Simple Techniques To Increase Gas Mileage of Your Car

You can have a huge potential saving of your car fuel consumption
without paying one extra penny in expensive Car Modification or
hunting for best Fuel-Saving Vehicle. It's easy if you can learn the
mechanics of driving efficiently..
Here are some of the priceless tips you should arm yourself with:
Discover why gas stations may be overcharging you and learn what to do
to avoid overpaying for the gas you did not use.
How to ensure your basic starting mechanism top notch. The common
starting mechanism to check before starting a long journey and can
easily backfire and cost you money if these mechanisms are being
mishandled.
How to save fuel even while you are driving.
How to detect bad braking habit and learn to brake the 'Pro' way.
Learn how bad driving skill can affect your car. What can you learn
from a good driving skill you ask? Trust me, grasp this concept and
tips and you will laugh once you see how easy it is to learn.
How to save fuel even when your car is not even moving.
Why being a "cool" driver might churn out large chunks of your fuel.
Using Space Rocket to understanding a common fuel mileage saving
technique.
What does DOE tell you that might help you to improve your fuel
consumption?
The common misconception about driving on empty tank. Are you making
this mistake as we speak?
The common driving habit we used to that might potentially backfire
and actually cost you more money on fuel.
How a simple change of an important car component that might improve
gas mileage as much as 10%.
The one thing we often overlook after pumping up fuel that will
potentially lose out 176 pounds of gasoline.
Understanding how car emission waste may improve your gas consumption.
What not to put on your car that will increase your air drag.
The Power of Internet and how Internet may tell if you are paying more
than the rest of the drivers out there. The only requirement for this
is that you don't have to be IT savvy.
http://fuelpricedkn.blogspot.com/#

 

SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM

 

Badly-written spam at that. Some free, effective techniques:


* Get tuneups (or do them) at the suggested intervals, and replace the
air filter as often as needed - at *least* every 7500 miles or annually.

* Keep the tires inflated to about 5 psi (cold) below the maximum
rating on the tires, not to the pressure written inside the car. The
latter is for a soft ride, not fuel efficiency. It is also often meant
for tires that haven't been produced in years, if you have an older car.

* Accelerate as slowly as is safe. Going 65 doesn't waste as much gas as
getting there in 10 seconds.

* Coast when possible and safe, rather than going back and forth between
the gas and brake pedals.

* If you have a newer car, use 0W-30 or 5W-30 oil. If you have an older
engine that might burn oil, use 10W-20.

* Try to avoid using the A/C when going up hills or accelerating up to
speed on the highway. Turn it on once you are at cruising speed.

* Use the cruise control on the highway, especially if the terrain is
fairly flat.








<SNIP>

 

What's up with all the advice to brake using downshifting instead of
coasting (manual tranny, of course)? I even heard this Sunday the two
clowns at cartalk claiming that downshifting is the way to braking
instead of bleeding off speed by only friction (when possible, of
course). Is there a downside to coasting?

I remember trying braking using downshifting and my mileage went down
by about 15% (city driving, from 35 to 30). Why would I want this?

 

Using engine braking will virtually shut of the flow of fuel to the
injectors, making the engine use less fuel than in coasting. What the
above-mentiuoned clowns don't take into consideration is that unless you
are going down a pretty steep hill, engine braking will slow the car too
fast to save much gas. Coasting is the way to go on level roads or
gentle downhills. The main downside is that coasting in neutral is
illegal in many places, but when done carefully I think it's safer than
much of the legal stuff that people do while driving, and I've never
been stopped for it...

 

What? I never heard of this... Where is coasting illegal? Man, you
learn something everyday (and still die dumb)!

 

It's against the law in most if not all jurisdictions. It also lessens
the amount of control one has over their vehicle.

Then you're not doing it correctly.

 

Where's the fun in that?

Of course, when you own a Supra, you don't really *care* about fuel
economy!

 

Also,brakes are cheaper (and easier) than a clutch.

Of course, I downshift 90% of the time...

 

Why people take these entertainers seriously continues to baffle me. I gave
up on them one day a long time ago after they told one caller that the
problem with their '84 Prelude was their clutch slave cylinder (the car uses
a cable) and they told another caller that he could go ahead and turn any
screw on his '84 Civic's carburetor in order to adjust it (the adjustment
screw for the auxiliary barrel is set at the factory with a special tool and
rarely needs to be adjusted during the life of the car even during a carb
overhaul).

Eric

 

So reducing fuel consumption by 75% for 25 feet saves more gas than
reducing it by 50% for 200 feet? Ok, if you say so. ;-)

 

It's even stricter in commercial driving. I was preparing for a CDL (was
required by my employer until they found what it would do to my hours of
availability) and saw in the driving test study guide that at no time was
the rig allowed to travel more than 1 1/2 lengths without being in some gear
with the clutch out. That's probably the source of coasting laws - the
ability of a vehicle to get out of control on a downgrade. It's mostly
archaic but still the standard.

Mike

 

I really wonder if if that's so in California. Never heard of it being
illegal. Anyway, why would it lessen the amount of control I have over
the vehicle? I'm not talking about icy or rainy conditions or going
downhill on a steep slope, just day-to-day driving in the sunny
California.

That's possible too. Unfortunately I think I'm too old to learn new
tricks...

 

I remember driving a big car transporter on a permit, back in the
'70's. The air brakes alone just wouldn't be enough to stop a vehicle
like that on a regular basis. You may be right about that being the
source of the laws.

 

You don't need to use a clutch to shift gears. Just to pull away and to
come to a stop.

 

I've only used that method when the cable broke or one of the cylinders
went bad.

Yeah, it works...sometimes...

 

According to the ScanGauge readouts, it uses up to twice the fuel of
coasting when you downshift. For example, 0.7GPH is the fuel rate at idle.
It will jump up to 1.2GPH if downshifted to 2nd at ~35mph. Shifting into
neutral and braking will maintain the 0.7GPH. Maybe the ECU is lying, I
dunno.

 

I was repeating what I knew of how EFI systems worked years ago. If
you are correct, then the Car Talk Clowns are completely, 100% wrong,
not just 75% wrong. ;-)

 

I don't think they got that wrong; it's practically mandated by emission
concerns. Cleaning up marginal combustion conditions is a lot tougher than
turning off the fuel altogether when it isn't needed. On my 1993 Chevy work
truck I could feel the cutout happening on descents. The engine drag would
suddenly increase at some RPM level and then switch back when the RPMs
dropped.

In the Yahoo! Prius-Technical-Stuff forum there is a lot of discussion about
engine operation compared to the OBDII bus info, and it's apparent the bus
info is not quite right all the time. In particular, the injector open time
is way off at idle (the same indications that would be used to calculate
idle fuel flow). That makes sense as the info is there for diagnostic
purposes. Personally, I suspect the ScanGuage is operating on bogus data. As
you say, the ECU is telling little white lies.

Mike

 

I didn't say that, but it sounds apt. I remember that the last of
the street-legal two-stroke motorcycles used a novel way to get through
the EPA emissions cycle: IIRC a butterfly valve blocked off the exhaust
port(s) when the throttle was closed. With fuel injection it's even
easier to virtually shut off the fuel flow for deceleration...