Cost Effective Maintainence (CEM) Products

Submitted: Saturday, Sep 12, 2009 at 14:10

ThreadID: 72204 Views:3448 Replies:6 FollowUps:5

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roger80

Hi All,
I've been reading an ad for CEM products in Caravan and Motorhome mag. They offer products for cleaning oil sludge and carbon deposits from engines and anti-wear additives for gearboxes and diffs. The products seem to be pretty dear depending of course on how good a job they do. Has anyone used them and are they worth the money? See their website www.costeffective.com.au
Thanks.

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Reply By: dbish - Saturday, Sep 12, 2009 at 14:56

Saturday, Sep 12, 2009 at 14:56

CEM are not the only ones ofering this type of product, iwouldnt call them cost efective maintenance. The only cost efective maintenance is regular engine oil & gearbox oil changes. I have puled down engines that have done 300000Kms & didnt have any significant carbon or sluge. They were serviced regularly with resonable quality oil. Seen motors do much less Kswith very few oil changes & full of sluge.

AnswerID: 382870

Follow Up By: roger80 - Sunday, Sep 13, 2009 at 09:46

Sunday, Sep 13, 2009 at 09:46

That's O.K. if you know the full history of the engine. I bought my 80 series diesel with only 65k on the clock (ex QFleet) but there were some big holes in the maintenance history (25k with no service dockets filled out.) It has had regular services with good oil since I have had it but the oil goes black very quickly after a change. It still has under 200k on the clock but is quite smoky. I don't think it is worn out just yet so I'm looking at alternatives.

FollowupID: 650562

Reply By: Member - Ian H (NSW) - Saturday, Sep 12, 2009 at 16:16

Saturday, Sep 12, 2009 at 16:16

Hi Roger,
I have and still do use CEM flushing concentrate because it works well and is not expensive after the first dose.
My 1HZ engine would turn new oil black before I check ran after an oil change even though I change it as per service book.
After using CEM the oil stayed clear for several thousand kms indicating to me that the crankcase etc was cleaned well and the engine had to produce more carbon to dirty the oil. I know there are those who will say oil is supposed to get dirty to show it is catching the carbon in the engine but if it gets filthy is seconds after an oil change then there must have been sludge in the engine after the old oil was drained.
Old style diesels do produce sludge more than the direct injection designs so the CEM is worth the effort.
Try it for yourself. I am just a satisfied user and don't own the company.
Let me know via MM if you try it and what the result was.
Ian

AnswerID: 382875

Follow Up By: roger80 - Sunday, Sep 13, 2009 at 09:58

Sunday, Sep 13, 2009 at 09:58

I'm thinking I will give it a go. Before I posted my thread, I did a search on it but didn't come up with anything -seems I didn't spell "maintenance" properly in my search and so the archives weren't found. With another search and the replies I've received, there is enough positive feed back for me to give it a try. I'm not due for an oil change for a while yet though so it may be a while before I can let you know what I think. - I'm assuming you would put the oil flush in just before changing the oil?? I'll let you know when I do it though. Pardon my ignorance though - What is MM that you want me to let you know via?

Roger

FollowupID: 650563

Follow Up By: Member - Ian H (NSW) - Sunday, Sep 13, 2009 at 11:50

Sunday, Sep 13, 2009 at 11:50

Roger,
MM is the member message which you can access at the top of the page if you are a member.
Ian

FollowupID: 650581

Reply By: Member - Lotzi (QLD) - Sunday, Sep 13, 2009 at 08:52

Sunday, Sep 13, 2009 at 08:52

Gday Roger

We have used CEM for a number of years on big diesels, works well. If you do a search through the archives you will find a number of references to their product

Cheers

AnswerID: 382943

Reply By: paulnsw - Sunday, Sep 13, 2009 at 10:32

Sunday, Sep 13, 2009 at 10:32

you can buy the same flushing oil from oil companies heaps cheaper

AnswerID: 382953

Reply By: dbish - Sunday, Sep 13, 2009 at 12:49

Sunday, Sep 13, 2009 at 12:49

roger80 you said it was smoky, if its black smoke it may only be injectors. If its done a lot of Kms cleaning sluge & carbon by chemical means, you may find the motor sudenly using oil.

AnswerID: 382970

Reply By: Member - Amy G (SA) - Sunday, Sep 13, 2009 at 19:19

Sunday, Sep 13, 2009 at 19:19

The 1HZ is a sooty engine and my engine oil is always black too. This is pretty normal.

If you're blowing lots of black smoke I would take the car to a diesel specialist- I'm sure they will solve it easily enough. As a comparison, mine doesn't blow any black smoke unless I have my foot down going uphill (or 4WDing). My 1HZ has 238,000km.

AnswerID: 383016

Follow Up By: roger80 - Sunday, Sep 13, 2009 at 20:31

Sunday, Sep 13, 2009 at 20:31

My 1HZ has an after market turbo without a boost compensator which accounts for black smoke at low boost. It still blows some though considerably less at full boost (8PSI). The injectors aren't that old (only about 15k) and I don't believe it is over fuelling as the EGT even under full load and boost doesn't go over 500. I guess the smoke probably isn't that bad once the turbo catches up to the right foot but I think it is slowly getting worse but that may be just my imagination. However, CEM claim that both their fuel additives and the oil flush will reduce smoke. I started this thread to see what experiences other people have had with CEM products. There is a bit of feedback either way but the majority seem to say that it does work and is worth the money. and there are enough positive comments to convince me to give it a go so next time the old girl is due for some new oil, I'll give her a treat. I'll post a new thread with the result. Isn't due for a bit yet though and I don't do that many K's in it.

FollowupID: 650643