Short of getting your family to push the car everywhere, there are only a few ways to improve its fuel economy. The rising price of fuel combined with other expenses can make it extremely hard for people to manage their expenditures within budget.
However, here are 6 unbeatable ways for improving your car’s economy.
1 – Check if your car is operating within normal parameters
You need to ensure that your car is working within normal parameters. For this, you can match the statistics provided by the manufacturer with your car’s performance. This will show if you are getting the right fuel mileage and consumption. However, it is also important to note that your driving style as well as the use of air conditioner might be affecting the fuel consumption.
2 – Check your car regularly
Checking your car regularly is crucial to ensure that all the parts are working correctly. This includes tire pressure, sensors such as airflow and idle speed, engine hoses for potential air loss, air filters, roof cracks, etc. Combined, these can significantly affect your car’s economy.
For example, if your tire pressure is low, you are likely to be running on a slower speed. Similarly, a vacuum loss in the engine bay hoses can potentially cause combustion issues and lead to higher idling.
3 –Clean plugs, tips and fuel injectors
One of the most important considerations for ensuring good economy is to get rid of problem areas. This includes getting a strong spark which can promote efficient fuel consumption and clean plugs free of glazing which can form on the electrode tips.
Additionally, it is also important to ensure that the fuel system is in perfect working condition. For injection engines, the nozzles which spray a fine mist of fuel into the combustion chamber can become blocked with silt and as a result, start squirting more fuel which only accumulates inside the cylinder, thereby wasting fuel. Hence, it is crucial to ensure that the fuel injectors are clean.
You can also opt for a fuel injector and carburettor cleaner combined with good quality fuel to eliminate this problem. For older cars, new fuel injectors are recommended. You can also run a compression test to reveal the condition of your engine – engines which lose combustion pressure are not fuel efficient. If you’re worrying about the costs of these repairs, then rest assured that your fuel savings will more.
4 –Add a tuning chip
Adding a tuning chip to your car can have many benefits, namely improving your car’s economy while ensuring enhanced engine performance. Many digital tuning systems can simply be plugged into the engine without having the need to cut wires. Through re-configuration of your car’s injection system within the safe parameters provided by the car manufacturer, digital tuning chips can provide superior atomisation and optimised combustion at all speeds. This in turn ensures increased turbo pressure levels, thereby reducing the throttle lag.
In short, good tuning chips such as those provided by CHIP Express™ ensure fewer throttles over lower RPM’s which means that you can shift into higher gears sooner. What’s more, tuning boxes can also be installed in automatic cars safely.
5 –Remove all modifications
This one is fairly obvious – removing unnecessary modifications to your engine such as larger valves and bigger fuel injectors can ensure greater efficiency and economy. Other modifications which might be harming your car’s economy include bigger tires and wider wheels as they take more power to accelerate and generally have more rolling resistance.
Moreover, if you have a smaller capacity car you should remove all modifications such as large bore sports exhaust in order to get the engine’s air flow back in line with the manufacturer’s specifications. Other changes which you can incorporate for increased fuel economy include changing the spark timing to optimise the burn cycle of the engine. In newer models, you will have to re-map the computer. In short, it is advisable to remove all modifications made to increase power gains as they inevitably burn more fuel.
6 –Change driving habits
If you are an aggressive driver, then changing certain driving habits can reduce your fuel consumption by up to 33 percent. These include accelerating too quickly or too slowly, not maintaining a constant pace, braking more, etc. For example, once you reach an efficient speed it is better to maintain a constant pace to avoid accelerating and decelerating continuously. Similarly, accelerating too quickly or too slowly can limit your car’s fuel economy, especially if you have to switch to lower gears for longer periods where fuel economy is already poor.
All in all, these 6 tips are bound to improve your car’s fuel economy, resulting in noticeable savings. Make these changes today and save up enough for that vacation you have been meaning to go on for years.
