Euro 6 Mercedes van and and Fiat Professional

[Brock]

The new Mercedes Benz vans which are now available for order will be be Euro 6 compliant which means you will get up to 44 mpg and a service interval of 37,000 miles!

 

To meet the standard, the engines will will use AdBlue. No doubt motorhomers will pee in the AdBlue tank and rinse it with distilled water, thus saving on buying AdBlue.

 

The VW Crafter already uses AdBlue so I guess we'll all have to get used to it in the future.

 

Fiat reckon they have achieved 90% of their goal to have 110 Fiat Professional garages of which 60% will be linked to truck dealers and 40% to car dealers, presumably including motorhome dealers. Using a truck dealer means you can get overnight servicing which could be useful instead of an overnight stay on a campsite.

 

 

[Derek Uzzell]

Historically, Adblue has been aimed primarily at HGV applications, though Mercedes has been using it in certain car models for 5 years. As you say, it's usage is likely to become increasingly common as emissions regulations tighten.

 

More Sprinter Euro 6 details here:

 

 

http://www.businesscar.co.uk/news/2013/new-mercedes-sprinter-van-hits-euro-6-emissions-level

[euroserv]

Additives have been used in a lot of commercials and cars for several years now. Peugeot Diesel's almost all have it now and as far as I know; Fiat are the only engine manufacturer to have stated that they can acheive Euro 6 without any chemical additives.

There have been no firm details of what they will be offering before the deadline of next September but I expect there to be little change from the current lineup of power units.

The first clues will appear after the August factory shut-down because Ducato Vans and Mini-busses that are built on the 4T chassis will have to be Euro 6 compliant earlier; by 31st December this year.

 

[Guest JudgeMental]

I thought ad blue was a system you could fit to make older vehicles compliant...

[euroserv]

Hi Eddie,

 

There are lots of different systems.

 

Ad-Blu is mostly used on trucks and they were built to use it from the off but there are some retro-fit systems that use it. It injects into the exhaust system to clean up the gasses at the last stage. A 25 litre tank is most common and will normally last for around 4 fills of the main diesel tank. It costs about 50p a litre. We have some kits fitted to our vehicles that add chemical to the fuel to help with the burning of soot from the exhaust where there is a heater installed like a DPF.

 

Other vehicles like Peugeot and Mercedes cars also use a fuel borne catalyst (as it is known) and a small tank of just 2 to 5 litres will last around 20,000 miles, so you don't have to top it up very often. This is already on the VW Crafter and will be on the next Sprinter. These chemicals cost between £50 and £100 per litre.

 

So, while Ad-Blu is becoming the generic term for emissions related additives; there are several types that work in different ways. Our system uses 'Satisen 3' and Peugeot's (and some Ford's) use 'Eolys', and there are more variations out there!

 

One question that I don't have an answer to yet though, is whether the chemicals used are stable over long periods of time? Would the fact that it can take quite some time for a motor caravan to reach 20,000 miles be a potential problem? I don't mean stable like it's going to explode, of course but could it break-down into it's constituent parts? I don't know......