10 Tips To Improve Your Gas Mileage
It is important to keep your vehicle properly maintained and alter your driving habits if you would like to maximize your gas mileage. Read on for the tips.
1. Monitor your tires. Under-inflated tires waste fuel by forcing the engine to work harder. It is ideal to check the tire pressure first thing in the morning or let the tires cool down before checking the pressure. The pressure in your tires changes with the temperature. The colder it is outside, and the lower your pressure will be. Operating a vehicle with just one tire under-inflated by 8 psi can reduce the life of the tire by about 10,000 miles and increase your vehicle's fuel consumption by 4 percent.
2. Out-of-line wheels, as evidenced by uneven tread wear, should be aligned by a professional. Wheel alignment should be checked once a year. Misaligned tires will drag instead of rolling freely. This will increase fuel consumption, reduce tire life and cause problems with the vehicle's handling and ride.
3. Wheels should also be balanced. If they are out of balance, the driver will feel a pounding or shaking through the steering wheel. This pounding will shorten the life of other suspension components and will produce uneven tire wear, which will increase fuel consumption.
4. Dragging brakes (when the brake pad or shoe fails to release from the disc or drum) can significantly increase fuel consumption because the vehicle must work harder to overcome the resistance. This also reduces brake life and effectiveness, making the vehicle harder to drive. It is important to have your brakes inspected and the brake fluid checked and changed at the interval specified in the owner's manual.
5. Consolidate your daily trips and errands. Some trips may be unnecessary. Also, try to travel when traffic is light so you can avoid stop-and-go conditions.
6. Observe speed limits. 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.
7. Drive gently. Sudden accelerations guzzle gas. Anticipate traffic patterns and adjust your speed gradually. Use cruise control as much as possible.
8. Get rid of excess weight by removing unnecessary items from the vehicle. Now that winter is about over, store only essentials in the trunk so less weight means better mileage.
9. A well-maintained engine will help you maximize the gas mileage for your car. A misfiring spark plug can greatly reduce gas mileage. Follow the service schedules listed in your owner's manual. The spark plugs in a gasoline engine ignite the air-fuel mixture. If one or more of the plugs is worn or malfunctioning, the engine will misfire, and some fuel will remain unburned. Worn or damaged spark plug wires can also cause misfiring. A misfiring engine wastes fuel, produces higher levels of emissions and generally performs poorly.
10. If you have surfboard racks, a bike carrier or luggage carrier that you are not using, removing these will cut down on the wind resistance and increase your gas mileage.
Labels: gas mileage, money saving tip
Posted By: Joe on Thursday, March 20, 2008
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