California Autos Examiner

Monday, August 07, 2006

Money for Nothing and Your Gas for Free


I expect to see more stories like this...CNN has a story about how folks are trying to increase their fuel mileage with special potions, magnets, and whatnot. All the devices tested by CNN/Popular Mechanics actually decreased mileage. Like the previous story about Hummer dealers installing “Vortex Valves” to purportedly help mileage, folks will try anything when prices spike upwards. The only thing these devices do is improve the bank account of the person selling it to you. I vote for saving gas the old fashioned way: air up your tires, proper tune-ups and swapping out filters.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Actually, I did some personal research on the magnet products... The magnets used in these devices are neodymium or "rare earth" magnets.
You can buy generic neodymium magnets for cheap and websites like this one. (in fact, this website sells "fuel line magnets" in a pre-prepared housing for $15/each, which is a far cry from the $60 - $200 range products.
This company itself is somewhat sceptical of some of the claims of the magnet-device pushers, as described here.

Worth noting, however, is that neodymium magnets are also used in computer hard drives. Got any dead or 1 GB or smaller capacity hard drives that you won't use anyway? Tear a couple of them apart, and create your own fuel line magnet yourself.

I used a pair of hard drive magnets and some wire ties. I tracked my gas mileage for a month before installing. After installing and using for about 1.5 months, my gas mileage had improved by about 2.5 mpg... The vehicle was a 1990 Nissan Maxima with 160,00+ miles on it.

Hardly conclusive, but an interesting experiment at no cost.