Saturday, November 15, 2008

What is the best way to save fuel for my car?

With petrol prices rising, being a student, I need to save as much money as possible. Any ideas will be great.
regarding car maintenance:
1. maintain good tire pressure
2. keep your engine in good running condition
3. keep extra weight out of your car - don't use it like a locker

regarding actual driving:
1. don't do jackrabbit starts. at all.
2. don't get your revs above 2000rpm. be easy on the throttle. shift at that point or a little earlier (say 1800rpm).
3. look as far ahead on the road as you can. see if accelerating is worth it, or just maintain your speed coz you'll be braking soon anyway.
4. don't shift lanes too much.
5. if you live in a hot place and really need airconditioning, put the thermostat at 50% or below, and just increase the blower speed. most new cars are designed to blow comfortably cold air at below 50% thermostat anyway. roll your windows down if the air and weather is fine. doing that hurts your fuel mileage, but it's almost negligible unless you're doing 100mph. still better than having your A/C on.
6. cruise at top gear and 2000rpm on the highway. it's boring, i know. but it's keeps your wallet heavier.
7. turn off your car's engine at stop lights. if you can keep your engine off for at least 30 seconds, you'd have saved gas.

Use the accelerator with care lightly accelerating as though you had a pair of soft slippers on the pedal, building up speed in a steady manner and easing back on the throttle will save quite a surprising amount over a month, a year, a lifetime.Please note in no way am I saying use slippers when driving but just imagine that you are applying that lighter touch.
Another good lesson to remember is that a car at seventy mph has to deal with the greater ram effect having to push tonnes of air from out of it's way whereas 56 mph makes it ten times easier for the car to proceed thereby saving energy and lowering your fuel bill enormously.

own/drive something modestly small, which is efi.-pref NOT Korean. Drive gently, smoothly, by looking well ahead to predict traffic flow. Do NOT drive an automatic unless you are disabled or have a lot of traffic to regularly contend with and you get physically tired from using the clutch. keep tyres fully inflated, make sure brakes don't drag, do not use fans/heater if possible, keep speed as low as practical, to reduce wind drag and save fuel. do not accelerate up hills, ease off and use a lower gear-do not labour the motor. Use only enough throttle to accelerate, not too much for the motor to draw on_IE use a vacuum gauge if necessary, and drive consistently on the highest vacuum. keep air filter clean, make sure idle speed/mixture is correct. A hot motor uses less fuel, but also produces less power. Make sure the inlet preheat tube is working, jam the valve open if you like in cool/cold weather. keep choke usage minimal, keep revs down whilst motor is cold.

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