We bought our Pasadoble Red 500TA85 Lounge in October last, with 13,700miles on the clock. Sept 2011 registration. Very happy indeed with her - we've called her Rossa.

Last week, I drove her up north to Derby and back - 260miles each way - and since then she's been running SO much better. Smoother, even in 5th gear below 50mph, quieter, more comfortable, in fact much happier than she was before the trip.

I had no complaints before, but now I'm delighted.

I think the original owner never went very far. Yes, in four years they had done 13,700miles, but I think it was loads and loads and loads of short journeys. I think that my five hours each way steady blast up the motorways has cleared the cobwebs out of the engine.

She's now done 15,400miles, meaning we've done 1,700miles with her, and nearly a third of that of that was at motorway speeds.

Just thought I'd share this with you and wonder if anyone else has had this experience.

Thanks,
Mick.

Ok, now you've blown the cobwebs out, humour yourself, run the tank down to near empty and spend a couple of extra quid filling the tank with Shell Nitro unleaded and see if you notice even more of a difference. It's the only fuel we use and the car seems to love the stuff.

Shell Nitro?
Never heard of it.

Our cars have been running on Morrisons, or Asda, or even Tesco petrol. Have done for years, all of them, including Rossa.

Only petrol round here is supermarket, Texaco or Esso.
Nearest Shell garage is at Okehampton twenty miles away.

Ta!
Mick.

Ok, so put some Tesco 99 octane in it then!

http://www.tescopfs.com/our-fuel

The biggest improvement in engine smoothness in my 1.4 NA came after replacing the original spark plugs with Denso VXU22 iridium plugs. Was amazed at how much better the engine ran. Worth every penny and all thanks to advice on this very forum.

Keeping in mind frupi is a shill for Shell

My mechanic mentioned that Aussie 95 Octane fuel is actually a lower octane than the 95 sold in Europe (I don't want to research this for myself, so if any one's done it already, you know...).

I've got 95 in UFI at the moment and have never noticed the difference (looking at high 60's mpg for this tank), but we only get V-Power 98, 100 octane is only available from 4 locations in the whole city.

My TA runs slightly sweeter on Shell Nitro - I think it's slightly better mpg too but can't really sensibly prove this, just noticed that the average mpg seems to go up a bit.

Thanks guys!

My thoughts are that our Rossa is running smoother, not because of the petrol, but because the cylinder head has "decoked" itself during the long fast running on the motorway. Maybe the plugs and valve seats were gunmmed up a bit? Maybe the piston rings have cleaned themselves?

I'm unlikely to ever find out why Rossa is running smoother now, but it's a phenomenon I noticed years ago with another car or two in my driving history. I just didn't think it would be evident like this in a modern engine.

BTW, the car was serviced only in September when it was MOT'd.

Regards to all,
Mick ........ and Rossa.

100% the motorway trips would have helped IMO.

We do really low mileage in our Punto at the moment; barely scraping 100 miles a week. That is made up of lots of short journeys too.

Certainly once it's had a bit of a blast up to Exeter on the A38 (lol!), it usually feels a bit nicer to drive for a few days anyway. Not that it's terrible the rest of the time, but I'm aware it's not really being used as intended.

Mick F said:

Last week, I drove her up north to Derby and back - 260miles each way - and since then she's been running SO much better.

Click to expand...

This is just the first level of 'cleaning' the engine. The next level is driving at top speed for at least 15 minutes, but preferably longer!

I drive 80 to 90 percent on motorways. So, the treatment Mick F gave his 500 is common practise for my cars. However, with my previous 500 I once drove to Germany (where you still have some motorways without speed limit) to give it the top speed treatment described above. After that I had a similar experience as Mick F, but I also noticed a power increase! Driving up a certain hill in 5th gear with the accelerator pedal floored no longer resulted in a decreasing speed! Amazing!

UFI said:

Keeping in mind frupi is a shill for Shell

My mechanic mentioned that Aussie 95 Octane fuel is actually a lower octane than the 95 sold in Europe (I don't want to research this for myself, so if any one's done it already, you know...).

I've got 95 in UFI at the moment and have never noticed the difference (looking at high 60's mpg for this tank), but we only get V-Power 98, 100 octane is only available from 4 locations in the whole city.

Click to expand...

I don't think Australian fuel is any different, you use RON and so does Europe AFAIK

15,000 miles in nearly 4 years!!

Our 2.5 year old Mini has done 42,000 miles already

No wonder you noticed such a difference afterwards I'd suggest it was certainly gummed up

It may even been it's never run it particularly well to begin with.

Spark plugs were a big change for me too!

So would any manufacturer Iridium plugs be better? I see NGK ones are widely available for about £9 each.

typecastboy said:

So would any manufacturer Iridium plugs be better? I see NGK ones are widely available for about £9 each.

Click to expand...

1.2 & 1.4 owners should go for the NGK DCPR7EIX; these will last much longer than the copper cored OEM plugs and the car will also start better.

I've run these long term in both the Euro5 1.2 500 (25k) and the Euro4 1.2 Panda (40k) and they're still absolutely fine. I reckon they'll be good for at least 50,000 miles.

The TA runs platinum plugs as standard so TA owners will see much less of a benefit from upgrading to Iridiums. I still don't understand the logic of changing them at 18k in the TA - I'd have thoguht they'd be good for 36k.

OEM plugs in the 1.2 are usually well past their best long before they're due to be changed at 18k. Mine managed about half that before the car started to splutter on startup, so I changed them early & upgraded to iridiums.

typecastboy said:

So would any manufacturer Iridium plugs be better? I see NGK ones are widely available for about £9 each.

Click to expand...

The NGK DCPR7EIX plugs are the OEM iridium plugs and are definitely an upgrade to the OEM copper plugs with regard to starting, smooth running and longevity. There are alternatives to the NGK plugs - Denso IXU22 and VXU22 plugs are compatible and I think there is a compatible Bosch iridium plug. Probably little between them in terms of performance (Denso VXU22 are supposed to be the most long-lasting - my 1.4 has these and they are excellent) but the NGK plugs are the cheapest.

The spiel on Amazon for the NGK even mentions increased MPG, every little helps as someone once said!!

Cheers for the info for alternatives, might give them a go

Going back to my OP, another thing struck me today when out driving .......

Our 500TA is a Sept 2011 baby, and we bought her in Oct 2014 ie 37 months old. She'd done 13,700miles, that's only 4,450miles a year and hence she enjoyed the long blast up the motorway to Derby and back.

Since Oct 14, we've done 1,800miles (equiv 7,200m a year?) and not only is she running smoother (as described) she's also better suspended and damped.

This bit was a little surprising to me, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Not only is the engine being exercised, but the suspension too.

Where she would dive and bog down on uneven roads, she's more steady and predictable. She would bottom out near our gate and catch her plastic spoiler underskirts quite a bit, but now it hardly happens at all.

In fact she's been transformed completely.

Thanks,
Mick