dmd85059

I bought this Magnetic Fuel Saver device at Harbor Freight yesterday http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...mnumber=36098. My first impression was that this is just one of those BS scams like the tonado craps. I couldn't wait to get home, popped up my hood, looked for the fuel line and strap the thing on. I took the car out for a 50 miles drive and boy, I couldn't believe my eyes. I got about 2 MPG gain as reporting by the Navigation system. I used to get 18.5 to 19.4 and now I get 20.6 to 20.9 MPG. It's too early to jump to any conclusions, I'll need at least 3 more gas tanks before I can tell. For now, it seems to work..

My driving style:
Normal driving
90% stop & go 10% Freeway -- If u live in Houston, u know what HW59 is like at 7:30 in the morning and 5:30pm.

Note: Try to strap the Fuel Saver on the fuel inlet line as close to where the line connects to the engine block as possible for maximum effect.

sosa_seven

how much did this fuel saver divice set you back?

B_Cruz

sounds interesting. I always wondered about those things.

mikeyboy

Alittle off topic but has anyone tried that tornado thing? and does it work at all?

mooretorque

Caveat emptor.

Somehow the combined engineering might of every automotive company in the world has failed to come up with something that apparently raises gas mileage by 10%. All those engineers must surely be kicking themselves. I guess the manufacturers just don't want to pay licensing fees since this marvelous device is not standard equipment on EVERY auto sold today. They'd rather spend bazillions trying to do it themselves. Sure.



Let's not even start on the tornado again...................

cal_alum98

I think we're seeing the placebo effect at work here. If you really want to test it out, you need an experimental control and more uniform testing conditions.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

Magically the magnetic fuel saver device repels your foot from the gas pedal a little, improving your fuel economy!

docrings

Need a uniform stretch of highway and put the car at a set speed (say 55) and do a two way test after resetting the MPG button after reaching speed on each run. Try to get at least two miles of straight and level road each way.
Do about 5 times with an average of all runs.

Then add "object X" and run the same stretch with the same speeds, etc. Run the route 5 times and take an average.

It's best if the driver does not know if the unit is there or not so it doesn't influence ANY driving behaviors, and also best if the one doing the final calculations is "blinded" to the presence or not of the device.
This is known in the scientific community as a "double-blind, prospective study" which is the gold standard of testing.

Anything less is subject to tester bias and less than ideal.

Dr. Matthew Rings, M.D.
San Diego, California
FDA researcher

1QWKGS4

iTrader: (3)

Thats quite interesting - I really like to know more info on that. (i'm somewhat skeptical) Cause I don't put anything on my car until its proven to work.

U asked about the "Tornado" I have the article from MotorTrend magazine awhile back like five years ago - they did a test on the tornado.. They First Dynoed a BMW 530 and then put the "Tornado" in the air inlet - and put the car back on the dynoed and yup! Its a sucess!! It worked completely STOCK- Same power and everything if the car came from the Factory. You spent what? 19.95 or 29.95 on a piece of crap that didn't work and probably added dead weight to your car.. Waste of time too...

I found a new method for better gas mileage and even smoother driving in our GS's!!
Yes! Its my ancient chinese secret - it will imporve gas mileage everytime..Proven to work and the Lexus Manual even says it.

Okay- First Get back in car - Crank car up.
2nd- Put in the car in Drive
3rd- before you head out switch the " ECT from PWR to Normal " - Thats it!!!

Works Everytime I tried I think My gas improves a 1-2 mpg around town- Though I'm addicted to power mode.. so I don't save much gas.

This piece of advice was FREE and you didn't have to go buy "anything" - You save money and Time and a few miles per gallon if you wanna do the normal ECT thing..

1QWK

sung35

Actually I found that it is the same gas mileage consumption with ECT power or normal mode if you drive "normally", unless you punch more on the gas pedel 'cause you know that your car can handle that. My route to work is mostly rural street with very few traffic stop light or stop sign, and it is a 45 minutes drive. So when I try to see which mode cost more gas by using the same route every day, the result is the same. My 2 cents.

1QWKGS4

iTrader: (3)

Sung35: I was being sarcastic - I have a modded GS - If I wanted to save gas I'll trade for The New Prius.
After modding your car and if your thinking about gas mileage- "Too Late" my car did get really good gas Stock but now with a 3.76 Rear-end - Does not matter what I do - Its a gas guzzler now.. More power will always cost you more gas - Extra horsepower is not free. Even If you had an intake <more air> so your engine has to inject more gas for the correct combustion. See - Theres no such thing is free HP - You pay for it someway..

1QWK

Threxx

These magnetic devices don't work at all.

Manufacturers spend millions of dollars just to shave 10 pounds of the weight of a car or lower the idle by 50 RPM to amount to a 0.05 MPG increase... yet they could increase the fuel economy by 2-2.5 MPG just by strapping on a 10 cent magnet to the fuel line and they choose not to? And believe me... I know a few automotive engineers and they are incredibly smart guys that are aware of anything and everything going on in the car industry... I'm sure if we know about these magnets, they know 10x more about them.


Strangely enough, some of you have mentioned the Tornado. I just wanted to menion that the Tornado actually does work somewhat as advertised. There are certain RPM bands and throttle positions that benefit from a swirled intake charge. It's not like a night-and-day benefit or anything... just a small benefit. But at the same time the other areas of the RPM band and other throttle positions actually see decreased performance from the swirled intake charge- not to mention at any RPM, the tornado increases the resistance the air encounters in the intake path by partially blocking it which is never good.

So in other words, Tornado's claims are somewhat true... they just fail to mention that it actually does more harm than good to your powerband and fuel economy.

The new 2004 Acura TL has the same exact engine as the 2003 TL-S... except the new 04 has 10 more horsepower. How so? They actually took the same concept as the Tornado uses except they made it eletronically variable to where a computer instantly adapts whether the intake swirls the air charge or not based on your RPM and throttle position.

TNB

Magnetic fuel saving device ? I'll get one right after my next oil change when I use snake oil.

jtanoyo1

I have a Broquet system installed on my car. They install an in-tank unit that consists of a simple gauze containing a number of pellets, and the complete unit is inserted into the bottom of the fuel tank. The in-line unit consists of a metal tube with the gauze and pellets inside. This unit is fitted into the fuel line of my car. (side note: I think the pellets are what's causing the reading error on my fuel level meter on my dash the other day. It gave a reading of 1/4 tank when it was actually empty....)

I also have another Broquet item called Top Fueller installed too. I found out about it when I was sticking my head under the car and it looks like some sort of high-performance fuel filter.

Since my previous Aristo had none of this broquet thingies installed, I can give you an unbiased answer of what happened to my cars with or without the system.

With Broquet installed, I get 5.5km/L or 13MPG for you Americans. Now, I know this number seems low, but we have MUCH crappier gas here than what you get in the States, and thus the lower mpg.

Without the Broquet, I get a measly 3km/L at best or 7.8MPG which is almost HALF of what I would get with the Broquet.

I am not sure what the pellets do, or what the Top Fueller does, but it sure helps me save some major gas! But I think, this kinda thing only works in areas where you have severely crappy gas. If you still can get Sunoco 94 or better, I think this is a pretty useless system for you.

docrings

My best gas savings are as follows: (2000 GS400, 79K miles, premium fuel, commute 17 miles each way with 6 miles of parkway and 11 miles of interstate, 20 minutes easy traffic in AM commute, 35 minutes stop-n-go on afternoon trip home)

19.5MPG over a few hundred miles: A/C always on, no cruise used, but try to maintain "steady state".
20.4MPG over a few thousand miles: A/C always on, but cruise control used as much as possible even on non-interstate roads, and using "resume"/"coast" as necessary.
21.8MPG over a few thousand miles: no A/C ever, cruise used almost always during commute. I try to use the cruise control even if its for a few hundred yards at steady speeds on non-interstate parkways.

So, that is my best savings: less A/C and more cruise control of throttle.


Doc