Are Fuel Additives Good For Your Gas Mileage?
You can find oil and gas additives advertised in a lot of places, and for sale in most stores. If you have never noticed them, you will realize they all say that they will give your car better gas mileage when you add them to your tank. Some of the products say they are FDA approved, but this is denied by the FDA.
If the FDA has not approved any of these products, why are they allowed to be for sale on the shelves, and say that they have been approved. What are consumers supposed to do, and who are they to believe? If there is no authority that is honest and truthful, then consumers are at the mercy of the product makers’ ingenuity. Some of these additives are just put in the tank as you are filling up with gas, and then you get better mileage, according to the directions. It will take up some of the gas tank so you will have a little less gas, but you won’t get better gas mileage.
Some of the ingredients in the additive are tin, magnesium, and platinum, which supposedly help clean the deposits on the bottom of the tank. One thing for sure, never use a product that has acetone, because it will dissolve plastic parts in your fuel system. Some say that a small amount of acetone won’t hurt, but there is no way to know when you have surpassed this amount. It is pretty risky to try, considering there is no proof that the product works to begin with. You would hate to ruin your fuel system by using a product that never worked. Most of these additives won’t harm your car in any way, but they are also not necessary to add to your gas tank.
The marketing plan is to get the consumer to buy the product believing that it will make the car run more efficiently. A lot of people buy into this advertising campaign, and put the bottle of additive in the tank, every few fill ups. They really have no way to learn if the product works as well as they say it will, but as long as they can get enough people to buy their product, they do all right. One reason these additives are not necessary is the fact that the gas already has ingredients which will do the same thing. Even though fuel additives are not that expensive, if they are not doing what they say, then they are a waste of money. If your gas already does it, why are you being duped into buying something that doesn’t help.
The additives that are there for the oil, are only putting in what the oil already has. What is important, though, is to use the oil that is recommended for your car. If you use the wrong grade of motor oil, it could ruin your engine.
