Do those magnets you can put on the fuel line actually increase power & mileage? I put one on and I thought the engine seemed more responsive at easy highway speeds. The instructions say it may take a few tankfuls before I notice a difference. I got 31.7 mph after installing it at half a tankful. Later got 27 mph? Both cases there are decent amounts of highway miles but also some A/C use. I am taking the time to slowly top off the tank to get an accurate mph figure because of the diesel fuel foaming problem. Any advise, experience, clues? The technical description for how the magnet is supposed to work is very convincing. Before shrugging this off as a rip-off, have you checked out the explanation?

the technical description looks very good. Great BS writers work in all fields, not just at USA Today and CNN However if these things worked as well as claimed don't you think they would be standard equipment on every car and truck on the road?
From the FTC...

"the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has evaluated or tested more than 100 purported gas-saving devices and additives, and has not found any product that significantly improves gas mileage."

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2002/04/energysurf2002.htm

I have doubts about any of the claimed increase in fuel economy from any additive I use. I use mostly 2 cycle motor oil at each fill up, and run powerserve if the idle gets a little rough. Powerserve does seem to be a great cleaner, but I never noticed any jump in MPG when using it as claimed.

Fuel line magnets will have as much effect as magnetic bracelets on your health or magnets in your shoes for circulation in your feet. All these products are bogus ripoffs, the CSICOP website has quite a few investigations of the effects of magnets on health (this group actually helped force Florschiem Shoes to drop their bogus claims for magnets in the soles of shoes).

At the dawn of the modern uses of electricity, there were all sorts of health uses for electricity. There was a machine that would diagnose ailments by running a current through a human body--and naturally there was another machine that could cure any ailments the first found!

The purported healing effects of magnets go back at least as far as the first observations of magnetic effects in the classical world. Anything such as magnetism and electricity that looks like magic will be understood by some people to be magic, and naturally they try to use these natural forces as magic.

As far as the addtives are concerned, I think they base their claims (loosely, perhaps) on a comparison of a dirty, poorly running engine to one which has been cleaned up, the oil changed, and their additive put in (notice how many are to be added concurrent with the oil change). They then claim all the fuel economy due to their additive. Hey, if people believe in the theraputic effects of magnets, this at least is less of a stretch.

I can make any modification you want to our Cadillac, and if I then drive it instead of my wife I guarantee fuel economy will jump from 17 to over 20mpg. Does this make me a great mechanic?!? Or would it prove the value of the modification? I think not.

Jeez...cow magnets are still out there huh? It was a big thing around 1980 or so in ID, MT to tape cow magnets to the fuel lines.
Now if I could just remember where I left that d*mn bridge...it's for sale by the way.

Joe


Cows still use them. Just the other day I saw one stuck to the side of Short's new metel barn down in the valley.

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1985 Euro 240D 5 spd 140K
1979 240D 5 spd, 40K on engine rebuild
1994 Dodge/Cummins, 5 spd, 121K
1964 Allice Chalmers D15 tractor
2014 Kubota L3800 tractor
1964 VW bug

"Lifes too short to drive a boring car"

Those magnets really worked in my 300SD. As soon as I applied the magnets I could outrun the flying pigs that used to pass me. LOL

P E H

At least the one about the cow being pinned to the barn with a magnet is believable....

The sale of these contraptions prove that not all snake oil is in liquid form.

Have a great day,

Placebo effect. If you think the car is performing better, it is -- same goes for milage, since the way you drive has a profound effect on fuel consumption.

Same reason sugar pills are as effective, if not more effective, than Prozac!

There are, alas, no miracles out there -- fuel is required to produce horsepower, and the more power you want, the more fuel you will burn.

Cow magnets are to "scavange" iron and steel bits (like snippets of bailing wire) that cows eat, prevents the metal bits from doing intestinal damage, for those who don't know much about cows. They are either fed to the cow or poked down their throat (I don't know what the do, I leave raising cows to other!) and sit in one of the stomachs.

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

There's a warehouse sale of those car/cow magnets this week. Located 5mi east of Milwaukee, WI, but I don't recall the phone number. Mr. Hoffa's the man you want to see for a good deal. Talk to Mr. Presley if Mr. Hoffa's not there. They swear by 'em.

Imagine a cow magnet burp. Bovine revenge for all those car drivers who honk at them.

Happy Monday.

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daBenz - 1970 220D

What if you put another one on the fuel return line?

A magnet also applied to the fuel return line has an equal and opposite effect on the first magnet. The car instantly levitates and flies down the road, requiring that the front wheels be used as air rudders in order to properly steer.

Caution, excessively powerful magnets are known to result in inadvertent space exploration.

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CloudNine
'89 560SEC

Cow magnets on the fuel return line is how you get the cattle off the barn walls. Bovine beauties throughout the world will thank you.

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daBenz - 1970 220D

Seems to me that most of the hysteria with magnets, copper bracelets, magic elixers is what has been refered to as the Hawthorne effect. Not quite a fit there, but same sort. Just paying close attention to the car makes it 'feel' different, does'nt it?
Well I am going to start searching for a cow that leans toward me when I idle by. Then I figure I could just grab his magnets and run. Save some bucks that way.

Old Deis,

Remember, you've been warned about honking at cows. Metallic burps can be hard on the paint.

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daBenz - 1970 220D