Improving The Fuel Economy Of Your Existing Vehicle

There are generally three things that can be done to make any vehicle more fuel efficient. You can perform some basic maintenance and minor modifications, change your driving habits and patterns or use a different type of fuel. Each of these changes is likely to have minimal impact on the total fuel economy of a vehicle, but with several of these changes taken together, you can make a significant impact.

For starters, you’ll want to make your vehicle as light and aerodynamic as possible. Of course, you can’t change the basic shape of your automobile, but you can make an effort to remove all the bits that cause excessive drag. One example are the flags that some people fly for their favorite teams. These are very festive, but can shave as much as 10mpg off your truck or car mileage.

Other options that might also cause excessive drag are mirror extensions, whistling devices and other non-standard equipment. Make sure you do what you can to remove excess weight from your vehicle. Some people are in the habit of carrying around a lot of heavy equipment such as tools or golf clubs. Leave them at home as often as possible and further reduce the weight you’re responsible for hauling around.

It is also important to make sure your tires have the proper inflation. A vehicle looses a significant portion of its power through the connection with the street. All tires are rigorously tested to meet safety and efficiency requirements. It is thought that over 80% of tires on the road are improperly inflated, decreasing power transfer to momentum even further. Checking once per month is highly recommended and it will say right on the tire what the recommended pressure is.

Though it might seem odd that using one petroleum product can reduce your need for another one, changing your oil and making sure the engine is well-lubricated will help it run more efficiently and better utilize the fuel you do use. Often synthetic-type engine oils are “slipperier” over a wide range of temperatures than their naturally occurring counterparts. While most often recommended for small cars and motorcycles, such lubricants are also very good for larger vehicles.

The way you drive has a lot to do with how quickly fuel is used in any given engine. Even a relatively fuel efficient car can have terrible fuel economy when really pushed. For example, a Geo Metro that gets 50 mpg at 55mph will get less than 20mpg when traveling over 90mph.

Changing your diving habits to conserve fuel includes being in the right gear for the situation. Driving an manual transmission allows you to have more control over just how much power you use to accelerate. If you have a manual transmission, it’s a little harder, but you can still control your shifting by deftly using the accelerator pedal.

It’s also important to manage your top speed. Though many highways and freeways now have speed limits in excess of the national 55mph, you can save a great deal of fuel. By that same token, avoiding quick starts and stops that cause you to spend a lot of time in the power bands of each gear is also very helpful in improving your fuel economy.

Another interesting aspect of improving fuel efficiency involves using fuels that have a high amount of energy as measured by BTUs per gallon. Gasoline has a particularly high amount of energy by volume. Diesel, however, has even more. By way of comparison, an alternative fuel vehicle that utilizes ethanol is using a fuel with far less energy than petrol fuels. Bio-diesel has slightly less energy than regular diesel fuel, so you cannot expect an alternative fuel vehicle to get the same mileage without making other modifications.

As far as making physical modifications to the engine or fuel line to improve fuel economy, most such mods are ineffective, and the kits that have sprung up to affect such changes are more often than not offered by charlatans. It makes far more difference when making a vehicle more fuel efficient to make behavioral changes and to choose a fuel with a high amount of embedded energy.

Gas prices are going through the roof and people are looking for ways to stretch their transportation budget. While biking and public transit serve many purposes, not everyone is able to give up their vehicles, especially in rural areas. Moreover, the cost of new hybrid and other fuel efficient vehicles remains quite high.

The only option for many people is to improve the fuel economy of their existing vehicle.