There is a very good market for after-market automotive fuel additives, but there are various opinions as to whether such products are necessary. When one considers that most modern gasoline has detergents and some other additives to help clean away engine deposits, spending additional money on additional fuel additives seem less than essential. Answer Bag sums up the general consensus on fuel additive validity. For each person who swears by the products that you add to the fuel tank, there are several others who suggest that fuel additives are unnecessary.
What is really happening when you use additives
Fuel additives claim that they clean deposits from your car’s intake and fuel injection systems. Nevertheless, any MPG boosts are minimal; they simply get your car back to where it is intended to be in the first place in terms of miles per gallon. Using the proper octane rating inside your gasoline and keeping up with general maintenance might very well achieve the same effect. Octane-enhancer solutions, pills, magnets, additional filters and more may sound scientifically sound, but best thing for automobile performance could really come from that newfound lightness as part of your wallet after purchasing such products, suggests Stason.org.
Don’t believe your gasoline can do the job?
According to a couple of different sources, a modern gasoline can contain any number of the following fuel additives, already within the mix:
- Antioxidants – Possibly to prevent oxidation
- Metal deactivators – There to inhibit copper, which can rapidly promote oxidation
- Corrosion inhibitors – To prevent corrosion caused by water condensation
- Anti-icing additives – Because frozen fuel doesn’t burn
- Anti-wear additives – To lessen wear and tear on cylinders and pistons.
- Deposit-modifying additives – To change the composition of engine deposits for easier disposal
Don’t confuse your oxygen sensor
Your engine’s oxygen sensor (initially called a “Lambda Sensor” when they first appeared in European fuel-injected vehicles) is intended to monitor the fuel-oxygen mixture so that emissions are properly regulated. Fuel additives can change the expected exhaust gas composition and effectively confuse the sensor. If the oxygen sensor goes dead, your vehicle will burn much more gas and eventually damage the catalytic converter. That could cost you extra in repairs.
And you don’t want to think about repairs if you’re still paying off your auto car loans!
Discover more information:
Answer Bag
answerbag.com/q_view/750955
Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_additive
Stason.org
stason.org/TULARC/vehicles/gasoline-faq/index.html
AutohausAZ
autohausaz.com/html/emissions-oxygen_sensors.html
A crash course in what some fuel additives claim:
