15 Ways to Drive Your Car More Fuel-Efficient
Posted on March 25, 2008
Filed Under Life, Green corner
You can improve the overall fuel-efficiency of your car as much as 30% by simple vehicle maintenance and attention to your style of driving.
Here are some tips on fuel-efficient driving that will not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants, but could save you hundreds of dollars a year in fuel costs.
Driving tips:
1. Drive sensibly
Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration and braking) wastes gas. It can lower
your gas mileage by 33 percent at highway speeds and by 5 percent around town. Sensible driving is also safer for you and others, so you may save more than gas money.
2. Remove excess weight
Avoid keeping unnecessary items in your vehicle, especially heavy ones. An extra 100 pounds in your vehicle could reduce your MPG by up to 2%. The reduction is based on the percentage of extra weight relative to the vehicle’s weight and affects smaller vehicles more than larger ones.
3. Observe the speed limit
While each vehicle reaches its optimal fuel economy at a different speed (or range of speeds), gas mileage usually decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 mph.
As a rule of thumb, you can assume that each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.20 per gallon for gas.
Observing the speed limit is also safer for your life.
4. Use cruise control
Using cruise control on the highway helps, you maintain a constant speed and, in most cases, will save gas.
5. Use overdrive gears
When you use overdrive gearing, your car’s engine speed goes down. This saves gas and reduces engine wear.
6. Avoid rush hour.
Not only is stop-and-go traffic stressful and annoying, it is bad for your car’s gas mileage. So avoid driving at rush hour whenever you can. Stagger your work hours so you can time your weekday commuting at less busy times of the day.
7. Avoid Excessive Idling
When a car is idling, it is using fuel, yet not going anywhere. This translates to 0 mpg. When you leave your car running while you are waiting in line at the drive-thru, or as you wait outside your kids’ school, you are wasting fuel. It is more efficient to turn the engine off while you wait and then restart the car. If that is not practical (like in the line at McDonald’s), then park the car and go inside instead.
8. Keeping Cool
A long journey on a hot day can be uncomfortable unless your car is kept cool – but where possible, avoid using the gas guzzling luxury of car air conditioning, which increases fuel consumption by a massive 10%. Instead, wind down windows and make the most of air vents in your car to promote natural air circulation.
Technical tips:
9. Check & Replace Air Filters Regularly
Replacing a clogged air filter can improve your car’s gas mileage by as much as 10 percent. Your car’s air filter keeps impurities from damaging the inside of your engine. Not only will replacing a dirty air filter save gas, it will protect your engine.
Fuel Economy Benefit: up to 10%
Equivalent Gasoline Savings: up to $0.32/gallon
10. Keep Tires Properly Inflated
You can improve your gas mileage by around 3.3 percent by keeping your tires inflated to the proper pressure. Under-inflated tires can lower gas mileage by 0.4 percent for every 1-psi drop in pressure of all four tires. Properly inflated tires are safer and last longer.
11. Use the Recommended Grade of Motor Oil
You can improve your gas mileage by 1-2 percent by using the manufacturer’s recommended grade of motor oil. For example, using 10W-30 motor oil in an engine designed to use 5W-30 can lower your gas mileage by 1-2 percent. Using 5W-30 in an engine designed for 5W-20 can lower your gas mileage by 1-1.5 percent. Also, look for motor oil that says “Energy Conserving” on the API performance symbol to be sure it contains friction-reducing additives.
Fuel Economy Benefit: 1-2%
Equivalent Gasoline Savings: $0.03-$
12. Think Clean
Keeping your car washed and waxed improves aerodynamics and therefore affects fuel economy. Engineer Tom Wagner, Jr. reported to Stretcher.com (as in stretching your dollars) a 7-percent improvement in fuel economy, from 15 to 16 mpg, during a 1,600-mile road trip.
13. Keep Your Engine Properly Tuned
Fixing a car that is noticeably out of tune or has failed an emissions test can improve its gas mileage by an average of 4 percent, though results vary based on the kind of repair and how well it is done.
Fixing a serious maintenance problem, such as a faulty oxygen sensor, can improve your mileage by as much as 40 percent.
Fuel Economy Benefit: 4%
Equivalent Gasoline Savings: $0.13/gallon
14. Tighten up that gas cap.
Gas will evaporate from your car’s gas tank if it has an escape. Loose, missing or damaged gas caps cause 147 million gallons of gas to evaporate each year, according to the Car Care Council. So be sure to tighten up that gas cap each time you fuel up your car.
15. Service your vehicle regularly, according to the manufacturer’s instructions. A poorly tuned engine can use up to 50% more fuel and produces up to 50% more emissions than one that is running properly.
Documentary source: http://www.fueleconomy.gov
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One Response to “15 Ways to Drive Your Car More Fuel-Efficient”
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Not to be nit-picky, but the last word in your title should read Fuel-Efficiently, not Fuel-Efficient. It’s an adverb modifying “drive.”
Good tips, though! I’ll have to try those.