I have been involved in some aspect of automotive service for 25 years and every day I observe something that should have been obvious to a driver of a particular vehicle. I decided to publish this list, because saving fuel now is saving money!
- Make sure the tires have AIR! Regardless of type of tire, they all need the correct air pressure to work and last properly. More than 90 percent of the tires on vehicles that come into the shop are low on air pressure. For those of you who bought nitrogen to fill the tires (marketed to tire stores as a “profit center”), yes it is more temperature stable, but you still must have enough of it to properly inflate the tire. Under inflated tires are dangerous and they can easily account for a 3.5% reduction in mileage. Even the best tires will loose 2 psi per month, buy a good tire gauge and check pressures every two weeks.
- While you are looking at your tires pay attention to any unusual wear. If you can rub the top of the tire from the outside to inside and back the other direction and feel any feathering or sharp edges, an alignment may be in order. A correct alignment should be not only “within specifications”, but properly adjusted for the type of driving you do. A look at the printout should show that the technician cared about the adjustments made and that those adjustments would maximize your tires lives.
- Use your right foot wisely. Heavy acceleration uses much more fuel that easing away from the traffic light. Fuel pulse times for wide open throttle (WOT) are 3 to 4 times that of a part throttle departure.
- Reduce the amount of “extra stuff” in your car. The rocks from the landscaping project, the high school textbooks (c’mon it’s summer now and it is really unlikely that you are going to look at those books until September), the 50 pounds goat food….you get the idea. Eliminating the excess can get you 2 miles per gallon in a 2002 Chevy 1500 pick-up, and suitable worthwhile gains for other cars.
- Use the best lubricants. If you change your own oil, make sure the weight and type of oil is correct for the operating range and temperature range changes you’ll expect to see. Synthetics offer many benefits and while they are a bit more expensive the cost can be recovered in the mileage used. A change to synthetic gear oil gained the above mentioned truck 1 mile per gallon.
- Ask your favorite technician about a potential file update for your computer. Just like everything else with computers, there are updates for certain drive-ability issues and tune-up solutions for the changes with fuel. The files are not free from the manufacturer, but they can save a bit of fuel. We had one customer with a Jeep Cherokee who could only use premium, or it would rattle like a paint can during acceleration, and the factory “fix” file lowered the required octane to 87 and raised the fuel mileage by 2 miles per gallon. This particular customer cut his fuel expense by 65 dollars per month (this was before $3 gas, so his savings have expanded).
- Follow the maintenance schedule, more maintenance translates into a lower cost per mile in the overall picture. A technician or workshop responsible for caring for your car may have other solutions based on your specific vehicle, be sure to ask them.
These are the big ones, many people will likely follow them for awhile…..then become “used too” $90 fill-ups and become lax in their methods. When you are saving all you can, then can scrimp no more, I understand, but wasting is just that….
