Mergi Fuel Additive

[Marym2]

Has anyone tried this?

[Théière]

No,  have you?

http://www.mergi.com/products.html

[Marym2]

no

[Pickles]

It looks like another version of snake oil. Bear in mind that when you buy petrol or diesel for cars, it already contains a "package" of additives designed to improve the fuel. If you really want to spend some money to get a saving in fuel consumption, try the more expensive "added value" petrol or diesel that you can see at many service stations.

Regards

Pickles

[NickP]

To be quite honest; if it was any good the government would have taxed it out of existence by now. My last car after it had done 120.000 miles I used to put a diesel additive in every 10.000 miles. But if your car is reasonably new as Pickles says "use the dearer fuels" to get any benefits. But of course if it gives you peace of mind it's a great product.

[AnOther]

I have to ask the OP why the question ?

If it's to achieve better MPG then I would say that with the number of cars on the roads of the world any products which actually worked and gave improved MPG would be universally known about and would need no advertising.

You might equate it with product like Broquet http://www.broquet.co.uk which, if it did what it claims, would be fitted to every car off the production line.

FWIW I have personal experience of Broquet (under it's original brand name of Carbonflo) and can state quite categorically that it does NOT work !

[Polly]

Wasn't there a time in the 80s when, if you added together the advertised effects of all the fuel-saving additives and devices on the market, you ended up with no need for any fuel at all?

They are all a con.

[dave21478]

All these potions and gizmos are just snake oil marketing scams. Flashy websites with lots of pseudo-scientific claims, "testimonials" probably written by the owners mum and a complete lack of links to genuine independent test results.

If you want to save money on fuel, start by not wasting money of a bottle of goop that goes into the tank and does nothing. Instead, spend the money on a decent quality, accurate tyre pressure gauge - correct tyre pressures will save more money than any potions. After that, have the car serviced properly and keep it well maintained - this will affect fuel consumption and ultimately if you still want savings, either change cars for something more economical or use it less.

My local petrol station has recently breached the €1.70 mark for a litre of unleaded. I don't mean to sound like a doom-monger, but unless there are serious, coordinated protests or other direct action that result in the lowering of fuel duty, then €2 per litre by the end of this summer is not an unlikely scenario.

[Benjamin]

Pickles/NickP

Some months back, and I think it was in the ST's motoring section (InGear?), they did a comparison of the "premium" grades of fuel claimed to give greater fuel economy which turned out largely to also be a con. But of course if one feels better using them then go ahead.

[NickP]

[quote user="Benjamin"]Pickles/NickP

Some months back, and I think it was in the ST's motoring section (InGear?), they did a comparison of the "premium" grades of fuel claimed to give greater fuel economy which turned out largely to also be a con. But of course if one feels better using them then go ahead.



[/quote]

The main benefits of premium fuel is cleaner fuel burning and therefor cleaner injectors,  Personally I'm not sure that the "premium" saves fuel? But of course  if the ST says it doesn't, then  if you read it; it must be right! [:D]

[crossy67]

Back in the early 90's I used to drive an old 1.6 diesel Astra van that had been round the clock twice.  My manager was paranoid people were using the vans at night or stealing fuel from him, he was a complete nutter.  He used to check fuel reciepts against mileges every few days.  He bought a thing called a fuel cat that fitted in the fuel line off a travelling rep.  we fitted it to my van as it was doing 2-300 miles a day.  Within a week the fuel consumption had gone down by about 10% and the van was noticably quicker.  There was a hill I used to drive up every day, normally I would end up in 3rd (old diesel) after fitting this gizmo the van pulled stronger and could saty in 4th all the way up the hill.

Maybe it was a coincidence but there was a definite difference.

As for fuel saving fuels.  It is totally possible for them to save fuel problem is you need to drive at exactly the same speed, accelerate at the same rate etc to notice the difference.

An enging will make more and more power the earlier in a cycle you can ignite the fuel up to the point where the combustion ignites too early and predetonation (det) or knock (pinking) occurs.  The same will happen if you reduce the amount of fuel per charge (AFR, Air fuel ratio), the less fuel the more power.  Problem with this is the more o2 you burn the hotrter the combustion chamber gets, this heat will create knock, adding fuel will cool the chamber reducing knock, the ideal ration for cruising is called stioch. 

Fuel addetives ability to increase knock resistance by cooling the charge or allowing more advanced ignition timing combined with a modern engine managments ability to learn will result in less fuel being needed to create the same amount of power.  Problem is though you, the driver are responsible for metering the anmount of fuel needed, if an adetive can give you a potential saving of 5% you need to reduce the amount of accelerator by 5%. 

Best way to reduce fuel consumption is accelerate slower, drive gentley, make sure tyres are inflated (higher will save fuel but reduce safety).  You would be amazed how much difference decent tyres will make, if you have ever ridden a push bike you will notice the difference in resitance over different road surfaces.

[Jay]

[quote user="crossy67"]

An engine will make more and more power the earlier in a cycle you can ignite the fuel up to the point where the combustion ignites too early and pre-detonation (det) or knock (pinking) occurs.  The same will happen if you reduce the amount of fuel per charge (AFR, Air fuel ratio), the less fuel the more power.  Problem with this is the more O2 you burn the hotter the combustion chamber gets, this heat will create knock, adding fuel will cool the chamber reducing knock, the ideal ration for cruising is called stioch. 

[/quote]

What's "stioch"?

[pachapapa]

[quote user="Jay"][quote user="crossy67"]
An engine will make more and more power the earlier in a cycle you can ignite the fuel up to the point where the combustion ignites too early and pre-detonation (det) or knock (pinking) occurs.  The same will happen if you reduce the amount of fuel per charge (AFR, Air fuel ratio), the less fuel the more power.  Problem with this is the more O2 you burn the hotter the combustion chamber gets, this heat will create knock, adding fuel will cool the chamber reducing knock, the ideal ration for cruising is called stioch. 
[/quote]

What's "stioch"?[/quote]

possibly an apocopated miss-spelling of stoichiometric.[I]

[crossy67]

That's it, I have no spell checker on this pc, sorry.