Five Maintenance Tips To Increase MPG
August 18th, 2008 
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Who doesn’t want to get better gas mileage today? A couple of things, like driving smarter, can bring big increases in mpg. There are some myths about saving gas that really don’t improve mpg very much. Let’s take a look at five ways you can get better gas mileage through regular auto maintenance.
One: Check Your Gas Cap
In this era of self-service refueling, you likely handle your gas cap fairly often. Since you’re already back at the gas tank anyway, take a good look at your gas cap. Leakages and possible damage are the things you should keep an eye out for. Evaporation takes place very easily with gasoline, especially when it’s hot outside. Once gas transfers into a vapor, it will escape from your gas tank any means it can. You might be thinking “so what, how much could it be?”. An often-cited Car Council report claims that 147 million gallons of gas are lost every year because of lost, faulty or leaky gas tank caps. That’s almost $600 million worth of fuel at $4 a gallon.
Two: Keep Your Tires Properly Inflated
Road tests show that over-inflating your tires doesn’t save gas. But if your tires are under-inflated, you could be squandering gas. Less pressure in your tires means more rubber in contact with the road. This increases rolling resistance and your engine will have to work harder to propel the car. Inflating your tires to the recommended level printed on the side is an simple way to get better gas mileage.
Three: Change Your Oil
To make your engine’s life easier, you should try to cut down friction as much as possible. When it has to work harder to overcome internal friction, your engine will use more gasoline in every mile. You can reduce friction and get better gas mileage by having your oil changed at recommended intervals. Search for the words “energy saving” on the label, and check your owner’s manual for the proper grade Want to reduce friction even more? Spring for synthetic oil.
Four: Top Off Your Coolant
Your car’s cooling system of frequently neglected when trying to get better gas mileage. However, it serves an important function by keeping your engine at optimal operating temperature. The right temperature range helps your engine run more efficiently, providing maximum horsepower with minimum fuel.
Five: Check Your Oxygen Sensor
If you have a newer car, its engine puts a heavy burden of responsibility on the oxygen sensor. It evaluates the amount of oxygen in your car’s exhaust and transmits this information to your vehicle’s on-board computer. Your car’s brain constantly corrects engine timing to achieve the most efficient air-to-fuel ratio. In your quest to get better gas mileage, checking out your oxygen sensor could give you significant help. How much? An dramatic 40 percent improvement is possible.
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3 Gasoline Saving Myths Busted
August 17th, 2008 Print This Post
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With today’s high gasoline prices, people are determined to save fuel . The days of moderate fuel costs may be lost forever. When everyone is looking for answers, myths tend to develop and circulate. Saving gas is no exception. This article will analyze three different gasoline saving myths and see if there’s any truth to them.
Myth 1: Change your air filter
Many people swear that replacing their air filter regularly results in better gasoline mileage. The idea is that giving your engine a higher flow of clean air will help it run more efficiently. Engines running more efficiently need less gas to provide more power. Up until about 30 years ago, this was probably true. Today’s high-tech engines are dynamically controlled by on-board computers. Modern-day engine technology adapts your engine timing to account for various levels of available oxygen. This means that changing your air filter is likely to have no effect as long as your engine’s systems are functioning correctly. Myth busted.
Myth Two: Over-inflate your tires
A popular proposition for saving gas is to pump up your tires. With each additional pound of pressure you put in your wheels, there’s a little less rubber in physical contact with the highway. This reduces friction and rolling resistance, so you need less horsepower to push the car along the highway. It’s a very reasonable idea, but real world testing at edmunds.com in effect deflated this idea. Plus, less contact with the highway means reduced stopping ability. Myth busted.
Myth Three: Turn off the air conditioning
You may have heard people say that using the air conditioning takes additional fuel. In some ways this makes sense because the air conditioning compressor is driven by the engine. Whenver the compressor belt engages, it does place an extra load on your vehicle’s engine. Turning off the air might be fine if you can leave the windows up without risking heat exhaustion. And as soon as you roll down your windows, you’ll be creating aerodynamic drag. Your engine isn’t powering the AC compressor, but it has to work harder to overcome aerodynamic drag. Myth busted.
What will really make a difference when you’re trying to save gas? Change the way you drive. Staying at or below the speed limit and avoiding hard stops and quick starts will help you save gas. In the long run, it will lengthen the life of your car, too.
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Track Your Fuel Saving by Computing MPG
August 17th, 2008 Print This Post
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When it comes to economizing on gas, the most significant number you need to know is miles per gallon. You use it to decide whether or not to purchase a more economical car, to see if your fuel saving gizmos are effective, and to track the effectiveness of your new driving habits. Checking your miles per gallon is something everyone assumes you know how to do. But if you’re just a little bit off, or if you aren’t quite sure that you’re doing it correctly, it’s possible to draw the wrong conclusions about your fuel savings. The following article will go over the mpg calculation process and talk about why knowing your miles per gallon is a good idea.
You can correctly calculate miles per gallon using your vehicle’s odometer.
- Visit your local gas station and fill the tank. Write down the current mileage showing on your odometer.
- Now just drive as you ordinarily would until you need another fuel stop.
- It’s important to fill the tank once again. Putting in just a few dollars worth makes calculating your miles per gallon more complex. So make sure you completely fill your gas tank again.
- This time you need to write down TWO things: the vehicle’s current odometer reading and the number of gallons (including tenths) that you pumped into your gas tank.
- Subtract the first odometer reading you took from the number you just wrote down. This will tell you how many miles you drove since the last fuel stop.
- Now you have to divide your miles driven by the gallons of gas you just put in. You’ve done it! This is your miles per gallon number for the last tank of fuel you just used.
Coming up with miles per gallon is even easier if your vehicle has a trip odometer. Just reset the trip odometer to zero when you fill up the first time. Then when you fill up the second time, just read the trip odometer to find out the miles driven.
Keeping a little notebook or calendar in your car’s glovebox permits you to write down all of your fuel purchases and odometer readings. You’ll end up with a really useful historical record of your vehicle’s mpg numbers. If you want to trade your car in the future, buyers will love this information. And it can give you a heads up if something is malfunctioning under the hood. Vehicle malfunctions or upkeep needs often show up as reduced miles per gallon. Your running mpg totals will give you a clue that something’s up and you can make sure you keep your vehicle purring along at peak efficiency.
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Try These Seven Fuel Saving Tips Today
August 17th, 2008 Print This Post
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Alternate fuels sound like a outstanding idea, but you need relief from high gas prices now, not ten years from now. Your budget needs emergency assistance now. The good news is that you actually do have alternatives. Your driving habits can make a big difference in your gas mileage.
Slow down. Driving faster demands more output from your engine. Wind resistance and road friction are obstacles to speed. More horsepower are necessary to overcome them, and that means your engine has to work harder. Plainly, there is a point where getting to your destination on time will outweigh gas savings. But you can save gallons of gas by at least keeping your speed below the legal limit.
Accelerate smoothly. A quick start from standing still is just plain fun. Power under your control is very appealing. But the laws of physics are not there to support your enjoyment. A quick run from zero to 60 has a cost that’s measured in fuel. If you start off slowly, you’ll save gas.
Start stopping sooner. Quick stops take a toll on your brakes. It also wastes gas. It doesn’t use any fuel if you can coast to a stop. Hybrid vehicles love slow stops. Gentle braking allows for maximum efficiency of the regenerative braking systems seen on most hybrids.
Keep up the pressure. If your tire pressure is lower than recommended, more rubber will be in contact with the road. Greater friction means that your engine will have to work harder to move the vehicle. Keeping your tires properly inflated will help you use fuel more efficiently. A little over-inflation can save even more, but the ride might not be as comfortable. Make sure you keep pressure under the maximum listed on the side of the tires.
Stay out of rush hour traffic. If there’s any way for you to avoid driving with everyone else on the highway, you can save gallons of gas. However, if you must travel at rush hour, the strengths of a hybrid vehicle would really shine in this type of traffic.
Lighten the load. Your trunk may look like a good place to stash away golf clubs or spare bricks from your patio project, but every last pound you can take out will cut down your pain at the pump.
Plan your trips. Try to collect several destinations at a time and put them into one excursion. Hit the grocery store when you drop the youngsters at practice. Maybe you can mail the bills along the way. Try to avoid going only one place at a time.
The main value of these fuel-saving tips is that you can get going right away. You don’t have to wait for a personal fusion reactor or hydrogen cell technology. Implement a couple of of them today and you should see immediate savings.
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Guide to Fuel Saving Hybrids
August 16th, 2008 Print This Post
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As gas costs continue to go up, you have probably seen more and more about hybrid cars. But exactly what are hybrids, and why do people seem to think they are the solution for saving gas? Let’s take a look at what hybrid vehicles are, how they can help save fuel costs, and whether or not they could help you save money in the long run. By the end of the article, you should have basic knowledge of what hybrids are all about.
The word “hybrid” means that two distinct types of engineering have been merged into one vehicle. Actually, there’s nothing really revolutionary about hybrids. For example, a moped counts as a hybrid vehicle–it combines gasoline power and human (pedal) power. The most common type of hybrid vehicle today is gas-electric, meaning it combines gasoline and electric power in one vehicle. The strength of gasoline power is speed and distance, but its weakness is pollution and fuel cost. Electric power is clean and cheap, but most cannot provide power needed for high speed or great distance. Hybrid technology blends the best of both worlds.
How do hybrid vehicles save gas? First of all, hybrids have smaller fuel engines. A smaller engine weighs less and this lets it sip fuel instead of guzzling it. Not only is the engine lighter, the whole car weighs less, so it requires less horsepower to move it. When more power is needed, the hybrid has an electric motor to help. Other systems in these high-tech vehicles save gas in additional ways. Most hybrids utilize “regenerative braking” which can use energy that’s ordinarily wasted when you slow down Another way these marvels save energy is by shutting off the gas motor completely when you come to a complete stop.
Could a hybrid car save you money? You need to do the math. How much do you drive in a year? If you’re like the average American, it would be about 15,000 miles per year. Let’s say you drive 45 percent of those miles on the highway and 55 percent in the city. That’s 6,750 highway miles and 8,250 city miles. A regular fuel Honda Civic would use 187.5 gallons (6,750 miles @ 36 mpg) on the highway and 330 gallons (8,250 miles @ 25 mpg) in the city. That’s a total annual gas cost of $2,070 (517.5 gallons @ $4 per gallon).
A hybrid Civic would use 132.4 gallons for highway driving (6,750 @ 51 mpg) and 168.4 gallons in the city (8,250 @ 49 mpg). At $4 per gallon, that would give you an annual gas cost savings of $867. You would also need to take into account the higher purchase price of a hybrid. Check with your accountant for any possible state or federal tax breaks you might get from buying a hybrid.
Hybrid vehicles combine two types of power to achieve new levels of fuel economy. What one technology may lack, the other furnishes. Hybrids are lighter and smaller, so they require less gas to go the same distance. By comparing yearly fuel costs as well as taking into account possible incentives, you may find that hybrids can save you money over the long run. The next step is to start gathering information about your favorite hybrid vehicle and treat yourself to a test drive.
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