Auto RX alternatives?

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G_lo

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Feb 5, 2007
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Location
Ca, USA
Hey guys, my car (00 eclipse 2.4l) currently has alot of lifter noise and just hit 100k miles so I wanted to put something in the engine that would quiet the ticking and help out the engine over all. It has hydraulic lifters, so they cant be adjusted. Anyways, I have seen Auto RX promoted on this site very often but I see that it costs about $30 a pop. So my question is, "Has anyone tried something else with success?" I went on a recon mission at Wallyworld and came back all confused beacause there were so many choices for oil/engine treatments. I'll list them to see what you guys know about them.

Restore. Engine restorer and lubricant. $5.44
Gunk. High mileage 5 min motor flush. $3.67
STP. Oil treatment. $1.68
Seafoam. $5.96
Lucas. Oil stabilizer. $9.68

the following recomend substitituting a quart of oil with their product.

Rislone. Engine treatment. $3.67
Slick 50. Engine treatment. $11.98
Slick 50. High mileage. $11.98
Duralube. Engine treatment. $14.44

So, many choices...
Are any of these a good choice or should I pony up the $ for Auto RX?

Let me know guys.
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Originally Posted By: mitchcoyote
Rislone or Marvel Mystery Oil would work good as cheap alternatives to autoRX.


+1 on the MMO, although $30 isn't much if the ARX is working the way all the BIOTG members who have used it say.

Frank D
 
Lube guard engine flush should propbably be added to the list. Have not used it myself but I've heard a lot of good things about lube guard products -do a search to learn more.
 
try seafoam maybe need a valve job? Asking about a certain product on this forum is a loaded question.
 
Thats not true. Misinformation about products and there results creates "the loaded question". thete are no "cheap alternwtives to Auto-Rx it,s this kind of post unsubstaniated-reckless and promoting it as good as Auto-Rx that creates the backlash.

You can put anything you want in your engine, you can tell one and all how great it is however don,t try to portray it as another Auto-Rx
 
Originally Posted By: G_lo
currently has alot of lifter noise


You probably need to verify the problem; nothing you add to the oil is going to fix a mechanical problem
 
I have used most of the mentioned products over the years and have never had anything work as well, as easy, as fast as Auto RX.
If your serious about it there is not much other choice.


Big Mike
 
Originally Posted By: txrhino
Originally Posted By: G_lo
currently has alot of lifter noise


You probably need to verify the problem; nothing you add to the oil is going to fix a mechanical problem


Well, it typically won't fix anything "broken" ..this much is surely true. If the lifter noise is due to being stuck or fouled/varnished ..or from lack of proper oil distribution along some gallery or rail, then surely something that cleaned up the supply and or the stuck, normally freely moving, part could fix the problem. In terms of HLA noise, I tried just about everything and had pretty much given into just living with it. I just tried ARX for the heck of it. It worked.

Now here's one that I'll let you in on that I was pleasantly surprised by. I have a fellow member that had a totally clean looking engine. I was hoping to do a back up experiment to Dan's two bottle 750 mile test ..but this time do 1000 miles. He pulled the valve cover and showed a totally clean engine. He did a compression check as part of the deal and found two adjacent cylinders were low. After some diagnostics (compressed air with the rockers loose) to determine that the head gasket and valves were intact, we determined that the rings were the problem. A freeze plug between the two cylinders was the cause of an overheat ..and we ventured that this had coked those two cylinder's piston oil control rings. Now the engine had no notable consumption and no symptoms of merit. His compression, after 1000 miles was totally restored on one cylinder ..and came up substantially on the other. He's going to post the entire thing once he's got the rinsing end done with and rechecks the compression. He was another one of my gems of discovery, much like Dan, in that he too was a mild skeptic in the value of such treatments. It's not some "secret" ..but that's about all I want to post for now. I'll leave it to him to post his findings. This one will have the premium of him being an engineer ...so butt dyno isn't in his DNA
grin2.gif
 
Ok, so I hear that there is a money-back guarantee if I'm not satisfied with ARX. I'm going to go ahead and order a bottle from their web site and see what happens. By the way, I have about 700 miles on the Chevron Supreme 5w30 in the engine now, is this an appropriate time to add the ARX or should I wait till the next oil change and start with new oil?
 
I was hoping to do a back up experiment to Dan's two bottle 750 mile test ..but this time do 1000 miles.

So, this guy put in two ARX bottles at the same time?
 
Put the Auto-Rx in, it's ok. The 2 bottle experiments are doing well. I have some data to report but I can tell you that 2 bottles helps to speed up the process. I have one waring though. Do not use 3 bottles at the same time. It's just too much and won't help the process. Sometimes in life, enough is enough and more is not always better.
 
This is the most complete third party test done so far regarding
my chemistry. With others testing I would like to offer this as proof positive of what Auto-Rx -Cycle-Rx -Transmission does in an oil lubricated engine.


/www.auto-rx.com/cycle-rx/carlos_test_overview.html>
 
LC20 is also a very effective cleaner - especially in the cleaning dose - to be followed by a maintenance dose for continuous cleaning. Only downside is it has to be mail-ordered by the quart or gallon, which will run about $25 or $40 (incl shipping), but does last a long, long time.

The best "value" out there has to be Marvel Mystery Oil (MMO) when you can get a quart of it a Wally World for $3.33. One Pint to 1 Quart will give your engine a good cleaning. I am a big fan of MMO as well as are many others, but there are also many who absolutely hate it - read up and make your own mind up.
 
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MMO IMO old tech and ok in its day. Auto-RX a world apart from this old tech and well worth the higher price. MMO has never produced near the positive results that ARX has for me.
 
G_lo... is this a 4g64 engine in your Eclipse? If so, they are notorius for lifter noise due to a design flaw (this may not be the only engine with the problem). The oil passages are too small and get gummed up very easily. Mitsubishi's fix is to replace them with a redesigned lifter with larger passages. Not cheap!!!

My daughter's Galant had the problem when we bought it with 132k miles. I ran two A-Rx treatments using the old instructions (make sure you check Frank's website for the current ones) and switched to Valvoline Maxlife after the cleanings. The lifter noise is now almost non-existent. Probably would have been even better if I ran the A-Rx longer.

Beware though, the noise will likely get worse before it gets better. It did for me (and others). Good luck!!
 
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