fuel additives?

[curtis rosche]

takin a long ride in the car this week, and i was wondering about some of the fuel additive out there. ive seen ones that claim they clean different parts or increase mileage some how, or increase engine life, all you have to do is add to the fuel tank.

is there any truth to any of these products, or are they just wastes of money? with the cost of gas going up and being a long trip, even a little would help.

[Bruce Volden]

Around here we have an additive called ethanol ;) I don't know what's available in your area. Ethanol will keep things clean, eat anything rubber (over time), and decrease fuel mileage. HTH. Sidenote-I often will add about a pint of transmission fluid to my crankcase when it's getting close (500 miles) to an oil change--have been doing this for many years-this too cleans things up. I like K&N air filters, they have helped--mostly keeps the service stations from nagging you about buying a new filter. One last thing----my garage refuses to deal with any flat tires utilizing an additive called green slime. Sorry for a lame attempt at humor.

Bruce

[mickey cassiba]

Curtis, as a long time mechanic, I can tell you most of the additives out there are pure bunkum. Now if you know for a fact that you have water in the tank(almost unavoidable these days) there is a 'remedy in a bottle', 'HEAT', or ethyl alcohol. It'll 'dry' your gas out. Injector cleaner is a hit and miss thing, STP cleaner was good. STP oil treatment is a hoax, as are most crankcase cleaners. The best additive is regular preventive maintenance. Change the filters(or at least blow 'em out) change the oil, and don't buy discount gas.(DAMHIKT)

[Matt Meiser]

Good (generally expensive) fuel injector cleaners are supposed to work. I've been using them in our cars for years and knock on wood haven't ever had fuel system problems.

[Curt Fuller]

is there any truth to any of these products, or are they just wastes of money


About all they really clean out is your wallet.

[Rich Engelhardt]

The oil companies have more money than God at their fingertips and an army of chemists to formulate the best blend(s) of gasoline.
It's doubtful any additive you can buy off the shelf will have any long term significant value.

IIRC, most of those additives are simply tolulene.
Tolulene and xylene are octane boosters.
The stuff you pump into your tank already has (let me look it up) - -between 5 and 25% aromatic solvents in it, so, I can't see where a small (8oz?) bottle in 15 or so gallons is going to have any effect - other than possibly upsetting the balance of the blend.

I ran an old lawn mower once on pure xylene just to see what would happen.
For about 30 seconds, it ran with all the gusto of an Indy car, then it died.
I pulled the head off and there was a big hole burned into the piston!

But hey,,,the fuel lines were clean as a whistle! ;)

Buy a new air filter instead...

FWIW - don't try to save by blowing out the old one. That doesn't work.
You can't dislodge the realy tiny particles that clog the old one without tearing it.
All you end up with is a clean clogged filter instead of a dirty clogged filter.
Either way, it's still clogged and won't allow the right amount of air flow.


don't buy discount gas.(
"Discount" gas, depending on the vendor, can be a good value.
It's generally the overage from the big name places.
The problems come in from both the way it's stored & also from mixing different blands.

All gasoline is a blend of different materials.
Not all those materials react well with each other.

[Joe Angrisani]

......Change the filters(or at least blow 'em out)....(DAMHIKT)

Absolutely do NOT blow out your air filters. Compressed air crushes the fibers, seriously restricting airflow going forward. Used to crack me up at the old shop when someone would buy an expensive K&N filter, then "maintain it" by blowing it off with compressed air. In a matter of moments, their fancy free-flow filter worked worse than a crappy NAPA filter. Use a quality OEM filter, and maybe knock the dirt out by slapping it on the ground. But don't mess up the filter media (K&N or regular old paper filters) with compressed air.

[Dave Lehnert]

http://www.fuel-testers.com/is_gas_additive_safe_with_e10_list.html

[Bob Rufener]

Some of the additives in gasoline are mandated by the government because of air quality in large urban areas. This adds to the cost of the gasoline in many areas.

[curtis rosche]

well i just filled it up and im getting 23mpg around the country, with buggies and hills,. it used to be better, its a 2.0L 2001 focus, hopefully it should be around 30 on my trip

[Jim O'Dell]

Only additive I'd consider using is Techron. You can buy it on it's own. Ford used to have us put a quart in the fuel tank for cars that had a specific driveability issue. Wish I remembered what that was. Jim.

[Anthony Whitesell]

Curtis, as a long time mechanic, I can tell you most of the additives out there are pure bunkum. Now if you know for a fact that you have water in the tank(almost unavoidable these days) there is a 'remedy in a bottle', 'HEAT', or ethyl alcohol. It'll 'dry' your gas out. Injector cleaner is a hit and miss thing, STP cleaner was good. STP oil treatment is a hoax, as are most crankcase cleaners. The best additive is regular preventive maintenance. Change the filters(or at least blow 'em out) change the oil, and don't buy discount gas.(DAMHIKT)

It'd be cheaper just to fill up with the 10% ethanol gasoline. Ethyl alcohol, ethanol, same thing. I get a kick out of people that add dry gas to their tank and purchase the ethanol blend fuel.

[Mac McQuinn]

While Techron is the only thing I've used remotely in the past to keep injectors clean, I do use A fuel stabilizer in the fall for my Generator, Motorcycle, etc. I've have issues in the past although nothing since going to a stabilizer. Next to impossible to get 100% of the fuel out of a piece of equipment and when the fuel was not treated, it cost me $.
Mac

[Larry Edgerton]

I always used a fuel system cleaner called ReGain, but it was apparently bought out by Gunk, as it is gone and there is a little thing on the Gunk bottles that says "with ReGain". Still works, but not as fast. It is noticable with my van, maybe because my coffee is setting on the motor, but it does smooth it out.

I have a Mazda 3 with a 2000cc, possibly the same motor as Ford used it in the Focus, and my mileage in a country/small town setting is 32-38 this time of year, 29-34 in the winter. So... I would say that you have an issue. How many miles on the car? If over 100K have the plugs ever been changed? Wires? Air filter?

It can't hurt to throw in some good injector cleaner for a couple of tanks, but at 20mpg you have something that is not right. See If cleaner helps and go from there.

Larry

[Matt Meiser]

Spark plugs made a big difference on my wife's 07 Focus. The interval was 100K. I changed them at 95 and there wasn't much left. I don't think she was keeping any eye on distance between fill-ups or mileage but it certainly ran a lot better. It was about a 30min job on her car.

Also, her throttle body was sticking shut, apparently a common probably after a few years because something builds up on it. I used some throttle body cleaner and again big difference. That was about a 10 minute job.

[Jim Matthews]

Properly inflated tires provide a noticeable improvement in my fuel economy.
I get near the same mpg out of my '03 Honda Odyssey which is considerably heavier than your Focus.

If you can keep a constant speed around the buggies, or coast to manage your speed, then your heat loss in braking will be reduced.
As you are well aware, the Focus has a sweet spot for fuel consumption which should be right around your travel speed on two lane roads.

Coast when you can, brake when you must, anticipate your speed changes or your mileage will go bust.

[Jason Roehl]

I had heard that much of the fuel injector cleaner out there was essentially kerosene with a small percentage of other solvents thrown in.

I haven't used FI cleaner in years now, with no fuel system problems. Gas today is pretty tightly controlled and very clean. I've never had any sort of contaminant come out the back (input) side of a fuel filter (an over-replaced part, IMHO).

But, gas is also highly variable from region to region, or city to city. Last I heard, there are 18 different formulations required by various AHJs around the country. Multiply that by the typical 3 octane ratings offered, and you have 54 different types of gasoline sold across the land.

[Bryan Morgan]

Talking to a BWM tech they re-bottle Red Line SL1 and sell it to you at twice the cost. He claims they use it because its the only stuff that actually works.

[Jim Rimmer]

The gasoline sold by the big names have all you need as far as additives. LOML got a new Honda Accord in 2007 that was supposed to get 25 to 30MPG. It wasn't doing well at all. She had been buying gas at the grocery store and the big box store. As an experiment, I asked her to buy only Shell gas for several tanks(any big name would work, Chevron, Exxon, Valero, but I had a Shell card that got me a 5% discount). After a few tanks of Shell the mileage increased 3-4 MPG. The grocery store and box store fuels are cheaper because they don't have the additives. (It is my understaning that the additives are put in at the tanker facility but don't accept that as fact.) It is worth it to me to switch to big name fuel. YMMV.

[curtis rosche]

i always use Hess, somehow i got 24 mpg on the way up from millersville to summerset, and i got 28.7 on the way back.
on the hilly roads while i was there, i got 19

[Jeff Bartley]

if you were looking at diesel there are additives that help lube the injection pump.....but that's another topic! if it's mileage you after the tdi's can get about 50mpg if you right foots not too heavy....again, another topic.

[curtis rosche]

if you right foots not too heavy....again, another topic.

no where near a light foot,,,,, i may have hit 100 at one point when a older man in a mustang with his wife decied that he should try to cut me off and then try to pass me,,,,,,,,

[Greg Portland]

Absolutely do NOT blow out your air filters. Compressed air crushes the fibers, seriously restricting airflow going forward. Used to crack me up at the old shop when someone would buy an expensive K&N filter, then "maintain it" by blowing it off with compressed air. In a matter of moments, their fancy free-flow filter worked worse than a crappy NAPA filter. Use a quality OEM filter, and maybe knock the dirt out by slapping it on the ground. But don't mess up the filter media (K&N or regular old paper filters) with compressed air.
The service manual on my Honda mower specifically recommends blowing out the (paper) filter but at low psi (10-20psi IIRC).

[Dave Lehnert]

Just a note about octane ratings.

May not be the same at all stations but the place I worked ran a gas station. We only had two tanks. Low-end and high-end octane. The middle grade was just a blend of the two.