Attention: 09>>> OptiLube XPD Users

tdiatlast

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 21, 2009
Location
Fort Worth, Texas
TDI
2009 Sportwagen (boughtback); 2014 Passat TDI SEL (boughtback)
Have any of you (OptiLube XPD users) had an HPFP failure, or any issues with your DPF? As we're all rolling up miles, it would be interesting, to me, at least, to know what your experiences have been with your 09>>> CR TDIs.

FYI, I've contacted OptiLube, both by phone and by email, asking why they were not listed in the most recent (12/5/2011) EPA listing of all "registered" gasoline and diesel additives. The person answering the phone was very surprised to hear that they weren't listed, and I was assured that this was an EPA oversight. I would like more proof of that. (In my opinion, being "registered" with the EPA doesn't really add credibility to the product, but it IS a legal requirement)

I also asked them directly if they had any response, or would provide documentation, that the XPD available today is the same formulation that they provided for the Spicer testing of several years ago.

In both my messages, I indicated that I was an active member of the TDIClub forum. I also recommended that I felt they would benefit from a little transparency with their marketing.

I would like this thread to be limited to OptiLube XPD users, please. I don't want it to become a discussion of additives in general...we've had enough of those.
 

funoutdoors121

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2008
Location
CT (USA)
TDI
15 GSW S 6MT
OptiLube XPD

Have been using OptiLube XPD since 3rd fill up.

Only 25K miles.

No problems of any kind, love my car!
 

JSWTDI09

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 31, 2009
Location
Las Vegas, Nevada
TDI
2009 JSW TDI (gone but not forgotten)
I used Stanadyne Performance for about the first 10 fill-ups and then started using Opti-Lube XPD (re-using the handy 8oz Stanadyne bottles). I have had zero problems (unless you count replacing a brake light bulb and the rear brakes). Plus, I have been monitoring Oil Ash Volumes with VCDS and they are perfectly in-line with the other posters in this thread. http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=324067

I now have about 41,000 miles on the car and it still runs perfectly (knock on wood). When I switched from Stanadyne to Opti-Lube XPD, there was a noticeable positive change in the sound and smoothness of the engine. This fact alone made me a believer. If it helps the HPFP last longer, that's good. However, I do not believe that it is a miracle cure - that can only come from Bosch or VW.

Have Fun!

Don
 

tdiatlast

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 21, 2009
Location
Fort Worth, Texas
TDI
2009 Sportwagen (boughtback); 2014 Passat TDI SEL (boughtback)
Don...you and I are on the same page vis-a-vis Stanadyne Performance vs. XPD. I had the same noticeable change in engine sound and smoothness.

With my JSW, I used no additive for the first 9500 miles, then started using Stanadyne Perf, then changed to XPD, and I'm still re-using the Stanadyne bottles. When I changed the FF at around 11k, there were the scary shiny particles, like dust, almost imperceptible w/o a bright light. FF change at 20k showwed NO shiny dust.

My sedan had Stanadyne Perf from day one, then XPD, and every FF check/change, there were NO shiny particles.

I've not checked oil ash volumes, but maybe, if Santa is good to me and brings me the ross-tech VagCom, I'll be able to check.

Hope we get some more posts.
 

JSWTDI09

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Joined
Jan 31, 2009
Location
Las Vegas, Nevada
TDI
2009 JSW TDI (gone but not forgotten)
When I changed the FF at around 11k, there were the scary shiny particles, like dust, almost imperceptible w/o a bright light. FF change at 20k showwed NO shiny dust.
I did not see my FF at my 20k FF change, but my dealer said that they didn't see anything. I just did my own 40K FF change and the inside of the canister was spotless. So far, so good. I have no idea how much credit goes to the XPD and how much goes to dumb luck, but either way I'm happy about it.

Have Fun!

Don
 

Cogen Man

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2011
Location
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2011 Golf TDI DSG.
Have been using the XPD from the 3rd tank full. Have had no issue's with the 2011 Golf. But don't have a lot of mileage on it as yet. Still on the original FF. Will be looking closely at the FF and cannister when it gets changed.
 

EJS

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2004
Location
Northern VA
TDI
2009 Jetta
..........I've not checked oil ash volumes, but maybe, if Santa is good to me and brings me the ross-tech VagCom, I'll be able to check.............
If he doesn't I think I know where you can get it done ;)

Given how useful it is I'm hoping for Santa.

Can't contribute to this thread................yet...........ash readings were taken before I started using it (they were in line with others).

Good thread, like to see if there's any impact on the numbers.

Don't forget the DPF data collection thread!

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=324067
 
Last edited:

tdiatlast

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 21, 2009
Location
Fort Worth, Texas
TDI
2009 Sportwagen (boughtback); 2014 Passat TDI SEL (boughtback)
DUH! I should have put this thread in the "Fuels and additives" discussion area.

Mod: Should you move this? It IS specific to CR TDIs, BUT, it IS an additive discussion.

Sorry for the trouble...
 

tdiatlast

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 21, 2009
Location
Fort Worth, Texas
TDI
2009 Sportwagen (boughtback); 2014 Passat TDI SEL (boughtback)
I just spoke with someone at OptiLube. He assured me he would email me, by the end of the week, a clearly written document, addressing my questions.

Stay tuned...
 

DocW1949

Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2010
Location
New York
TDI
2009 Jetta dsg
Have used optilube xpd at 1/2 oz per gallon plus b99 from 2-5% since about 10,000miles in our 2009 jetta sedan. We are now just over 45,000 miles, trouble free and quite pleased with the car.
 

EJS

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2004
Location
Northern VA
TDI
2009 Jetta
Have used optilube xpd at 1/2 oz per gallon plus b99 from 2-5% since about 10,000miles in our 2009 jetta sedan. We are now just over 45,000 miles, trouble free and quite pleased with the car.
Brings up my question..........IIRC the study showed using Opti-lube in a much higher mix than they (Opti-lube) recommends. So what's everyone using? Summer(ish) I used the .25oz per gallon & winter I'll move to .5oz per gallon. That's their directions, correct?
 

jxtran

Member
Joined
Jul 11, 2010
Location
New England, USA
TDI
2010 Jetta - DSG
Did you hear back from OptiLube ?

I just spoke with someone at OptiLube. He assured me he would email me, by the end of the week, a clearly written document, addressing my questions.

Stay tuned...
We all have high hope to avoid the HPFP issues and the scar test results steered most of us to OptiLube. However, I would appreciate confirmation from OptiLube (by responding to your inquiry) that their formula is in fact the same as tested. With all due respect for current users, not having issues is more a subjective inference and not conclusive proof. And I said that as a user (my first gallon arrived last week and I am on the first tank with the additive now), I would like to see scientific evidence.
 

tdiatlast

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 21, 2009
Location
Fort Worth, Texas
TDI
2009 Sportwagen (boughtback); 2014 Passat TDI SEL (boughtback)
We all have high hope to avoid the HPFP issues and the scar test results steered most of us to OptiLube. However, I would appreciate confirmation from OptiLube (by responding to your inquiry) that their formula is in fact the same as tested. With all due respect for current users, not having issues is more a subjective inference and not conclusive proof. And I said that as a user (my first gallon arrived last week and I am on the first tank with the additive now), I would like to see scientific evidence.
I know I posted this email from OptiLube when it came in, but not in this thread. Sorry about that.
This came to me directly from OptiLube.

Our products are a proprietary blend of products supplied to us by Lubrizol.
Each and every one is on the EPA list (http://www.epa.gov/otaq/regs/fuels/additive/web-dies.htm)

In addition, our products should be noted under the Opti-Lube name in next revision of the EPA list.

The current Opti-Lube XPD is the same formulation as that tested for the Spicer report.
Should anyone wish to have Spicer retest XPD, we would pay the cost of the HFRR test if the results were not essentially identical to the results published in the study.

We very much appreciate your support and concern as to how we are represented.

Best regards,

Rob, Technical Consultant
Opti-Lube
 

MacBuckeye

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Location
North Carolina
TDI
2009 Jetta
That isn't a cheap test! It would be great to see the other lubricity companies step up and have their product tested. How old is that Spicer report??
I'm a firm believer in additives. Have not tried Optilube.... yet.
 

740GLE

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Location
NH
TDI
2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
August 2007
 

jxtran

Member
Joined
Jul 11, 2010
Location
New England, USA
TDI
2010 Jetta - DSG
Thank you

I know I posted this email from OptiLube when it came in, but not in this thread. Sorry about that.
This came to me directly from OptiLube.

Our products are a proprietary blend of products supplied to us by Lubrizol.
Each and every one is on the EPA list (http://www.epa.gov/otaq/regs/fuels/additive/web-dies.htm)

In addition, our products should be noted under the Opti-Lube name in next revision of the EPA list.

The current Opti-Lube XPD is the same formulation as that tested for the Spicer report.
Should anyone wish to have Spicer retest XPD, we would pay the cost of the HFRR test if the results were not essentially identical to the results published in the study.

We very much appreciate your support and concern as to how we are represented.

Best regards,

Rob, Technical Consultant
Opti-Lube

Thank you tdiatlast for posting OptiLube's response.
 

tdiatlast

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 21, 2009
Location
Fort Worth, Texas
TDI
2009 Sportwagen (boughtback); 2014 Passat TDI SEL (boughtback)
I'm not certain, but I believe this may be the first HPFP failure while using Optilube XPD (posted in the HPFP failure thread):

Year: 2009
Build Date: 08/08
Make/Model: Jetta Sedan
Tranny: DSG
Mileage: 59,060
Diesel Fuel Source: Varied, burned B5 until that source dried up, then primarily Chevron, BP or Sunoco
Additives: Opti-Lube XPD after B5 was no longer available
Problem: Car lost power at a traffic light. Restarted the car and made it home in limp mode. Scanned with VAG-COM and fault was low fuel rail pressure. Would not restart the next morning and had it towed to the dealer.
Dealer: Jack Ingram VW, Montgomery, AL
Status: Repaired under warranty. I filed a complaint with the NHTSA shortly after I received the vehicle back from the dealer. Drove the car without incident for another 4,000 miles or so until the DSG started acting up again and VW would not cover the repair under the DSG extended warranty. Reluctantly, I have since traded the vehicle.


I pm'd RedWave92 yesterday, to try to find out how much XPD he was using, how long, often, etc. I haven't heard back from him yet.
 

Redwave92

New member
Joined
Jan 14, 2012
Location
Troy, AL
TDI
2009 Jetta TDI
I received the PM from tdiatlast and I thought I would provide some additional details.

I purchased the car new around September 2008 from a dealer in the Atlanta area. As I recall, the first few tanks would have been straight diesel. I then found a station in Enterprise, AL that was dispensing B5 and I was able to time my fill ups to be in Enterprise (about 30 miles from where I live) when I needed fuel. I would usually bring a five gallon container and fill it as well just in case I could not make it there when I needed to refuel.

This went on for probably two years until the station switched to diesel. I was told the switch was due to cost. I would then use two or three gallons of B20 when I could find it and top off with diesel.

I then purchased a gallon of OptiLube XPD on April 4, 2011 and added about four and a half to five ounces per fill up. There were some trips where I did not have enough OptiLube with me and ran only diesel. I starting using OptiLube around 42,000 on the odometer up until I traded it at almost 67,000 miles. My original post stated I drove it for 4,000 more miles when it was actually almost 7,000 after checking my records.

I hope this helps.
 

tdiatlast

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 21, 2009
Location
Fort Worth, Texas
TDI
2009 Sportwagen (boughtback); 2014 Passat TDI SEL (boughtback)
Thanks for the quick and clear response.

To summarize, the car went around 42k on bio (brand please? unknown base stock?), and 18k miles using XPD at the higher recommended dosage. HPFP replaced at 60k.

Did you ever get a look at a fuel filter? Were they changed at 20, 40, 60k?

Thanks again for the information. The HPFP failure issue continues to befuddle.
 

Redwave92

New member
Joined
Jan 14, 2012
Location
Troy, AL
TDI
2009 Jetta TDI
The B5 was purchased from Southwest Georgia Oil’s Inland Food Store. The B20 was purchased from Dogwood Shell in the Birmingham, AL area. Base stock unknown.

I burned primarily bio during the first 42,000 miles but some tanks were straight diesel when I was not close to a source for bio.

[FONT=&quot]I asked to see the fuel filter when my car was at the dealer. The technician opened the canister and the metal specks were quite evident with the use of a flashlight. Not surprisingly, the fuel tested negative for the presence of gasoline. The fuel filter was changed per the schedule at 20 and 40k miles.[/FONT]
 

53 willys

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2008
Location
Utah
TDI
2010 Sportwagen TDI~LOVE/HATE~
no amount of lube can save this junk HPFP...........but I still use optilube on mine..lol
 

tdiatlast

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 21, 2009
Location
Fort Worth, Texas
TDI
2009 Sportwagen (boughtback); 2014 Passat TDI SEL (boughtback)
redwave92: Sorry, I wasn't clear. I was wondering if you saw your 20k and 40k filters.

The reason I'm asking is this: I drove on plain 40-42 cetane diesel for 9500 miles, then used Stanadyne Performance or Lubricity occasionally until 16.k miles, when I started using XPD every tank.

I changed the first FF around 11k miles (I think), and it had a few (very few) very fine silver specs on the top of the filter. I didn't know to empty the canister at the time, so just replaced the FF with a new one. Someone here commented that the specs were an indication that my HPFP was about to fail.

I've not had any bright metal specs since that first FF change. At 35k, I removed some rust color material from the bottom of the canister, about as much as 3 or 4 shakes of a pepper shaker.

I'm wondering if the plain fuel was allowing the piston to scrape in the cylinder, and the OptiLube has prevented any additional wear? Just guessing, of course.
 

Cogen Man

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2011
Location
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2011 Golf TDI DSG.
Just had my first filter change last week @ 12,000 Km. Just had to have a look see. No metal flakes at all in the filter canister. Have used Opti-Lube XPD since the 3rd fill-up. Use about 100 ml in 45 liters of fuel.
 

tditom

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Sep 5, 2001
Location
Jackson, MI
TDI
formerly: 2001 Golf GL, '97 Passat (RIP) '98 NB, '05 B5 sedan
Has anyone ever gotten HFRR data from OptiLube directly, where they purchased fuel from a retail pump, gotten baseline HFRR numbers, and then dosed per their instructions and tested again?

I'd love to see that data, since they seem to only point to the Spicer study, which in my opinion is flawed.
 

Redwave92

New member
Joined
Jan 14, 2012
Location
Troy, AL
TDI
2009 Jetta TDI
The dealer changed the fuel filter at 20k and I did not see it. I think I asked the technician if he noticed any debris in the filter canister and I seem to remember him saying no. I changed the filter at 40k and did not see any specs on top or in the cylinder.
 

JSWTDI09

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 31, 2009
Location
Las Vegas, Nevada
TDI
2009 JSW TDI (gone but not forgotten)
Has anyone ever gotten HFRR data from OptiLube directly, where they purchased fuel from a retail pump, gotten baseline HFRR numbers, and then dosed per their instructions and tested again?

I'd love to see that data, since they seem to only point to the Spicer study, which in my opinion is flawed.
1) I, too, would love to see this data, but you have to realize that HFFR testing is not cheap. It would probably cost several hundred dollars to do the testing you suggest. If you can afford to do it - go for it. We will all think you.

2) The Spicer report is not perfect, but I'm not sure I would go so far as to call it flawed. The lab used is well respected, the base fuel was raw (un-addititized). The biggest "flaw" usually stated is that the Opti-Lube was not purchased at retail - it came directly from the company. That is still the only way most people can buy it. They have very few dealers or distributors. I order mine directly from the company exactly the same way Arlen Spicer got his.

Have Fun!

Don
 

tdiatlast

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 21, 2009
Location
Fort Worth, Texas
TDI
2009 Sportwagen (boughtback); 2014 Passat TDI SEL (boughtback)
Has anyone ever gotten HFRR data from OptiLube directly, where they purchased fuel from a retail pump, gotten baseline HFRR numbers, and then dosed per their instructions and tested again?

I'd love to see that data, since they seem to only point to the Spicer study, which in my opinion is flawed.
Does this data exist for any additive manufacturer? If so, who did the testing?

I understand, and respect, your perspective. But this thread is for users of XPD, not a discussion for non-users to doubt its effectiveness. There are plenty of other worthy threads for that. :)
 

JSWTDI09

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 31, 2009
Location
Las Vegas, Nevada
TDI
2009 JSW TDI (gone but not forgotten)
The dealer changed the fuel filter at 20k and I did not see it. I think I asked the technician if he noticed any debris in the filter canister and I seem to remember him saying no. I changed the filter at 40k and did not see any specs on top or in the cylinder.

Same here. I did my own 40k and saw no "stuff" in the fuel filter housing. I used Stanadyne Performance for about the first 10 fill-ups, then I switched to Opti-Lube. Those old single shot Stanadyne bottles are perfect for Opti-Lube dosing. I won't be opening it up again until I hit 60k miles (I'm at about 48k now). I have always used Chevron or Shell diesel fuel.

Have Fun!

Don
 
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