Hi, has anyone had the engine carbon clean / Terraclean carried out on their RR and if so did you see any benefits? Thanks

I was thinking of having mine done but not had done yet??

There also seem to be two types, Terraclean is fed through the fuel system and cleans the internals this way. There are other companies offering engine carbon cleans which is a hydrogen gas which is fed through the air intake system. Not sure which type is best suited to the RR

I found this elsewhere on the net which is interesting


Terraclean is not a tank additive. A technician who connects the machine directly to the fuel rail of the engine and then disables the car’s fuel pump, performs the service. The car runs on the Terraclean fuel for about 20 minutes. The science behind the product works in 3 ways.

Firstly, the gasoline which vehicles burn is made up of hundreds of different hydrocarbons, plus other additives. All hydrocarbons can be either aromatic or aliphatic (different types). Aromatics (benzene, toluene, xylene, etc.) are more difficult to break down during combustion. “Need4Spd” is right that higher octane fuel is more difficult to combust. This is because it has a higher aromatic content. The suggestion of using higher octane fuel to cure the problem may actually make it worse. These engines were designed to run on 91 octane and there is no performance or cleaning benefit to running on 93 or higher octane. You should use a Top Tier fuel (www.toptiergas.com) because it will have more cleaning additives in all grades (regular, mid & premium) of gasoline. It is actually recommended by BMW.
The other type of hydrocarbons is aliphatic, which burn easier. As most know, carbon deposits are the by-products of incomplete combustion, which cannot be avoided. Even German engineering can’t guarantee complete combustion with North American gasoline! In a perfect world, using a pure hydrocarbon and pure oxygen, the only by-products of perfect combustion would be CO2 and water. No carbon deposits and no toxic emissions! In the real world, engines use a mixture of hydrocarbons (gasoline) of variable quality and air (21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen, 1% other) for the combustion process, making complete combustion difficult to achieve every time. Terraclean is a cleaner fuel that has been modified to contain almost no aromatic content. This makes it easier to burn and helps the engine achieve near complete combustion while running on the product.

Secondly, the Terraclean machine zaps the fuel with a negative charge before it enters the engine and this breaks the fuel droplets up into smaller droplets. Essentially each droplet gets broken down into thousands of nano-droplets of fuel. To address the very knowledgeable posting by “erkq”, it is more accurately the fuel droplets, not the molecules that become smaller. This results in better atomization of the fuel and a larger surface area, leading to better combustion. I can also direct you to several scientific papers that describe carbon deposit formation which supports that the carbon left over after the hydrogen has been burned, leaves an agglomerated mass of carbon deposits. During the combustion process, the heat breaks the carbon bonds and can create momentarily positively-charged carbon atoms (carbocations or carbonium ions) within the molecule.
Each fuel droplet retains the negative charge as it enters the combustion chamber and attracts the positively-charged carbon deposits off the engine surfaces and oxidizes them into a vapor within the combustion chamber.

Thirdly, Terraclean fuel is an aliphatic fuel with more hydrogen content, so it burns cleaner. Since there is less carbon content in the fuel, no carbon is created while running on Terraclean.

The carbon deposits are burned up in the combustion chamber and exit as a vapor, not as chunks of carbon that are pushed downstream to clog the O2 sensors and catalytic converter. Other products, which use solvents to soak off the deposits, can push carbon downstream. The cleaner exhaust and additional water created from the more complete combustion actually clean the O2 sensors and catalytic converters.

Terraclean was developed with the help of scientists at MIT and as you know, the combustion process is complicated and difficult to explain.


I know of 3 BMW dealerships in Dallas/Fort Worth and 1 in Oklahoma City that have tested Terraclean with great results and are now selling the services. All of these dealers have verified test results including a 2004 and a 1999 M5 that showed better drivability, smoother idle and lower emissions after Terraclean. Great results have also been achieved on an M3 and a 760il. These dealers all did their own tests before accepting Terraclean into their dealerships, so the system works. I do not know if they have seen a carbon reduction in the secondary air ports and we have not tested for this...

Yes - I've had my 2009 TDV8 Terracleaned @ around 80,000 miles
Seems to be smoother running and maybe a couple of mpg better
Whether it makes £120-140 of difference it's a subjective call
A colleague has his Vectra done but his was completely coked up so he definitely saw a difference

Ian

Thanks, that's good to hear. I think I will get it done on my old td6 as it needs all the help it can get. There is an agent just up the road from me also

I was also thinking about having this done but instead decided to try and give it a bit of a clean out myself.

I cleaned the MAF Sensors with Electrical contact cleaner and MAP Sensors with some carb cleaner and cotton buds. The MAF Sensors seemed fine but the MAP sensors were a bit gunky so well worth cleaning those.

I then sprayed some JLM EGR cleaner directly into the air inlet pipes that come off the airbox 1 can did both and ran this through. After I did all this the car seems to run a bit smoother, not that it was bad before, and pulls a bit quicker so all in all worth doing and for the cost of a can of EGR cleaner at £12.00 wasn't too expensive.

I might be wrong, but on the 5.0 I can't see this making that much of a difference as they are direct injection. I think these are fed in via the fuel system on traditional cars to remove carbon from the back of the valves etc.

There are other upper engine cleaners about that you can use for the direct injection engines. Seafoam is one of them but it seems to be more available in the states.

David.. 2002 4.6 Vogue SE - Alveston Red with Lightstone Leather
2012 Range Rover 5.0 SC Autobiography in Indus Silver with Jet/Ivory Interior
2012 Range Rover 4.4 TDV8 Autobiography in Baltic Blue with Sand Interior

Hi yes that's correct on the 5.0 the hydrogen gas clean would work though and that goes through the air intake system instead.

Car is booked in for a Terraclean next wed so will report back my findings

How did it go?

Be keen to hear how this went on a 3.6 as I am considering mine Is this where I put the car details and a bit about myself ?........

Had one done on my D3 last year... mpg stayed the same but the engine felt much smoother! planning to get one done after the next service on the old girl..

Hi, i would highly recommend the terraclean, on my TD6 it has made a big difference. Car is now much smoother when driving and mpg has improved by around 2-3 mpg. Probably the best £100 i have spent on the old girl

It will not fix sticky EGR valves though. As a general clean probably helps.