If you want to save fuel, avoid things like this!
Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.
Drivers will no doubt be aware that fuel prices are through the roof. This means scammers are out there trying to make money from people already feeling the pinch.
One thing that I've noticed making the rounds recently is "fuel saving" "economy chip tuning box" OBD2 dongles. I've had quite a few readers ask me to think about them. So let's take a look inside one of the most common ones I've seen, and see why, at best, it's a box with blinky lights, and at worse, it's something that can damage your car.
Also: How I set up this $17 solar panel to give my doorbell camera unlimited battery life
This is one of many fake fuel savers out there. The good news is that they're all easy to spot -- they all look pretty much the same, the wording includes techie stuff like "OBD2" and "tuning box," and they push simplicity of use ("plug and drive" is a common phrase), and make totally over-the-top promises when it comes to fuel saving.
The idea is that you plug it into the OBD port... don't!
Note: OBD2 is a car term, and is stands for On-Board Diagnostics II and it's a built-in, system that monitors engine health, emissions, and even shows access to live data. There are legitimate tools (both cheap and expensive) that can be used to interface with the OBD2 port, and allow you to learn a lot about what's going on with your vehicle.
This is a legitimate OBD2 diagnostics dongle. This can do a lot, but it won't save you money!
The lie that you're told on the box and the sales literature is that you plug the dongle into your vehicle's OBD2 port, fiddle with the reset button on the dongle, start the car, watch the cool blinky lights, and the dongle will remap your car's computer as you drive, saving you money and lowering your emissions.
Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, you know what they say!
As for price, I've seen these vary from a couple of dollars to over $30 for two.
Also: I tested a $15 smart switch and uncovered a $1,500-a-year energy waste in the kitchen
Here's what you get.
The dongle and the literature look good and make some big promises. I even get a 2-year warranty! Wow!
The problem is, there's nothing inside beyond the circuitry needed to make some LEDs blink. Yup, really. That's all it is. I took one apart, and there I found a timer chip, a few LEDs, a few resistors, and a button.
This is no tuning box.
Only three of the prongs are connected to anything!
It'll blink if you connect it to your car (I'm not going to do that, and I'll explain why in a bit), but I can make it do the same blinking by connecting it to a 12V power supply.
It's a box of lights!
It's a modern smoke-and-mirrors trick. So why don't I like these?
Well, beyond the fact that people are paying good money for a box that flashes, these can cause problems. I've seen badly assembled examples where bits of solder and wires rattle around inside, which could cause short circuits and even fires (and let me tell you now, a car fire is really bad news).
Also: This Bluetooth tracker uses LoRa mesh networks to find things - and I couldn't believe the accuracy
The other problem I've seen with these sorts of dongles is that the pins can come out and get stuck in the car's OBD2 port, potentially damaging it.
If one of these prongs comes off and lodges in the OBD2 port, your car is in trouble!
Damage your car's OBD2 port, and you're looking at a seriously expensive repair.
Want to save money every time you drive? Forget the scam dongles and do the following:
Do this, and don't plug sketchy things into your car.
此内容由惯性聚合(RSS阅读器)自动聚合整理，仅供阅读参考。 原文来自 — 版权归原作者所有。