You have mentioned how beneficial Millers Diesel Power Ecomax Fuel Additive is on many occasions in your columns. Do you think that there would be any advantage in me using it in my Mazda CX-5? I still have another year of manufacturer’s warranty left, but I can’t see how Mazda could object to me adding something that gives improved protection, if that’s what it does. The CX-5 is just coming up to its second birthday and nothing has failed yet, and there’s not a rattle nor a squeak anywhere. It retains that well bolted together feel. I still enjoy driving it as much now as I did on day one. I’m pleased to report that I haven’t experienced any drastic oil rise problems. At the last service, the oil had almost reached the upper marker on the dipstick, but nowhere near to the X mark much further up the dipstick. I know it has been doing DPF cleaning, because it shows up on the dealers computer, but to be honest I haven’t been aware of it at all, except sometimes a smell like burning paper when I come to a stop at traffic lights or a junction.

Having just returned from Switzerland, I was surprised to find that diesel was on average five pence a litre cheaper than the UK. My friends in Norway tell me that they are paying roughly the same at the pump as we are here in the UK, but their wages are most definitely higher than ours. So in real terms they are paying about thirty per cent less than we are! How much longer is the British motorist going to be ripped off?
Mike Arnold, Barnstaple Devon

As you know, I have great faith in Millers products. It’s a bit difficult to evaluate though, particularly if you always buy good branded fuel, like Shell or BP, and Esso/Texaco/Gulf and so on, for that matter. I would throw a tenner at the exercise and buy a 500ml bottle, which will give you around ten fill-ups, and see if you feel any benefit at the end of the bottle. With the low compression ratio of the Mazda engine, the cetane boosting additive in Millers might offer some benefits that in other engines it might not. Mazda won’t know you’re using it, so I wouldn’t worry about that side of things. Good news to hear that all is going well with the car and that you seem to be totally free of DPF problems, bar a little bit of oil creep. It’s also good to know that you’re virtually unaware of regeneration. Thinking of the hot smell that you notice at the lights, remember not to park up in a newly combined cornfield, or very dry grass, just after such a regeneration or after a bit of hard driving! Or let your neighbours’ cat creep underneath for a winter warm-up. I’ve never seen a proverbial “scalded cat” and a toasted one, I imagine, would be very distressing indeed.

I’ll believe that the British motorist is maybe paying too much for their fuel when I see poverty on the streets, new car and iPhone sales falling, and people actually slowing down to save money! Best regards,
Doc