Fuel Doctor

Fuel Doctor is a junk product that claims to increase fuel efficiency by smoothing the DC voltage of a vehicle's electronic injection system just by sticking a dildo with some flashing lights into the cigarette lighter.Fuel Doctor online store. Archived from store.fueldoctorusa.com, 7 July 2013.Hammacher Schlemmer (now discontinued) It's a prime example of automotive woo.
==What is it?==
The Fuel Doctor comes in just one model, the 'FD-47 Platinum'; although why it should be given the Platinum moniker is anybody's guess. The makers claim that:
Various other sales outlets describe the product:
 
However it's not all woo. The thing's caveats include:
Ah yes, electronic circuits have feelings too.
==Smarmy webshites==
In 2011, an internet search for "Fuel Doctor scam" brought up a now-defunct site called (unoriginally) "FuelDoctorScam.com" which contained only positive reviews of the product.Fuel Doctor Scam. Archived from fueldoctorscam.com, (September 18, 2011 archived copy) A DomainTools search showed that the registrant was Fuel Doctor, obviously an attempt to pre-empt the expected criticism. Should you wish to contribute your own review at FuelDoctorScam, then don't be surprised if it is never posted. Despite that, the positive reviews all get overwhelmingly 'dislike' votes.
The perpetrators of this scam appear to have created at least one other suspicious webshite, full of fake product reviews and links to a $5 coupon and a "store locator".Fuel Doctor Reviews. Archived from fueldoctorreviews.com, 7 July 2013.
==Similar products==
The Fuel Shark is an amazingly similar and equally spurious product that looks even more like a feminine massage device than the Fuel Doctor, and at a cheaper price.Fuel Shark Cigarette Lighter Fuel Saver Review / Teardown. Perfrormance Chip Guide, 2020.Antony Ingram, Fuel Shark gadget to boost gas mileage does nothing of the sort. Green Carpet Reports, 25 February 2014. The Fuel Shark's woo is at least based in reality, however. Fuel Shark claims to use a capacitor to store energy to run your car's electrical systems, thereby taking load off the motor, especially at idle. Mazda has recently employed this technique, and it has caused a significant increase in fuel economy as part of its SkyActiv system. However, the capacitor in the Fuel Shark is orders of magnitude too small to have any effect whatsoever. Mazda's capacitor is rated at 120 farads of capacitance. Fuel Shark's is rated at 1000 microfarads. 
What this means, to anyone with any knowledge of electronics, is that the Fuel Shark is simply incapable of running any of the car's electrical systems for any significant period of time. The capacitor used by Mazda is a whopping 120,000 times more capacitive, and it is likely the smallest capacitor possible for this system, given that larger capacitors are more expensive. In Mazda's case, the capacitor is but one part of a larger system designed to recover, store and distribute previously wasted braking energy, including such parts as a variable voltage alternator and a DC/DC converter, neither of which are included with a Fuel Shark.
In other words, the Fuel Shark is a 7 cent capacitor with an LED light attached to it which does a lump total of nothing. Despite this, this damned useless thing is available at Wal-Mart, Amazon, and other purveyors of fine woo.
==External links==
*Official Fuel Doctor website (archive)
==References==
Category:Automotive woo
Category:Scams