How to save car fuel

In these days of credit crunch and high fuel prices, i thought you might like some advice on how to save petrol. I will outline some points below and why they are important. It is hard to give exact facts and figures so just do the things you can and don't worry about the things you can't.

1. Do not take the car out on lots of short journeys - walk or cycle if you can. When you brake, the heat generated in the brakes comes from the moving energy of your car which in turn came from the fuel. Lots of braking which is common in short journeys is very inefficient.


2. Do not leave the car ages to warm up on cold mornings. As long as you keep your revs low (< 2000), you are not saving the engine from any more wear and tear than if it is left idling in the cold. Let it run for perhaps a minute but any more is wasting fuel.


3. Avoid constant accelerating and braking. Again, braking heat is wasted fuel. If you are on an A road and there is traffic, speeding up to 65 or 70 in a gap will undoubtably require you to brake as you approach the next lump of traffic, try and even out your speed so you can keep it constant.


4. Do not use excessive accelerator pedal going up hills. You understandably use more fuel going up hill and you cannot get all of this back by rolling down the other side so keep your gas pedal steady and allow your vehicle to slow by 5 or 10mph going up a hill, it will not add significant time to your journey but watch your mpg stay up.


5. Keep your car in good condition and serviced regularly. You can lose over a third of your car's potential efficiency by using dirty oil and filters as well as fuel injection systems. Poorly tuned fuel systems can inject too much fuel for the amount of power the engine can actually produce.


6. Avoid excessive acceleration. As you accelerate, the fuel system is usually pouring loads of fuel into the engine and most of this during acceleration remains unburned and wasted. Accelerating at a reasonable level reduces the amount wasted.


7. Keep your top speed down on the motorway. The faster you go, the more wind drag your car has to counter and this all costs fuel. If you have an mpg meter, compare the fuel used at 60 to that at 70 and think what that might mean for 80 or 90mph.


8. Try and read the road ahead. If you only have 1/4 mile before a roundabout you gain little or no time and lose fuel by speeding up excessively only to brake again. Also, on many A roads, you will not be able to go far at 60mph before having to slow to turn off or to avoid hitting the slower guy in front. A little thought and you might not need to go right up to the speed limit.


9. Keep your revs below 2000 in normal mode but make sure they are high enough for the gradient you are driving. Trying to maintain speed on a hill at 1000rpm will probably use more fuel than selecting a lower gear and being closer to 2000rpm since if the car has little power at 1000rpm (which it often doesn't) you might be wasting fuel trying to generate the power you need for your speed.


10. Every now and then, take your car revs up nice and high to make sure the fuel system stays clean. Running constantly at low revs can cause the system to gunge up with no perssure to clean the gunge out again.