PassageMaker - April 2011

GEARHEAD

sign was an extreme exaggeration at
best. In most cases, if a manufacturer
of an engine or other equipment insists
that you use its branded product in
order to retain warranty coverage,
then the manufacturer is obligated to
provide the product to you for free.
The law that governs this protocol is
called the Magnuson-Moss Warranty
Act, and this part of the law is referred
to as the “tie-in sales provision.”
What an engine manufacturer can
legally do is require that you use fuel
that meets a certain standard, such as
ASTM D975, which governs a fuel’s
lubricity or slipperiness. I’ll discuss
ULSD and its effects in a future
“Gearhead” column; for now, suffice
it to say that you should be cautious
of any additive manufacturer making
ominous claims such as those
described above.

Think It Through

When considering the use of a fuel additive, it makes sense to evaluate your vessel and fuel usage habits and the reasons why you might opt to use an additive, or decide not to. I recently received a note from one of my clients that exemplified the need for such scrutiny: “Steve, I’m considering using Brand X fuel additive to deal with water and ethanol issues. A friend of mine has used it for some time, and he’s had no problems.” My response included two thoughts: First, why do you believe water is an issue—is it showing up in your primary fuel filter? Second, ethanol is not present in diesel fuel (thankfully), so you don’t need an additive to contend with its effects.

In short, don’t use an additive
unless you need it to address a
specific problem. The most common
reasons for using additives include
“removing” water and eradicating
biological growth. Keep in mind
that if there’s water in your fuel
tank, ideally you should drain or
suck it out, rather than treat it
chemically. If you remove the water,
you won’t have biological growth.
(By the way, it’s typically bacteria,
not algae, that are found in fuel
tanks. Algae are plants and require
sunlight to survive, and there’s little
of that in the stygian darkness of
a fuel tank.) Treating the source,
rather than the symptom, is always
the preferred approach.

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