228 INJECTOR LOVE...

After its service, we popped out for a blast in the Abarth, which ended up with us having a most agreeable lunch in the Saracen's Head pub up in Halsall - think good pub grub, glorious weather, a beer garden on the side of the canal where we watched the boats inch by - we can highly recommend it.

On the way back home, we decided to stop at the Racecourse Retail Park in Aintree to pick up a few bits, which gave me a chance to go to Halfords to get new wiper blades and look at options for engine treatments to flush the fuel system.

The blades took 5 minutes to find, and the engine flush had me standing, looking in bewilderment for half an hour because there are so many options. Some flushes seem to work like a colonic, blasting away years of carbon buildup and freeing debris within the system. Other, more subtle treatments promise to restore injectors to their optimal mist-delivering best.

I wasn't sure what was required, but since the car was running well, it likely didn't need the full Dyno-Rod, so I focused on a clean-up and improvement treatments.

The options for this sort of product are vast. I remember back in the day, there was just Redex; now there are products from all kinds of manufacturers, some I'd heard of (STP, Wynn's), some I hadn't (Cataclean).

I stood there reading the labels of each bottle, weighing up the pros and cons, and then did the only sensible thing: I bought the most expensive one - got to be the best, right? There was more to it than that, to be honest. The Wynn's Formula Gold Petrol System Treatment I bought specifically states to add the formula after each major service, which the car had just had. Serendipity.

According to the blurb, it is "a premium, triple-action fuel additive designed to clean injectors, improve combustion, and restore lost engine power. It helps reduce fuel consumption, lowers exhaust emissions, and eliminates rough idling or pinking". Sound.

I'll fill the car up this week, lash the bottle in and let it do its thing. The fuel system will be treated, the oil replaced, the filters changed, and the pads and discs are new. The little Abarth is starting to feel like Trigger's Broom!!!