In the days ever rising fuel prices, the fuel bills are digging deep into the pockets of a common man. I’m going to share some practices which can get you more miles out of your fuel by increasing the fuel average or fuel mileage of your car.
Tip 1: Do not accelerate too fast
Too quick acceleration consumes too much fuel, accelerate slowly and gradually. That will save quite a significant amount of fuel in city driving.
Tip 2: Do not use clutch too much
If you use a manual transmission car, as is mostly used by people in India, do-not drive with clutch pressed, or use clutch only when needed, too much use of clutch will waste a lot of fuel.
Tip 3: Change gears appropriately
This is also applicable for manual transmission cars. Use correct gears at correct speeds, this will help save the fuel. For correct speeds, see your car’s user manual.
Tip 4: No Excuses to delay car service
Get the car serviced as per manufacturer’s recommended schedule. This will ensure good health of engine, less maintenance due to break-down.
Tip 5: Do you drive in dusty environment? Clean the Air-filter
If you drive in dusty environment the air-filter gets filled with dust and makes the engine suffocated. Clean the air-filter more often than the service schedule( say every 5000 KM or so) , this will help the engine run more easy and consume less fuel. Trust me, its going to really help.
Tip 6: Red-Signal Ahead? Put the feet off the accelerator
If you are sure that you got to stop after next 100 or 200 meters due to a red signal, keep your feet off the accelerator and car will slow down on engine’s resistance, saving on fuel as well as the brake shoes, apply brakes only when about to stop. This is a great help to save that extra drop of fuel.
Tip 7: Air Pressure in tyres
Get the air-pressure in tyres up to the recommended pressure, and check it once at least in 15 days, it helps the car run smooth and drink less fuel.
Tip 8: Try to keep a constant max speed
When driving in a city or highway, try to maintain a constant speed, that will help the engine put less effort to accelerate or decelerate unnecessarily. This will help reduce fuel consumption.
Tip 9: Keep the window’s glass rolled up on highways
Driving with AC on and glasses rolled up will actually help the car move easy because when windows are open, the car faces more air-drag due to cross ventilation through car, thus consuming more fuel. So always try to keep windows rolled up specially when driving at high speeds.
Tip 10: Buy fuel during morning hours
Buying fuel during morning hours makes sense, because the fuel is a liquid and cools during night hours as temperature is low, and it becomes more dense, so in night hours, you get more weight of fuel for same litres, so its like a bargain in fuel amount 
Tip 11: Re-fuel your car when tank is close to half
This will help reduce the vapors formation in tank, which moves out as you open the lid to re-fuel, thus saving some amount of fuel in the tank.
Tip 12: Clean up the crap from the boot-space
Remove any un-necessary luggage or stuff that you don’t need from back space, that will let the car feel light and run easy on less fuel.
Save fuel, burn it less, save economy and environment both, for a greener and cleaner tomorrow.
Also try to follow a car pool if you are traveling to office or college, that is fun to be with some friends and it reduces traveling boredom too
Happy saving!
Stumble it!
13 Comments »
Shruti said :
October 12, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Hey tip 9 and 10 were exceptionally interesting. Never thought of’em!
Vid said :
October 12, 2008 at 3:38 pm
i usually get the tank filled in morning, had no idea i was saving fuel (tip 10)
Sumit Gupta said :
October 12, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Really informative stuff… especially for people like me, having to drive arnd 1000km/month at least….
Mig said :
October 13, 2008 at 10:48 am
nice info dude….finally there are some tips that a common man can read, understand n implement……
chirag said :
October 13, 2008 at 4:51 pm
cool hai yaar… nice gyaan…
but does it make a difference (tip 10)? because if this would have been the case, then there should have been some differences in price of petrol in morning and evening? otherwise are these oil companies bearing losses by selling more petrol by weight in the morning as compared to the evening?
actinium said :
October 13, 2008 at 11:13 pm
My car’s (WagonR LXi) manual doesn’t specify the max speed for each gear, but it does mention the gear ratios. Can something be made out from them?
admin said :
October 14, 2008 at 3:46 pm
@Acitinium
Well, i don’t think its a good way. Well, as a practical thumb rule, lemme list general speeds for gears:
First gear : 0 - 15 KMPH
Second Gear : 10 - 25 KMPH
Third gear : 20 - 35 KMPH
Fourth Gear : 30 - 55 KMPH
Fifth Gear : 50 and above
Above speeds are good in general conditions, there is an overlap, which is OK because its not very accurate, its an approximate value. It also depends on how loaded your car is. And also for low end cars with only 4 manual gears, the firth gear is not applicable. The funda is not to rev the engine too much, too quickly, it should run gradual and smooth, thus consuming less fuel. You wanna know more? Please let me know
actinium said :
October 14, 2008 at 10:33 pm
another thing reg pt. 10. i ws thinking abt validity of d argument. i think in cars with fuel injection, there must a mechanism which “measures” d fuel to b injected in d cylinders. though i’m not very sure, but somehow i doubt if this measurement is done on weight rather than volume of the fuel…in which case d argument becomes a bit weak. vat say u?
admin said :
October 14, 2008 at 10:53 pm
@acitinium
The mechanism that measures the fuel to be injected is based on a closed loop control system which operated on several inputs like pressure on intake side of the cylinder, temperature of the engine, percentage of oxygen in the exhaust gases and crank shaft speed sensor etc. All these inputs will be processed by the car’s computer which then decides for how much time to open the injector’s nozzles. Basically, the injectors are controlled by a solenoid valve which operated the opening on the injector’s nozzles which spray fuel on the intake side of the engine. The amount of time for which injector will operate is determined by the ECU (engine control unit) or the processor, and not the amount in terms of weight or volume. Also the fuel is pressurized to make it spray well.
So from fuel tank, the fuel goes to a fuel pump, that will pressurize the fuel in liquid form only, from pump, it will go to all injectors through same fluid channel (fuel rail/ or pipe), these injectors will open for a small time duration calculated by ECU and the engine will keep measuring all the input parameters i mentioned above, and does real-time calculations, and also uses some data, called mapping called ECU mapping, which is like a guide to the engine telling that on what amount of time to use for injecting fuel under particular input situations
I think i need to brush up my MPFI / CDRI fundas. Hey good idea, let me study them and write a post on them.
Kyle said :
October 17, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Good tips although Tip #10 has been talked about and argued for years. A lot of good points have come up, 1 being the fuel is kept in tanks DEEP in the ground, where fuel keeps a mostly constant temperature. 2 the pumps know how much is being pumped regardless of temperature. I’ve read from a few guys that have worked on them and tell me this tip is a myth and their pumps are smarter then that.
BUT I’m not gonna cite any of this cuz it’s not worth my time, but just use common sense.
TIP #9 was done on the show MYTHBUSTERS, go google the results
Still good tips though, good job
Shantanu Goel said :
October 22, 2008 at 11:55 am
Good tips Rohit. On a lighter note, I’ve always wondered what would have happen if I get a full tank at night and then don’t drive and wait till noon? Fuel tank explosions, anyone?
admin said :
October 22, 2008 at 12:41 pm
@shantanu
Well, could have happened if fule expanded 1000% in volume overnight
But it does only a few % , enough to save some pennies, but not enough for a nice explosion
Simran said :
December 26, 2008 at 7:10 pm
In India the people refill their tanks only after meter reaches ‘E’ and it never go above half
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