Gas Saving Tips

[Karried]

Other than walking or taking public transportation.. anyone else have ideas they found to work in saving gas?

I found a few online ...

Fuel Saving Tips


With gas prices exceeding two dollars a gallon in many parts of the country, the Car Care Council is offering gas-saving maintenance and driving tips that really work.
Millions of dollars worth of gasoline is wasted every day by motorists, because simple and inexpensive vehicle maintenance is neglected. Loose or missing gas caps, under-inflated tires, worn spark plugs and dirty air filters all contribute to poor fuel economy. Try these fuel-saving tips to get better mileage:

• Check vehicle gas caps - About 17 percent of the vehicles on the roads have gas caps that are either damaged, loose or are missing altogether, causing 147 million gallons of gas to vaporize every year.
• Make sure tires are properly inflated - When tires aren't inflated properly, it's like driving with the parking brake on and can cost a mile or two per gallon.
• Replace spark plugs regularly - A vehicle can have either four, six or eight spark plugs, which fire as many as 3 million times every 1,000 miles. That results in a lot of heat, electrical, and chemical erosion. A dirty spark plug also causes misfiring, which wastes fuel. Spark plugs need to be replaced regularly.
• Replace dirty air filters - An air filter that is clogged with dirt, dust and bugs chokes off the air and creates a "rich" mixture - too much gas being burned for the amount of air, which wastes gas and causes the engine to lose power. Replacing a clogged air filter can improve gas mileage by as much as 10 percent, saving about 15 cents a gallon.

Fuel-saving driving tips include:

• Don't be an aggressive driver - Aggressive driving can lower gas mileage by as much as 33 percent on the highway and 5 percent on city streets.
• Avoid excessive idling - Sitting idle gets zero miles per gallon. Letting the vehicle warm up for one to two minutes is sufficient.
• Observe the speed limit - Gas mileage decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 mph. Each mile driven over 60 will result in an additional 10 to 34 cents per gallon. To maintain a constant speed on the highway, cruise control is recommended.

[dirtrider73068]

I have a tip to save gas buy a motorcycle and start rideing it. I get anywhere from 40-45mpg and it only cost me around an average of 8 bucks to fill it up and can go all week or even close to two weeks on one tank.

[MadMonk]

I have to disagree with the spark plug tip. Modern spark plugs are designed to go very high mileage. Recommendations for changing plugs range from 30,000 miles to over 100,000 miles, depending on the vehicle. The exception is if your engine is burning a lot of oil, which then will "foul" the plug with excess carbon deposits, affecting performance. However, if you're burning that much oil, gas mileage is the least of your concerns.

That cruise control point has me wondering as well. A few years ago I read somewhere that using the cruise control was detrimental to gas mileage. It had something to do with overcompensating. On a flat highway I'm sure its not much of a problem, but you really don't want to use it in hilly terrain!

One thing I do to help save gas is to slightly over-inflate the tires. This provides slightly less rolling resistance, giving better gas mileage. Not much, but every little bit helps.

[Karried]

Really? Well .. nevermind then! LOL

[keving]

I have a tip to save gas buy a motorcycle and start rideing it. I get anywhere from 40-45mpg and it only cost me around an average of 8 bucks to fill it up and can go all week or even close to two weeks on one tank.

Or a scooter. I get 90 mpg on mine and can reach speeds of 55 mph, which is more than fast enough for the city streets.

[sweetdaisy]

Oh, but the pesky question of where to put the kids on the scooter?

[OklaCity_75]

Simple buy a side car. Better yet tie a rope to a radio flyer.

[travich]

I'd like a bike but they cost a lot.

[SoonerDave]

problem with cruise is overcompensation...On a flat highway I'm sure its not much of a problem, but you really don't want to use it in hilly terrain!

Agreed, at least not for fuel economy. My car has an "instanaenous" MPG display, which I believe to be calibrated based on a combination of engine RPM and the amount of fuel the computer is telling the injectors to put in the engine.

When you approach a simple, slight elevation, I observe the instantaneous value to fall from about 30 (level highway) to 10 or below almost instantly, while you can sense a slightly excessive lurch forward (too much gas). On the other side, if there's a complementary downhill grade, you can watch it spike as high as 70.

Drivers should also realize that spark plugs are considered part of the emissions system, and if they become fouled or unusable within the first 50K of a car's life (regardless of the standard manufacturer's warranty), the manufacture is supposedly required to replace them at no charge. That's a secret little EPA-mandated warranty I found out about a few years ago...
don't know if it's changed since then.

One other $$ saving tip: Don't burn hi-octane blends of gasoline (rated at 91 on the yellow sticker affixed to the pump), usually labeled "Super Unleaded" unless you happen to know you're particular car *requires* it. The lowest 87-grade octane is more than adequate for most vehicles. In fact, some ownership docs on newer cars will specifically tell you *not* to burn the higher octane gasolines...just a pointless extra expense, and some engines may not tolerate the higher combustion temperatures.

-SoonerDave