Boston Herald
By Tom & Ray Magliozzi / Car Talk
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Dear Tom & Ray:
Is there any merit to the claim that nitrogen in gasoline helps clean a cars engine, or is this just the latest gas-additive scam?
Whats the chemistry behind this claim?
– David
RAY: We assume youre asking about Shell Oils latest ad campaign, which calls the companys gasoline nitrogen enhanced. Well, like most of the enhancement offers that come via e-mail these days, this one should probably be ignored, David.
TOM: Shell purports that its new nitrogen-enhanced gas keeps your cars engine cleaner.
RAY: But all gas must by law contain certain additives that help block deposits from forming on your cars valves and other engine components. All of these additives contain small amounts of nitrogen.
TOM: However, nitrogen is only one of several ingredients in these cleaning additives. So our guess is that Shell increased the amount of cleaning additive in its gasoline, enhancing the nitrogen component.
RAY: And more cleaning additive is good, right? After all, they put in such small amounts of nitrogen that a little extra wont affect the amount of nitrous oxides that come out of your cars tailpipe. And if your engine runs cleaner, thats all the better.
TOM: But what the claim nitrogen enhanced doesnt tell you is how much additive the gas had in the first place. Did Shell previously add the absolute minimum of additives to its fuels? Theres no way to know, because thats a trade secret. By claiming its gasoline is nitrogen enhanced, all Shell is saying is that its gas now has more nitrogen in it than before.
RAY: Right. It would be like me and my brother claiming that our column is now enhanced with right answers. That could mean that were putting more time into answering each question – or just that weve enhanced the column to the point where we now get at least one answer right per year!
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