EASY STEPS FOR SAVING PETROL

Copyrighted by Sylvester Lim

Soaring crude oil prices have increased the prices of petrol at the pumps and while there are a number of drivers who are willing to endure having to pay thru their noses for petrol by driving their petrol guzzling machines, most people are searching for ways and means to squeeze more kilometers for each litre of petrol. Drivers are unable to control the price of petrol due to the government taxes and the limited number of petrol companies in our markets. There are methods of optimizing your car and driving style to get better mileage from each litre of petrol.

Maintenance

Needless to say, driving a car with a smaller capacity engine will give you better mileage but that defeats the purpose of this article isn’t it?

1. Keeping your car in tiptop condition by adhering to the service intervals will help to ensure that the engine is operating optimally.
2. Keep away from ‘cheap’ engine oil available at the supermarkets. Engine oils have a recommended shelf of about one-three years and start to break down in their additive packages.
3. For engines less than 100,000km, using ‘thinner’ engine oil such as 5W/30 can help improve engine response and fuel consumption without affecting the lifespan of the engine. Very low viscosity engine oils such as 0W/20 Fuchs Titan GT1 are available from companies such as Fuchs Oils www.fuchs.com.sg if you look hard enough and can be used on low mileage engines for even greater response and fuel consumption. Just check your engine oil every two weeks initially. Note, ‘thinner’ oils usually result in a slightly noisier engines as thicker oils dampen the engine noise.
4. Both manual and automatic transmission oils also need to be changed and this is more important for the automatics as these transmissions are very dependent on the transmission oil to operate at its optimal levels. Changing the ATF Fluid every 30K – 50K ensures its performance and longevity.
5. Change your spark plugs to the performance type or if using normal replacement type, change them every 10,000km or at every servicing. Bigger spark means better combustion and thus, higher efficiency.
6. For cars with ignition wires, make sure that they are in good condition and the internal resistance does not exceed 10K ohms.
7. Clean your air filter at every service interval or have it replaced if it is very dirty. A clogged air filter will restrict the amount of air into your engine and literally strangles it of air causing the engine to run rich. A dirty air filter can reduce fuel consumption by at least 10%. When in doubt as to whether the original air filter is sufficiently clean, change it to a new one.
8. Many drivers operate their vehicles with under-inflated tyres and put too much trust in the accuracy of the pressure indicators of the air pumps at the petrol stations. Drivers should invest in a tyre pressure gauge especially one with pressure dial that allows you to read the pressure more accurately. Follow the owner’s manual specification for your tyre pressure and remember to check it once a week, if not, at least every two weeks. You can also increase the tyre pressure by 2 – 4 psi. Take a look at all four tyres before driving off, as it will help to reduce the possibility of a tyre with a slow leak. An under inflated tyre will increase drag on the road as well as wear on the outer edges of the tyre. A good product to help monitor the tyre pressure which works as a safety warning against a flat tyre is the TyreDog TPMS which is easy to fit & transfer.
9. Any additional weight will also increase fuel consumption, as the engine has to work harder to cope with this. Ensure that your trunk is not filled with unnecessary items such as books/catalogs, magazines, containers filled with water, waxes, engine oil etc.
10. Feeding your engine with cool air and not warm engine bay air will improve fuel atomization. Cool or ambient temperature air compared to under bonnet air has more oxygen molecules and the sensors of the fuel injection system will send the correct signals to the ECU allow it to respond correctly. On some models, doing a cool air modification can help with the consumption as some original air intake systems take in air from inside the warm engine bay.
11. Turn down the air conditioning thermostat to a lower setting as the aircon saps engine power by 5-10% or better still, switch the aircon off in the early mornings and at night. Set the air conditioning temperature to a comfortable level and do not leave it at the maximum coldness setting. This puts a strain on the air conditioning system and forces the aircon compressor to work harder which in turn puts more load on the engine.
12. High mileage engines of 80,000 km or more should have the Oxygen or Lambda sensor at the exhaust checked for its efficiency. Changing poor reading O2 sensors can improve fuel consumption and engine response.
13. Car models with MAF Mass Air Flow Sensors usually found just after the air filter, have the MAF cleaned every 20,000km as these can get dirty and contaminated. If the ECU is fed with erroneous signals, the engine can run poorly and increase fuel consumption.
14. Older cars with carburetors need to be carefully tuned up to ensure that it gets the correct air and fuel mixture. Tuning carburetors is a lost art as most modern cars nowadays use electronic fuel injection. Expert tuners using their keen sense of hearing to tweak the carburetor by turning the air/fuel mixture screw to get the best out of the engine. Reading the spark plugs is still one of the best methods of ensuring that the air and fuel mixture is correct. For DIYers, one product still available if you look carefully for it is the Gunson Colortune that replaces one of the spark plugs and has a clear window whereby you can look directly into the combustion chamber. Tune the carburetor until you get a bluish tinge in the window of the Gunson Colortune and you are in business. The next important thing for older cars is the ignition timing. These cars come with a distributor (the black thing with five thick ignition wires sticking out, four to the spark plugs and one to the ignition coil), and the ignition timing needs to be adjusted as well as the contact points. The contact points provide the sparking intervals and do wear out rather quickly. You can actually convert this mechanical device into an electronic driven unit by the replacing the contact points with a hall-effect (magnetic driven) electronic unit. Because there are no contact points to wear, you ensure that the spark plugs are operating optimally. Modern cars with EFI Electronic Fuel Injection don’t have to bother with this at all as it is managed by the ECU, Electronic Control Unit.

Recommend Products for Better Fuel Consumption: Nanoball Fuel Catalyst

Driving Style

Wannabe boy racers who sprint from traffic light to traffic light as well as those who tend to be heavy footed with the throttle pedal burn up the most petrol.

1. To get the most kilometers out of each litre of petrol you need to be gentle with the throttle pedal and treat it as if you were stepping on an egg.
2. Those with manual transmission, shift up thru the gears quickly to the fifth gear (provided the flow of the traffic allows you to do so) at about 2000 to 2500 rpm. On cars with automatic transmission, make sure that you have selected economy/normal mode or your OD Overdrive switch is on. If the traffic has stopped for the traffic lights, what is to point of racing in and braking at the last minute to a halt? Instead, those with manual transmission can declutch and cruise in to a halt. Use the momentum of the car to cover as much distance as possible. Keep in mind when you perform any of the above, not to interfere with the traffic flow or road hog.
3. Speeding on the expressway also contributes to higher fuel consumption. The most fuel-efficient speed on the expressway ranges from 80 to 90 kph and the faster you go, the higher the wind resistance, the more petrol your car consumes. Plan you route carefully and avoid having to travel on congested roads as stop and go traffic burns up petrol faster than driving at a constant speed.
4. Driving with the windows wound down as well as roof racks (especially the aftermarket ones which goes across the roof) affects the aerodynamics of the car and increases drag and fuel consumption.
5. When the flow of the traffic permits, for cars with cruise control, using it can help maintain a constant speed better than most drivers do manually.
6. Using a vacuum gauge can help direct drivers to be light footed. The higher the vacuum reading, during acceleration and cruising, the better the fuel consumption. You can treat the vacuum gauge as a fuel economy meter to help you drive more efficiently.