I just returned from Monster Sport Europe in Milton Keynes after getting my car Terracleaned and thought I would share my findings.

What's Terraclean?
For those who are unaware, this is a process of running a car with fuel that is so refined, it burns off any carbon deposits in the engine, including the O2 sensor and catalytic converter. I (like many others) first discovered the process watching Edd China on Wheeler Dealers (Jag XK8 episode), who gave the system a singing endorsement. There are two versions, a petrol and a diesel.

Why Monster Sport?
They are actually far further from me than my nearest garage that offered the service, but they were cheaper and far, far nicer to deal with. I wanted an emissions test before and after the service, so I could see the results, so they happily arranged for an MOT testing station around the corner from their site to test the car twice.

What Car?
I had my 1994 Vauxhall Cavalier Turbo done. It has covered 126k and spends most of its time locked in my garage doing nothing. I've noticed that over the past few years, it has been struggling to pass an MOT emissions test, so I thought I'd give Terraclean a try.

The 'Before' Test
Holy moly, was I lucky! When we arrived at the MOT station, my car decided it didn't like having coolant, so spewed it all out onto the pavement. While I was panicking, pacing and swearing, Nicky from Monster calmly diagnosed the fault to be the bottom radiator hose and refitted it using a borrowed trolley jack from the MOT testing station, even offering a few consolatory words while he was doing it.
During the test, white/blue smoke was bellowing from the exhaust and, true to recent form, my car failed pretty spectacularly.

The 'Terraclean'
Nicky kindly agreed to give the cooling system a quick once over before he started the Terraclean service, just in case there was anything seriously wrong. Nothing was found, although one of the hoses had come off the turbo wastegate, which they found and fixed, rectifying a months-old problem I'd been having of the car cutting out while on boost.
The Terraclean machine looks a lot like an air con regassing machine and has two cans of cleaning agent that fit to the top. For my car, the larger cans were used. The machine is connected to the fuel system of the car, so the engine runs off the super-refined Terraclean fuel, rather than the fuel in the tank. The whole process took around an hour or so, but I wasn't timing.

After the Service
Taking the car for the second emissions test, Nicky drove. Partly because he knew his way around, and partly because he wanted to see if the boost issue had been sorted.
Even from the passenger seat (a very eerie experience - I never let people drive my car!) I could instantly hear the difference. It was running far, far smoother and quieter. The idle was notably better.
The test was done and, to my surprise, no more smoke out of the exhaust although I was positioned a little further away than the first time.
My first cue that something was out of the ordinary was that the MOT tester, upon leaving the car, ignored me completely and went directly over to Nicky and asked 'What did you do to it?'. Both of them were studying the two test reports. Feeling like a third wheel, I elbowed myself some space to take a look.
In all honesty, I was expecting it to pass - after all, the car had been MOT'd only a few months ago and it took some doing, but it eventually had passed the emissions test then. What I was not expecting was quite the margin by which it passed. It had previously failed on the CO levels, where the maximum permissible level is 0.300%. Mine was measured at 0.515%. After the test, this dropped dramatically to just 0.126%. All other measurements dropped too, with the exception of the CO2 levels, which rose slightly. The MOT tester was quick to point out that this was a sign of the improved combustion.

Was the Difference Noticeable When Driving?
Boy, was it! The most remarkable difference was the fuel computer, which was reading around 27 mpg on the way to Milton Keynes, was now reading 35 mpg on the way back (and I was much heavier with my right foot on the return journey). The car is far smoother and quieter and has regained oodles of the torque it had lost over the 13 years I've owned the it.
As the ECU worked out that it was connected to a more efficient engine, it improved the feel of the car as the journey went on. By the time I reached home, I didn't want to stop. I haven't felt like that in many years.

In short, it feels like having my car Terracleaned took ten years off my engine and I cannot thank the guys at Monster Sport Europe enough. Aside from the astonishing effects of the service, Nicky and Andrew couldn't have been nicer and helped me out of a sticky problem when it arose. I guess the best endorsement I can make is to say that I will definitely return when I need other work done - even if it's a 90min drive away.

Best £84 I've ever spent.

I just wanted to point out that I am not affiliated with either Terraclean, or Monster Sport Europe. I'm just a really happy customer!
I've also posted this on Detailing World Researching my first Range Rover purchase

Nice writeup Turbo Tony.

Diesels too ?? .
Experience is the only genuine knowledge, but as time passes, I have forgotten more than I can remember
Volvo V70 P2 2006 2.4 Petrol 170bhp Estate SE
MG Midget Mk1 1962

Previous: L322 Range Rover TDV8 3.6 2008; L322 Range Rover TD6 3.0 2002; P38A Range Rover V8 1999

Nice write up .... Saw the episode OP is on about but for those that havent here is a link.



Skip to 6:20

Yes, there's a diesel version, although Monster Europe are still waiting for the machine. They reckon it should arrive in the next couple of weeks.

I think I'm going to take my Volvo in. It drinks fuel at an astronomical rate and anything I can do to improve it has gotta be a good idea, especially at less than the price of a tank of fuel.

Thanks for posting the link to the episode I'm 'on about'!  Researching my first Range Rover purchase

i would love to get the RR done nice clean petrol system must be a good thing all round

is there any negative side to having this done on the RR

Awesome thankss

Terraclean - columbally fractionalized electrically charged terraclean molecules which vapourises aliphatic carbon deposits. Hahahahahaha.

You don't think perhaps it's all BS and the nice high idle, 1200rpm for an hour is what actually helped? No load on engine and plenty of heat applied to cats to clean them out and burn off the crap?

It would be more interesting if you actually took the head off before and after to compare - and then compared it to (say) some Redex or even water squirted into the inlet manifold (which will remove carbon a treat).

From a slightly more useful check of this system:

"We just tried this setup in our shop and did not have a positive experience. First, the reps used it on my car (02 Camry SE 5-spd) as an instructional demonstration and the whole time talked it up on how it was going to improve my idle, more power, blah blah blah. Nothing, nada, zilch. I noticed no improvement and I have a pretty darn good seat-o-meter. Next, the shop foreman tried it on his Subaru he just bought from an old dude. Should have defininately made an improvement on that one, but noooooo. He reported no difference. Next, we tried an older Tercel. Pulled the plugs before and after to look at pistons and found little or no difference in both plugs and pistons. Car ran no better, which is still not very good. We told the rep to come get their stuff, we decided not to go with it. Always had good luck with BG products, actually made a difference in every car I tried it in. Of course, this is just my opinion based on first hand observation."

Ever since someone replaced a horse with a mechanical engine, people have been coming up with ideas to make money on the back of it - from magnets round your fuel line to having pentragrams etched on your spark plugs. It's nearly all total BS.

Any way - Off to have my engine cleaned with Unicorn Tears - apparently it will then get 60mpg and never need another service.

Then, I'm going to run it on a highly refined and purified chemical - C8H18 = which will burn and produce clear water for the unicorn to drink - 2C8H18 + 25O2 burns to give 16CO2 + 18H2O.

Luckily this rare chemical is available locally for 132.9 per litre.

 ... - .- -.




Y. O. L. O.
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quality

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Nothing was found, although one of the hoses had come off the turbo wastegate, which they found and fixed, rectifying a months-old problem I'd been having of the car cutting out while on boost.

Quite - it's how a lot of these snake oil products work - there is no chance to do a proper test of the results as (in this case) more was done than just running the car for an hour on Panda Semen.

I GOT 5 WORDS FOR YOU
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kirby vacuum door door salesman

Does the original post sound *ever* so slightly like a sales pitch to anyone else........?

Hey now. Steady on. I'll be the first to admit my post was enthusiastic but that was only because I am genuinely pleased.

I'm not for sale, and wouldn't post up anything unless it was true for anything or anybody. I'm not getting anything out of posting this info, I just thought that people may be interested as there seemed to be quite a buzz on the internet about the product and I was intrigued.

If I were available to send out gratuitous marketing, perhaps my signature wouldn't have read 'Researching my first Range Rover purchase' for the past two years. I'd have been able to buy one by now.

*deep breath*

With regard to the turbo hose - it was only the hose from the wastegate to the ECU telling it how far open the wastegate is. It affected the car while on boost, as it would overboost. It wouldn't have affected an emissions test as the car is not on boost during an emissions test - it's held at a constant RPM.

@Simes - you made me chuckle!  Researching my first Range Rover purchase