MPG Caps

[overlordsshadow]

Probably as scam. Viewed thier flash movie and it just seems like 'hey get on this marketing bandwagon and make you DREAMS come true and SAVE money and MAKE money and all this stuff'. Never says much about the caps themselves, how they work, or why they work. Its all about makin money with something that does ---- all. Little brother came home with one of their cards. I promptly went to their site and watched their vid. Then warned my brother about scam artists, marketers, thieves and N/A vehicles.

[Turbodave]

What are MPG caps? I've never even heard of them.

[overlordsshadow]

Supposed to improve gas mileage 7-14%, little tablets you put in ure gas tank.

[Tony Hanna]

Snake Oil!

[contraption22]

Oh yeah, they have been around for YEARS. If they worked, you'd already know about them.

[puppet]

They used to work ... years ago when gas was crap. I think they were called briquettes or something like that. You'd drop them into the tank to improve the octane.

[overlordsshadow]

Alright thats what i figured.

[mpgmike]

I think they are naphtaline or naphta...moth balls.

Mike

[22mopar]

here's a way you should think about any claims that magically increase performance or fuel milage. If this stuff really did what they claim.. don't you think EVERY car manufacturer would use it on every new car?

CAFE, EPA are very strict standards that manufactures have to meet, with a large degree of difficulty. if a cap makes the car improve fuel milage, they damn sure would include it in the car to improve their CAFE ratings.

other items of BS claims... magnets on the fuel line, Split fire spark plugs, Slick 50 (while it is a decent lubricant it in NO way makes more power as claimed) and the other mystery oil additives.

[turbovanman²]

I just watched Mythbusters last night, they tried a few gadgets, even Acetone, a 100 mpg carb and all failed, the super carb went from 20 odd mpg to 12 mpg, :banghead:
They tried a Hydrogen gas maker, no go, but they did run the car on pure Hydrogen.
The only trick that worked was used Vegatable oil in Diesels, messy but worked. They roughly lost 10% efficiency which for free fuel is pretty good.

[overlordsshadow]

Yep watched that too, although I wouldn't say used cooking oil is free. Has to be bought by the restaurant first, and your time and filtration cost money. It is a cool thing though but won't end oil monopoly.

[slasky]

Yep watched that too, although I wouldn't say used cooking oil is free. Has to be bought by the restaurant first, and your time and filtration cost money. It is a cool thing though but won't end oil monopoly.
Several of my friends run their cars on it and they run great.

[turbovanman²]

Yep watched that too, although I wouldn't say used cooking oil is free. Has to be bought by the restaurant first, and your time and filtration cost money. It is a cool thing though but won't end oil monopoly.

It is free, most if not all restaurants will give you it. It costs them money to get rid of it.

[slasky]

It is free, most if not all restaurants will give you it. It costs them money to get rid of it.
The restaurants around here are more than happy to give it away for free. The filters cost money but it still is a lot less expensive than buying diesel.

[overlordsshadow]

For sure its cheaper but one way or the other the world will end, oil shortage or food shortage, both likely in about the same time span.

[WVRampage]

There is this one thing I found that does increase fuel milage and power but if used wrong will realy hurt your milage as we all know cause we have them..TURBOs. My volvo if I drive it smart it gets in the mid to high 30s and its a auto.

[22mopar]

Veggie oil around here is no longer free. there's lots of people scrounging for it so the restaurants are figuring that if there is a demand, they can recoop some costs.

[overlordsshadow]

One mans garbage another mans treasure?

[Will Martin]

True story.....

A co-worker of mine, Scott Hamm, came to work last year with a web site address for me to look at. I go to it, and it's one of those "gas cap" sites. Goes into all this fancy mumbo jumbo and nice pictures of stuff you really don't understand. Took me a while to read the whole web site because it was just a bunch of jibberish, talking around the actual product and it's contents. He knows I'm a car nut and I tell him pretty much what 22mopar stated above. Next day he comes to work PISSED, because his wife used his credit card to invest $500 into this crap. Guess what? SHE NEVER GOT HER "PRODUCT"!!!!!!! lol Aw man, I tease him to this day! They have a class action lawsuit going on with about 20,000 more people! lol Do the math, $500x$20,000!

[turbovanman²]

One product that I have seen actually work but was costly was PVI or Platinum Vapor Injection. It all depended on the car but gains of 2-5 mpg were there. The only crappy thing was the platinum lasted about a month then you had to refill it.

[puppet]

... and the refill is only a cazzillion $$$$

[WVRampage]

Is it strange that engines that are real good on gas dont last long in the world for some reason,like the metro with the 3 banger in it.and the world engine doesnt get much beter milage than a 2.2.....

[Turbodave]

It seems like most manufacturers had their best fuel economy cars out in the mid 90's and have gone downhill since as cars have gotten heavier and bigger engines have become the norm.

What's ironic is that the best fuel economy cars were available at a time when gas prices reached some record lows. Now with record highs it's hard to find anything that get's 30mpg let alone the 40mpg that some of the older cars got. I think that the domestic auto manufacturers aren't very good at predicting trends and keep producing cars based upon what everybody wanted 10 years ago, not what people need today. The import manufacturers seem to have held on to their efficient cars a little better than the domestics and that's one of the reasons why they are taking away sales left and right from the used to be "big three".

[MiniMopar]

Well, it's the classic thing with any big company...especially public ones. Their #1 priority is to keep the shareholders happy. The people on top lose track of what their own company even does and don't care much about it. They look 3-6 months ahead...12 if they are especially good. I see it all the time at my company. No one with any real power looks to the years ahead.

As far as the big 3...I think there are two factors working against them. One is the above problem, where they are not paying much attention to the future and reacting to the present to make the next quarter better. The other is that quality is always a problem and they just can't compete in the economy class and keep any kind of reputation. They do a lot of things right, but mess up some details that makes their perceived quality poor in the eyes of the consumer. Decades of this is why people buy Civics and Corollas instead of Neons. Most of the people I know that buy these cars don't really care what they look like. They just want a cheap car that needs gas and an oil change on occasion. Not saying Civics are perfect, but their perceived quality is higher than a Neon.

That's my observation, anyway.

[t3rse]

The problem with gas mileage as stated is vehicle weight. The reason they can't make metros anymore is because the car has 0 chance in a collision with a 3 ton SUV, which is what most people drive these days. The government did such a great job of scaring everyone that they all went out and bought big a$$ gas guzzlers, thus making it impossible for an omni or metro like vehicle...the last thing the manufactures need is having someone die in a specific model of car bi-weekly b/c some a$$hole in a hummer was too busy text messaging someone when they changed lanes and crushed the poor sub-compact. The only reason we have the FIT and YARIS is b/c they are already doing well in Japan.

[Keito]

I've had this in my favorites for a while, been meaning
to take a closer look.
http://www.hydrogen-boost.com/

[turbovanman²]

Is it strange that engines that are real good on gas dont last long in the world for some reason,like the metro with the 3 banger in it.and the world engine doesnt get much beter milage than a 2.2.....

The Metro's/Firefly's/Sprints are still kicking around here. I do miss mine, it got a solid 50 mpg no matter how hard I drove it. My only problem was it was sooooooo damn small.



Well, it's the classic thing with any big company...especially public ones. Their #1 priority is to keep the shareholders happy. The people on top lose track of what their own company even does and don't care much about it. They look 3-6 months ahead...12 if they are especially good. I see it all the time at my company. No one with any real power looks to the years ahead.

As far as the big 3...I think there are two factors working against them. One is the above problem, where they are not paying much attention to the future and reacting to the present to make the next quarter better. The other is that quality is always a problem and they just can't compete in the economy class and keep any kind of reputation. They do a lot of things right, but mess up some details that makes their perceived quality poor in the eyes of the consumer. Decades of this is why people buy Civics and Corollas instead of Neons. Most of the people I know that buy these cars don't really care what they look like. They just want a cheap car that needs gas and an oil change on occasion. Not saying Civics are perfect, but their perceived quality is higher than a Neon.

That's my observation, anyway.

Don't forget supply and demand. WE want large SUV's as proven by the sales. They can't make them fast enough.

[MiniMopar]

Don't forget supply and demand. WE want large SUV's as proven by the sales. They can't make them fast enough.

If by "WE" you mean not me, then I agree. ;) The $100 fill-ups are finally starting to get through to these people. I work with a lot of them and I often rant about how much I hate their vehicles. I'm hearing them whine about the pump prices, which always brings a smile to my face. Yeah, my car only gets 26mpg the way I drive it, but it can do better if I try and it is still way better then the 12-16 that they get.

Granted, some people have legitimate uses for such vehicles and if they chose to drive them to work every day...well that's their choice. Most people, probably 80% or more, buy them strictly as status symbols or with some kind of presumption about safety that is generally untrue.

On the bright side, Hummer sales are floundering which is hopefully a sign of things to come. It will be nice when more people are driving cars again. It will happen eventually, once gas reaches $5/gallon...which it will. Some of the die hard, uneducated types will buy hybrid SUVs thinking they are some kind of miracle machine. The laws of thermodynamics don't agree, though.

[ssheen]

here's a way you should think about any claims that magically increase performance or fuel mileage. If this stuff really did what they claim.. don't you think EVERY car manufacturer would use it on every new car?

That argument is sooo misguided it is not even funny. See people use it all the time. Guess some people just have more faith in their corporations than others. Don't get me wrong I have some big faith in a few good Uranium and oil companies. ;)

It is proven that water injection can lower NOx, increase power etc. How many manufactures use it? I remember reading about one that came from the factory with it. It was an EU one (forget specifically Mercedes comes to mind though, but do not quote me). They stopped using it. Why? Because it worked too well? No quite. People were too lazy to fill up the water the car was designed to use.

[Turbodave]

The manufacturers have to build a compromise, so there is always room for improvement in one way or another.

They try for decent fuel economy while trying to meet emisions regulations, crash regulations and keep the cost in a range where people can afford it. All this while building a car that tries to appeal to people and is in some ways better than it's competition. It's not an easy task. Now if there was some holy grail of fuel economy the manufacturers would probably use it, they would love to put a $10 part on every car and gain 10mpg, but there isn't such an item that I'm aware of.

For those of us that like to tinker things like water injection might be viable, but that's not for the average consumer that doesn't even know where their hood release is.