I have been running Millers with (mostly) Optimax for well over a year now. My car has been siffering from intermittient misfires and I have just had the plugs changed at 25k miles (they should last till 40k) and the garage said they were "badly worn".
Do you think this could be related to Millers? I cant really see why but I am not an expert in these things.
I did'nt see the original plugs but regardless they needed changing to try and eliminate the misfires.
Dunc
Millers
Dunc,
We see this all the time at work,spark plugs that are knackered well before the manufacturers specified interval,some get so bad(Volvo,Alfa) that the car wont start! I change the plugs every 10k on my big turbo S3.
With regard to the Millers,been using it myself since my KO4'd A4(5years ago ) and on the S3 and have never had any problems,most of my customers use it and again no problems.
The only thing that Millers seems to do is turn the insides of your tailpipes and the tops of your spark plugs brown,doesnt affect performance or economy though.
We see this all the time at work,spark plugs that are knackered well before the manufacturers specified interval,some get so bad(Volvo,Alfa) that the car wont start! I change the plugs every 10k on my big turbo S3.
With regard to the Millers,been using it myself since my KO4'd A4(5years ago ) and on the S3 and have never had any problems,most of my customers use it and again no problems.
The only thing that Millers seems to do is turn the insides of your tailpipes and the tops of your spark plugs brown,doesnt affect performance or economy though.
MTM RS4
Dunc,
The car has never had a tank of fuel without it,same with the last car.
Is it a miss you are getting or a hesitation? Hesitation could well be your DV on the way out,or if you have an aftermarket one it may need to be rebuilt,I rebuild my Forge DVs every second service (6k on my car,it gets oil and filter every 3k),might be worth a look.Also worth looking at would be the ol' favourite the MAF.........
Tom
The car has never had a tank of fuel without it,same with the last car.
Is it a miss you are getting or a hesitation? Hesitation could well be your DV on the way out,or if you have an aftermarket one it may need to be rebuilt,I rebuild my Forge DVs every second service (6k on my car,it gets oil and filter every 3k),might be worth a look.Also worth looking at would be the ol' favourite the MAF.........
Tom
MTM RS4
Have changed the MAF and DV - I originally thought it was hesitation but recently, the ECL has been coming on and logging DTCs for misfires (whilst exihibiting the same hesitation). I have just put two new coil packs and 4 new plugs in and hopefully this will resolve the problem. Initial impressions are the car feels stronger and smoother but as its an intermittient problem only time will tell, although if the plugs dont fix it then I am all out of ideas (except for getting a new remap).
Re Millers, have you ever logged timing with or without it? Can you physically run more timing with it (I know the theory says yes but in practise...)
Dunc
Re Millers, have you ever logged timing with or without it? Can you physically run more timing with it (I know the theory says yes but in practise...)
Dunc
Dunc,
On a customers S4 and my old A4(both MTM tuned) both cars would pink under hard acceleration with 95 octane fuel,neither car would pink when using 95 octane and millers.
So yes,it works.
On the S3 the management is that bit cleverer so its unlikely to ever pink but there will be a reduction in performance by using lower octane fuel. I dont use Millers as a means to try and improve performance beyond what tuners claims are,I'm using it to try and get 95 octane fuel(all we can get here) to as close as possible to UK superplus,so that I get the full benefit of my tuning and remap,I also use a product called Broquet which consists of pellets in a stainless mesh which are placed in the fuel tank.
Again we've tested it here on several cars,from 16v Mk2s to 16vG60 Mk1s,S3's,STI's etc and it works well.
My car when being mapped by Peter Link on QSTs dyno,was ran on supermarket 95 octane,one can of Millers Octane Plus per tank and obviously the Broquet.
Herr Link was under the impression that we had used Optimax!So the combination of Millers and Broquet had brought our supermarket 95 up to an octane level comparable to Optimax.
Peter pointed out that there may well have been further bhp gains had we ran optimax with the two boosters,a figure of 355/360 bhp was mentioned
But I didnt see much point in mapping the car for fuel I cant get,so we left it alone.
I suppose what you are asking is will Millers allow you to tweak your settings to try and extract a few more horses? I dont know what software you are using,but I'd imagine you'd need to get the map tweaked for any significant gains to be felt.
On a customers S4 and my old A4(both MTM tuned) both cars would pink under hard acceleration with 95 octane fuel,neither car would pink when using 95 octane and millers.
So yes,it works.
On the S3 the management is that bit cleverer so its unlikely to ever pink but there will be a reduction in performance by using lower octane fuel. I dont use Millers as a means to try and improve performance beyond what tuners claims are,I'm using it to try and get 95 octane fuel(all we can get here) to as close as possible to UK superplus,so that I get the full benefit of my tuning and remap,I also use a product called Broquet which consists of pellets in a stainless mesh which are placed in the fuel tank.
Again we've tested it here on several cars,from 16v Mk2s to 16vG60 Mk1s,S3's,STI's etc and it works well.
My car when being mapped by Peter Link on QSTs dyno,was ran on supermarket 95 octane,one can of Millers Octane Plus per tank and obviously the Broquet.
Herr Link was under the impression that we had used Optimax!So the combination of Millers and Broquet had brought our supermarket 95 up to an octane level comparable to Optimax.
Peter pointed out that there may well have been further bhp gains had we ran optimax with the two boosters,a figure of 355/360 bhp was mentioned
But I didnt see much point in mapping the car for fuel I cant get,so we left it alone.
I suppose what you are asking is will Millers allow you to tweak your settings to try and extract a few more horses? I dont know what software you are using,but I'd imagine you'd need to get the map tweaked for any significant gains to be felt.
MTM RS4
I asked Amd there thoughts on Millers, and they didnt reccommend it. They said it makes the car burn hotter (understandable) and can burn out the spark plugs. They said they had seen spark plug tips disintergrate into the engine on some cars known to have run it... (very bad news)
This was some months before someone else had a spark plug failure btw.
so wethere its related or not i dont know.
This was some months before someone else had a spark plug failure btw.
so wethere its related or not i dont know.
And I have seen spark plug tips disintegrate on cars that have never even parked beside a bottle of Millers,let alone used it,I've also seen a modified Evo ran on Millers that burnt a plug tip.......on road fuel,burnt a plug tip....on Elf turbo race fuel.....burnt a plug tip, conclusion? Change the plugs more often.
In my experience,if you modify a cars engine,increase its output,drive it harder,rev it higher etc then you shorten your service and replacement intervals,running a tuned S3 HARD(and I dont mean 90mph cruising here,I mean driving the thing) on Audi specified oil change and spark plug intervals is madness.
We've ran two very modified S3s here for the last two years,the cars are trackday-ed,driven very hard on the road,did 3 days at the Ring last Easter and bar the old faithful coilpack replacements have never given a moments grief.We've worn out a lot of parts( road and race pads,Movit discs,top mount bearings,rollbar bushes,lots of tyres,H&R strut tube bearings etc) but never had any problems with poor running or the like.
I think the maintenence routine might just have had something to do with that......
In my experience,if you modify a cars engine,increase its output,drive it harder,rev it higher etc then you shorten your service and replacement intervals,running a tuned S3 HARD(and I dont mean 90mph cruising here,I mean driving the thing) on Audi specified oil change and spark plug intervals is madness.
We've ran two very modified S3s here for the last two years,the cars are trackday-ed,driven very hard on the road,did 3 days at the Ring last Easter and bar the old faithful coilpack replacements have never given a moments grief.We've worn out a lot of parts( road and race pads,Movit discs,top mount bearings,rollbar bushes,lots of tyres,H&R strut tube bearings etc) but never had any problems with poor running or the like.
I think the maintenence routine might just have had something to do with that......
MTM RS4
Please note that on the RS4 the plugs are supposed to be changed every 20K. The S3 engine is just as stressed as the RS4's.
When Audi determine a service interval they have to balance component life with what is acceptable to the customer and the dealer chain.
If you have a performance car (and especially a tuned one) and value it, change critical consumables more frequently than recommended.
Dunc - did you say that you had the coilpacks changed? Bound to be the problem.
When Audi determine a service interval they have to balance component life with what is acceptable to the customer and the dealer chain.
If you have a performance car (and especially a tuned one) and value it, change critical consumables more frequently than recommended.
Dunc - did you say that you had the coilpacks changed? Bound to be the problem.
2001 Silver S4 Avant
AmD remap, APR R1 DVs, APR bipipe, Full Miltek exhaust
H&R coilovers, AWE DTS, Porsche front brakes, Short-shifter, 18" RS4 replicas
Defi-HUD boost gauge / turbo-timer (with afterrun pump modification), Phatbox
AmD remap, APR R1 DVs, APR bipipe, Full Miltek exhaust
H&R coilovers, AWE DTS, Porsche front brakes, Short-shifter, 18" RS4 replicas
Defi-HUD boost gauge / turbo-timer (with afterrun pump modification), Phatbox
Dunc,
Interesting topic this. Just the other day (Monday), I decided to put some Millers in with the Optimax. I have a full box of it in the garage which I bought of DavidT ages ago, so I thought, I may as well use it.
Since putting the stuff in, the car has hesitated during accelaration a number of times. On the motorway in say 5th/6th gear, and on the country lanes. Now I don't think Millers is totally to blame, as my car has hesitated occasionally in the past. It very rarely does it these days. But it is strange how after putting the Millers in, it has hesitated more - 4 or 5 times in the last 3 days.
After this tank of petrol I will revert back to just Optimax I think, and keep Millers for emergancy 95 octane fill ups.
AL
Interesting topic this. Just the other day (Monday), I decided to put some Millers in with the Optimax. I have a full box of it in the garage which I bought of DavidT ages ago, so I thought, I may as well use it.
Since putting the stuff in, the car has hesitated during accelaration a number of times. On the motorway in say 5th/6th gear, and on the country lanes. Now I don't think Millers is totally to blame, as my car has hesitated occasionally in the past. It very rarely does it these days. But it is strange how after putting the Millers in, it has hesitated more - 4 or 5 times in the last 3 days.
After this tank of petrol I will revert back to just Optimax I think, and keep Millers for emergancy 95 octane fill ups.
AL
'02(MY03) Silver S3 (225bhp)
'52 Black Golf GTi 25th Anniversary
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: Majestic-12 [Bot] and 27 guests