Fuel prices these days are on its highest in history. More and more people now avoids driving their cars and uses other alternatives such as conventional bikes and electric bicycles as their primary means of transportation.
If you have a vehicle that isn’t gas or diesel efficient, then you probably one of thousands or even millions of people, that are getting totally stressed and pissed about fuel prices.
However, you can still do some tricks to help reduce your car’s fuel consumption. In this post, I’ll give you 15 of the best and sure ways to help you save more fuel on a single full tank.
Choose Regular Fuel
Do you fill your car with those “premium” performance, high-octane gas? If this sounds like you, then this is not the right time to use these types of fuel as they are more expensive and is more likely not recommended by your car manufacturer.
Yes you read it right! Using a high-octane rating fuel doesn’t mean better for just any engine out there, especially if yours is a usual 4-cylinder engine sedan. It’s much better if you use ordinary fuel instead.
Octane rating has nothing to do with performance but it only indicates the volatility factor in the combustion chamber. Unless your car is an exotic super car, then you can use these type of fuels.
More about high-octane gasoline from my previous post here.
Correct Tire Pressure
If you want to save fuel, you should keep your tires inflated to the correct or recommended pressure level. Otherwise, your engine will have a hard time moving your vehicle which results to high fuel consumption.
Poor fuel economy due to wrong tire inflation is called “high rolling resistance coefficient”. The more your tires resist rolling motion, the more your engine will exert more power to move the vehicle and that’s what makes the engine to consume more fuel.
So it is best to monitor and keep a correct pressure level on all of your four tires before driving your car. Or, it is much better if you over inflate your tires, approximately 1 to 3 PSI (won’t increase tire wear) which will greatly reduce rolling resistance. But the downside will be a more bumpy ride.
Avoid Idling for a Long Time
Sometimes, we can’t avoid idling our cars for a few minutes especially if we are waiting for a friend or relatives that will ride with us. Whatever the reason, this isn’t the right time idling your car for too long. Why?
Well simply because idling wastes gas too! Even if you are not pressing on your accelerator, a running engine requires fuel to perform its function. And if you are using accessories like air conditioning and radio while idling, then you are wasting a lot of fuel.
Idling for too long doesn’t just waste gas or diesel, it also puts a lot of wear on your engine, transmission and many others systems in your car. So it is best to shut off the engine if you think you are going to idle for a long period of time.
Take Out Unnecessary Weight
Are you a type of car guy that loads a lot of stuff into his car? If yes, then you must start unloading any unnecessary things out of your car’s trunk or glove box, as excess weight can cause your engine to sip more gas.
It’s like walking up the hill with a backpack full of sand and stones. Yes you probably can still climb to the top but it will require you a great deal of energy to overcome the adversity.
The same goes with a car that is loaded with a lot of unnecessary things. Your engine will require burning more fuel in order to get you from point A to point B. So eliminate that excess weight from your car.
Avoid Hard Acceleration
I can’t stress this enough. Fuel consumption rate is greatly affected by the way you drive, on how your car is being accelerated.
If you drive hard all the time, your car consumes more fuel compared to those same cars on the road who were driven by a conservative or slow driver.
The truth is, the harder you accelerate, the more fuel you use. To be fuel-efficient, it is best to take at least 5 seconds to accelerate up to 20 kilometers per hour from a stop. So yeah, take advantage of your cars throttle delay if you want to save fuel in the long term.
Shift Gears Efficiently
For manual transmission vehicles, shifting gears isn’t just an inconvenient way of driving, but incorrect shifting may also cost you more fuel in the long run.
You should know when to shift gears correctly. For first time manual tranny drivers out there, you can shift to second gear once your RPM reaches 2,000 or about 20 kph. Shift from 2nd gear to 3rd gear once you hit 30 kph or 2,000 RPM, and so on.
You must not continue to depress the pedal if you are on a wrong gear. Put the shifter to neutral and compose yourself to see which gear fits your speed. Or do not downshift to slow down the car as engine braking is for emergency purposes only. So you better off using your brakes instead of your engine working to stop your car.
Avoid Traffic Jam Areas
With today’s technology, you can easily monitor roads, highways and street traffic conditions on your smart phone. This means, you will have an idea if a certain road is blocked by an accident or is clogged by a traffic jam.
If you can monitor the traffic ahead of time, you can easily prevent traffic and you’ll reach your destination much faster. Any momentum stopper such as stoplights and traffic can greatly affect your fuel consumption.
Avoiding traffic means avoiding low speed driving which causes fuel economy reduction.
Use Cruise Control to Save Fuel on a Highway
Not all cars have cruise control. But if your car has one, then use it to your advantage!
Cruise control can help you save more fuel because it gives you the ability to maintain a constant but continuous speed. Experts suggest that using cruise control helps save at least 7% (up to 14%) of gas.
In contrary, driving in a highway means constant change in acceleration and deceleration as you press and depress the accelerator pedal, which of course consumes more fuel.
Drive Without Using Air Conditioning
You probably know that using the air conditioner every time you drive your car can eat up a lot of your fuel, especially in idle.
How does the AC affect fuel consumption you may ask? Well, the AC puts a big load on the engine which forces more fuel to be consumed for burning. That’s why you see your RPM spikes when you turn on the AC.
AC is the biggest fuel consumer on engine power and fuel economy. So if you can help yourself by not using or using your AC sparingly, then you can enjoy fuel consumption reduction of up to 20 percent.
Reduce Your Car’s Aerodynamic Drag Coefficient
Aerodynamic drag is a force on an object (car) that resist its motion through its surrounding air. The more drag your vehicle gets, the more it increases gas or diesel consumption.
You can see aerodynamic designs in planes, ships, bikes and of course, cars. While there are boxy vehicles such as SUV’s and pick up trucks, which many thought can’t be aerodynamic as they can’t change its body design.
But you can still do some ways to minimize drag from your car. Here are some of the best suggestions that I can find online:
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- Make your car lower to the ground (downside is you lower your car’s ground clearance)
- Keep your car windows rolled up to allow air to flow over the body of your car
- For pick ups, leave the tailgate up (proven by experts to help increase fuel efficiency)
- Use narrow tires instead of using big, mud-terrain tires
- Remove roof racks
- Install front chin (bumper aesthetics)
- Install a diffuser to help tune air flow coming off the underside
- Install a rear spoiler
- Remove 4×4 steel bumpers (front and rear)
Regularly Change Your Oil
Changing your oil isn’t just for the benefit of your engine, but it can also contribute to help improve your car’s fuel mileage.
How? Fresh oil provides better lubrication of all metal parts inside your engine. This lead to better performance and efficiency without putting so much stress on your engine. In return, you save more fuel in the long run.
So the next time you change your oil, choose the best oil recommended for your engine. Here is a short post about how to change engine oil.
Fuel System Maintenance is a Must
In order to save or reduce fuel consumption, you must learn how to properly maintain your vehicle’s fuel system. The system include several sensors, a pump, filter, suction valve, pipe lines and injectors.
Any foreign build-up on your vehicle’s fuel system can lead to various issues, one of them is of course increase in gas or diesel consumption.
To avoid this, make sure that you regularly clean your fuel tank, strainer and pump, replace your fuel filter, perform fuel injector flush, and relearn the fuel system. Some of these tasks may require a professional mechanic.
Upgrade Your Air Intake and Exhaust System
This may sound counter-intuitive as most gear heads believe that upgrading the intake and exhaust system with aftermarket parts will greatly reduce fuel economy.
For example, swapping a quiet air intake filter with aftermarket cold air intake will provide your engine with more cool air, making it more efficient that will produce more power. The same goes with aftermarket exhaust system which eliminates air flow restriction of a stock exhaust pipes, mufflers and resonators.
As you know, the more clean air is sucked into the engine, the more fuel is sprayed to the combustion chamber to help balance the air/fuel ratio. This is the reason why many believe that these upgrades can indeed increase fuel consumption.
But, take note that these aftermarket upgrades can make your engine more efficient as it can squeeze more energy from gasoline and diesel fuel.
So efficiency doesn’t equate to power as the engine naturally has this power but is only being restricted by its stock parts. With an efficient engine, that extra power is unleashed giving the notion that the car’s engine power has “increased”, but in reality it does not.
With a more efficient and powerful engine, you also consume less fuel to do the same amount of work, assuming that you still drive conservatively after upgrading your intake and exhaust systems.
It all boils down to how hard you drive. The more you drive aggressively, the more you consume fuel. And if you drive slowly, the more you save fuel.
So upgrading your intake and exhaust system gives you extra horsepower, “or” can also save you more fuel mileage “depending” on your driving habits.
Maintain a Clean Exhaust Gas Recirculation System
It has been proven that cooled exhaust gas recirculation system can greatly improve fuel economy in gasoline engines (might be the same with diesel engines).
How can an EGR affect gas mileage? Using an EGR helps reduce pumping losses and knock and eliminating the enrichment region which causes to improve fuel economy – Science Direct.
Do Everything Necessary to Save Fuel
There are many other ways that you can do to save gas. Here is my list:
- Enjoy car pooling
- Look for the best fuel prices in your area
- Always observe speed limits
- Do not speed up on an uphill
- Use ECO mode
- Use clean air filter
- Keep your wheels aligned
- Avoid revving your engine
There you go! Following all the recommendations above will truly get you more gas or diesel mileage.
