What Are the Active Ingredients in Fuel Additives?

The liquid you pouring into your car's gas tank is supposed to clean the engine and get better fuel numbers - so what the main ingredients?

engine-cleaner

Do you really know what’s in that engine cleaner you’re gonna pour into your car’s engine? Sure you can see what the manufacturer says it’s supposed to do inside your vehicle, but these fuel additives’ chemical makeup is a mystery to most.

Read on to get a quick analysis of that additive before uncorking it.

What are Fuel additives

Fuel additives are substances that are added to gasoline or diesel fuel to improve its quality, performance, and/or efficiency. The most common active ingredients in fuel additives are detergents, lubricants, and corrosion inhibitors.

Detergents help to reduce deposits and keep vital engine parts clean. Lubricants help to reduce friction and wear on moving parts, and corrosion inhibitors help to protect metal surfaces from corrosion.

The other ingredients in Fuel additives

Engine cleaning concoctions contains not only lubricants and detergents – other ingredients are mixed in too. Fuel additives may also contain ingredients such as antioxidants, metal deactivators, and dispersants which help to maximize efficiency and reduce emissions.