Economical Fuel Comsumptions tips and tricks

Lexus1976

Does anybody have any good tips for conserving fuel. i.e. turning the engine off when in dense traffic.....using 5th gear on the motor way etc..

Seth Brundle

keeping revs down and gears up.
gentle braking
keeping windows closed
not carrying unnecessary luggage/weight
not running system-heavy items (aircon etc)
not sure if turning engine on/off is going to make a huge difference.

311

Since I got my new civic ,I'm amazed at how it's thought me about how a car burns fuel.
I can get 50MPG out of my 1.8 civic ,by hardly using the excelerator and rolling the car on high gears.

kluivert

This new 1.8 Civic seems to be great when it comes to fuel ecomony.

Make sure your tyre pressure is correct, incorrect tyre pressure can increase fuel consumption by 20%.

fletch

In slow traffic (M50 stop-start particularly) I keep a constant pace rather than accelerating and braking the whole time. Annoys the hell out of some people behind me but if they watch, they'd notice I can go the entire length of the M50 and barely have to touch the brakes.
I also never coast to a stop as this can use more fuel on a modern car (and my MPG gauge confirms this)

311

fletch wrote:

I also never coast to a stop as this can use more fuel on a modern car (and my MPG gauge confirms this)

I've noticed this also in the civic ,the guage goes off the mark when I coast to lights . Is this the engines way of letting pressure of itself ???

kluivert

fletch wrote:

I also never coast to a stop as this can use more fuel on a modern car (and my MPG gauge confirms this)

When you say coast what exactly do you mean by that. Sorry I probably have a different name for it or something, sounds like an interesting point.

fletch

kluivert wrote:

When you say coast what exactly do you mean by that. Sorry I probably have a different name for it or something, sounds like an interesting point.

i.e. I never dip the clutch/free-wheel/knock it out of gear. I keep it in gear until the last moment and only then clutch-in.

prospect

The big causes of high fuel consumption are:

Demand for resources off the engine: Most noteably this would be accelerating hard and also griving in low gears. Also, as stated earlier using electronic equipment in the vehicle uses more fuel, the worst offender is Air Con.

reducing the aerodynamics of the vehicle & increasing drag: Leaving windows open, incorrect typre pressure, roof racks & roof boxes.

weight: quite simply, the more weight in your car, the more fuel it uses. So get rid of all the junk you carry around needlessly.

peasant

_Brian_ wrote:

I've noticed this also in the civic ,the guage goes off the mark when I coast to lights . Is this the engines way of letting pressure of itself ???

it's the other way round really.
Modern engine management systems more or less shut off the fuel supply under engine breaking, so you're using no fuel when shifting down the gears.
When you let the engine idle on the on the other hand, it does use fuel (quite a bit). Therefore switching the engine off during longer stops would save fuel. Savings are usually negated though, because you are in that bit more of a hurry to get off the mark and not hold anybody up, if you have to re-start your engine when the traffic lights turn green and tend to floor it that bit more.

Henry Ford III

Freewheeling won't harm fuel consumption. It'll reduce it if anything as the engine will be idling and not under any load. Having said that it's not a good idea to drive down hills in neutral. I've seen it done however.

Another often misunderstood point is optimisation of gear changes. Changing up the box too early is as bad for fuel consumption as changing up too late. Don't over rev nor labour the engine. Use the torque.

311

peasant wrote:

it's the other way round really.
Modern engine management systems more or less shut off the fuel supply under engine breaking, so you're using no fuel when shifting down the gears.
When you let the engine idle on the on the other hand, it does use fuel (quite a bit). Therefore switching the engine off during longer stops would save fuel. Savings are usually negated though, because you are in that bit more of a hurry to get off the mark and not hold anybody up, if you have to re-start your engine when the traffic lights turn green and tend to floor it that bit more.

I was always lead to believe that starting an engine uses the most amount of fuel .
As for extra fuel getting burnt when I coast ,the guage does go up when I do this . Especially if I declutch from a gear higher than 2nd.

peasant

Starting a cold engine certainly uses a lot of fuel, shouldn't be that bad on a hot one.
The reason why your fuel consumption goes up in idle could be that the engine runs a very rich mixture in idle when all the other data that normally feeds into the management system to ensure the most economical running, is absent.

311

peasant wrote:

Starting a cold engine certainly uses a lot of fuel, shouldn't be that bad on a hot one.
The reason why your fuel consumption goes up in idle could be that the engine runs a very rich mixture in idle when all the other data that normally feeds into the management system to ensure the most economical running, is absent.

Grand stuff ,I wasn't sure about it . I thought it was the engines way of gradually reducing fuel through the engine.

bazz26

Also check your air filter. I had my air filter changed when my car was serviced last and there was a noticable difference in mpg afterwards.

kluivert

bazz26 wrote:

Also check your air filter. I had my air filter changed when my car was serviced last and there was a noticable difference in mpg afterwards.

Increase or decrease

rondeco

Letting your car coast in gear uses no petrol if its a modern car.

galwaytt

rondeco wrote:

Letting your car coast in gear uses no petrol if its a modern car.

I think you're mixing your metaphors - coasting means in neutral. Running the car in gear on a closed throttle is properly known as 'over run' or sometimes 'trailing throttle'.

Coasting - that is, in neutral - is poor driving practice. To wit, an instant car test failure btw, as in neutral, you have no proper control over the pace of the car, and cannot take evasive measures quickly enough. My brother does it all the time, and it drives me nuts !

As someone said, coasting with engine off could theoritically at least, use more juice as the engine is idling. Wherease on the over run, in gear, the fuel system would have shut down the fuels supply, so it actually uses less juice.

galwaytt

rondeco wrote:

Letting your car coast in gear uses no petrol if its a modern car.

I think you're mixing your metaphors - coasting means in neutral. Running the car in gear on a closed throttle is properly known as 'over run' or sometimes 'trailing throttle'.

Coasting - that is, in neutral - is poor driving practice. To wit, an instant car test failure btw, as in neutral, you have no proper control over the pace of the car, and cannot take evasive measures quickly enough. My brother does it all the time, and it drives me nuts !

As someone said, coasting with engine on could theoritically at least, use more juice as the engine is idling. Wherease on the over run, in gear, the fuel system would have shut down the fuels supply, so it actually uses less juice.

prospect

I always thought coasting meant that you had the clutch fully engaged... (in gear or not would obviously be irrelevant).

Seth Brundle

galwaytt wrote:

As someone said, coasting with engine off could theoritically at least, use more juice as the engine is idling.

When the engine is off the car isn't using any juice as the fuel pump would not be working!