searches many ways, can't come up with anything.

So what happened? Was it proven to be some sort of hoax? Is the stuff still considered useful like it was before?
 
Very little in the way of actual proof that it actually works. I think it's basically sheep's oil.
 
These days oils clean so well, you don't need for something like AutoRx. Some guys will throw in Marvel Mystery Oil with their oil fill, but I think that's totally unnecessary too. Just change your oil often and your engine will stay clean.
 
Auto Rx has been a contentious subject on this site, almost since day one.

See the sticky at the head of this forum.

Lets just say: many people that bought it, or claim to have used it, have very strong feelings about it, or the company.

Myself included!
 
It's a good product. No money for a flashy marketing campaign. Most people don't know what's good until they see the marketing and a big splash about the product. The product is the product of a chemist and his like minded friends, not a salesman.

Another problem. I works in a gentle slow process that takes time. No good for a shop. They want something that does whatever it does right now and be done with it. If it's a flush and it works fine. If it damages the engine down the road who knows and it's just more business. Slow does not work in this economy for most people. It's now or never.

Another problem. Every one is an experiment of one and bad news spreads like fire. Good news gets challenged and one bad voice can kill the message.

If you say something is bad then you must be smart enough to know. Negative talk is decisive, knowledgeable and comes from those that really know better.

Good news comes from a salesman, a promoter or someone with their hand out, therefor not qualified to pass judgement.
 
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
These days oils clean so well, you don't need for something like AutoRx. Some guys will throw in Marvel Mystery Oil with their oil fill, but I think that's totally unnecessary too. Just change your oil often and your engine will stay clean.


Merk, I actually agree with you...I will cherish this moment
wink.gif
 
I used it on 3 different engines. On one, it helped. Measurably. On the other 2, there was no noticeable change. Todays Oils are so good, it's just not useful.
 
It's good to see this brought up. I hadn't thought about AutoRx in a long time! Indeed it used to be talked about here every day.

How about Fuel Power and Lube Control? Another popular one from years back. I know I had purchased/used a few gallons of each back then.

I totally lost interest in additives when gasoline approached $4/gal and ordinary motor oil hit $3/qt.
 
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Search far enough back, you'll see that the same people who profess to hate it and say it doesn't work swore up and down that it did indeed work and loved it.
 
Excellent responses everyone!

I was pretty active at BITOG trying to learn-n-share quite a few years ago when ARX was a daily topic and we were all sharing pictures and such of our progress with it. I always sort of liked the story and concept behind it, and figure that in the right applications used as instructed it might be a useful tool. Like any "test" of an additive performed by an individual, without a duplicate control group there's really no way to say for certain whether it did anything useful. That said, with almost no talk of it here when I checked back in recently, I was thinking that maybe the communities view of the product had changed drastically in the last few years. I guess it's just taken a back seat for discussion here.

My results with the product years ago were mixed. I think it played a part in reducing oil consumption on my isuzu 3.2L SOHC (which is still running that original engine today, 240K miles), and I believe it may have also done something useful in the manual transmission in terms of cleaning, as the rebuilder commented on an unusual cleanliness inside the tranny when he was working on it. (it wasn't broken, was having it gone through since it was already out for a low-range gear swap in a married T-case).

In my sludged up suzuki I didn't really see much useful cleaning from it, even after many cycles.

--------

Reason I bring this thread up, is that I was thinking about picking up a few bottles of ARX to help get a new-to-us used car into a nice clean baseline state when it rolls over the 100K mark.

We just bought an XC70 with 94K miles on it. It has a low pressure turbo engine that has had its oil changed by the dealer every 7500 miles since new (likely castrol dino).

The transmission, an AW55-51SN is one of these transmissions that in most applications calls for fluid changes, but for some reason, Volvo decided to call it a "lifetime factory fill" sort of deal, likely to reduce cost of ownership numbers.

My feeling is that with that sort of engine OCI, and (likely) 94K on the original 10 year old transmission fluid (brownish red but not burnt), both are in acceptable condition but might benefit from some additive based cleaning before moving forward. I'm thinking I'd like to do a drain-n-fill (which will get a little less than half of the fluid, requiring only ~3qts) on the tranny, add some ARX (recommended 6oz I suppose), and run it till 100,000 miles, then do a complete flush at that time, giving me a nice round baseline starting point on transmission fluid, and hopefully some valve body cleaning, which is the main source of trouble on these transmissions. I was also thinking I'd do an ARX cycle on the engine with a couple ~2500 mile cycles (1Xclean/1Xrinse) with a decent quality dino, lining things up nicely to get the thing back on long OCI's again starting at 100K, but with a synthetic oil this time around.

Am I just making myself feel good with all that, or do yall think it's a worthwhile effort?
 
Originally Posted By: Trajan
Search far enough back, you'll see that the same people who profess to hate it and say it doesn't work swore up and down that it did indeed work and loved it.


And search far and wide to see the ridiculous hate sites set up to disparage anyone who dared question Frank the Crank!

Why would anyone patronize a business that has no warranty?
 
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
It's a good product. No money for a flashy marketing campaign. Most people don't know what's good until they see the marketing and a big splash about the product. The product is the product of a chemist and his like minded friends, not a salesman.


It was developed for printing machines not engines. I don't know how it does in machines but its doesn't do well in engines.

Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
Another problem. I works in a gentle slow process that takes time. No good for a shop. They want something that does whatever it does right now and be done with it. If it's a flush and it works fine. If it damages the engine down the road who knows and it's just more business. Slow does not work in this economy for most people. It's now or never.


Slow and gentle? An engine is not that sensitive, the engines sensitive area would be the seals and gaskets, this product does have some esters that may work on some sealing materials temporarily but thats all.

Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
Another problem. Every one is an experiment of one and bad news spreads like fire. Good news gets challenged and one bad voice can kill the message.


I use my own experience on 16+ engines to draw my conclusion so its not just an opinion of one. I also gave this product to one of the largest VW dealers and a BMW dealer (both personal friends) they both came to the same conclusion as mine, in their highly qualified opinion (both are Diplom-Ingenieur) it does not preform as advertised.

Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
If you say something is bad then you must be smart enough to know. Negative talk is decisive, knowledgeable and comes from those that really know better.


I have 42 year of experience including 10 years of schools and apprenticeship, i think that gives me the right to claim i am qualified.

Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
Good news comes from a salesman, a promoter or someone with their hand out, therefor not qualified to pass judgement.


Are you not promoting this product in this thread?

If someone wants to try it thats fine just make sure the company will honor a money back no questions asked guarantee (not just another free bottle) if it doesn't work to your satisfaction.
IMHO thats not asking too much if the company has faith in their product.
 
All additives are snake oil, no product can make up for years of neglect.

It's like smoking, drinking, and being fat for 70 years of your life and then looking for some magical medication to turn the clock back.

I take all recommendations of these products with a grain of salt. Some people are incentivized to recommend a product, others imagine things working. It's not just additives, K&N filters are a favorite of mine...I love when people claim a huge increase in mileage or power with those things.
 
Originally Posted By: dishdude
All additives are snake oil, no product can make up for years of neglect.

It's like smoking, drinking, and being fat for 70 years of your life and then looking for some magical medication to turn the clock back.

I take all recommendations of these products with a grain of salt. Some people are incentivized to recommend a product, others imagine things working. It's not just additives, K&N filters are a favorite of mine...I love when people claim a huge increase in mileage or power with those things.



Ah yes. The blanket statement that ALL ADITIVES ARE SNAKE OIL. What are we betting this poster doesn't use any,which makes his comment useless due to absolutely no experience.
I love when someone who's never used a product claims knowledge of all of them. I'm not foolish enough to claim such things. Some folks are.
Good for a laugh though
 
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Originally Posted By: Clevy
Originally Posted By: dishdude
All additives are snake oil, no product can make up for years of neglect.

It's like smoking, drinking, and being fat for 70 years of your life and then looking for some magical medication to turn the clock back.

I take all recommendations of these products with a grain of salt. Some people are incentivized to recommend a product, others imagine things working. It's not just additives, K&N filters are a favorite of mine...I love when people claim a huge increase in mileage or power with those things.



Ah yes. The blanket statement that ALL ADITIVES ARE SNAKE OIL. What are we betting this poster doesn't use any,which makes his comment useless due to absolutely no experience.
I love when someone who's never used a product claims knowledge of all of them. I'm not foolish enough to claim such things. Some folks are.
Good for a laugh though


Additives serve a great purpose, emptying the wallet of a sucker. Hair in a can anyone?
 
I've read here of people who have used aftermarket additives in every tank of fuel.

Can you imagine how much money they have wasted?
 
My story.
Some years back, I bought a Toyota pu that had been stored for over 20 years. It was in great shape, but ran rough at idle and used some oil. Compression was down on two cyls.

ARx was the Cat Whiskers on BITOG at that time, so I set about getting some.

Two complete treatments (as they were prescribed at that time)
later, the problem persisted.

More than a year later, I was persuaded again by BITOG to try
MMO.

500cc were added during winter, 1000 miles before my scheduled oci.

200 miles into the treatment, at a stop light, I thought my engine had stalled. It had not, for the first time the engine was idling smoothly, as it has done ever since.
Oil consumption is negligible over my 5k oci, the engine runs great.

Draw your own conclusions!
 
Well now I'm convinced, but I think I'll just make my own out of what I have around the house. Lighter fluid, wintergreen Halls cough drops and red #40. To make sure I get the full effect, I'll add it to the oil and gas.
 
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