How to reduce fuel consumption?
Posted by Status-Baker-2388@reddit | askcarguys | View on Reddit | 27 comments
I have mitsubishi with 2.0 engine. Which I bought as used car recently . Today I got stuck in heavy traffic and shocked to see how fast dies this car consumes fuel compared to my old car with 1.5 engine.
What do you advise the best ways to reduce fuel consumption at slow moving traffic or completely stop traffic? What is advised to keep transmission in natural or drive while waiting?
Please share your expertise
SAMPLE_TEXT6643@reddit
What is the fuel consumption?
What model is the car?
Pimp_Daddy_Patty@reddit
Start with the basics. Do a tune up. New spark plugs, wires(or coil boots) air filter, and PCV valve. Next ensure all of your tires are properly inflated and the alignment is good.
Lastly, consider your driving style. The best thing to do in stop and go traffic and in city driving is to coast as much as possible. If you anticipate a stop, take your foot off the gas pedal early and just let the car roll and lose speed by itself so that you use minimal brakes and convert less momentum energy into brake dust. Obviously, don't go extreme so that you're holding up traffic, but you can cut down on fuel usage a bunch this way.
Remarkable-Answer121@reddit
My VW has 146,000 miles on it, would it be a good ideal to go ahead and replace the PCV Valve?
Pimp_Daddy_Patty@reddit
It can't hurt. It's a cheap part anyway that usually takes 2 minutes to change.
corporaterebel@reddit
Oxygen sensor replacement should be high on this list
Pimp_Daddy_Patty@reddit
100% I totally forgot bout that one.
MaximumDerpification@reddit
This is the correct answer
seang86s@reddit
This here. My Subaru outback 3.6R would routinely get 22 MPG, but plummeted to about 13 MPG because of a bad PCV valve. It drove mostly the same but to someone who drives it daily, I could tell something was off. Replaced the valve and it went back to 22 MPG and felt fine again.
GOOSEBOY78@reddit
Dont use A/C and wind widows down in stop go traffic. And turning engine off to reduce idling in traffic.
glade_air_freshner@reddit
Often times the trip computer isn't accurate. What value is it displaying?
Hydraulis@reddit
In heavy traffic, there's one technique (and one technique only) that will improve fuel economy: keep a large space in front of you.
I used to ride motorcycles, and with a motorcycle when you stop, you have to put your feet down. It gets quite tedious having to do it frequently in heavy traffic.
The solution is to keep a large space in front of you. When you see the traffic up ahead stopping/slowing, you just close the throttle and let the vehicle slow down. If you're doing it right, by the time you've reached the stopped traffic, they'll have started moving and you won't have to stop.
If you pay very close attention in heavy traffic, you'll notice that the cars are constantly accelerating, then braking, then accelerating, then braking. If you leave a buffer zone in front of you, it will allow you to avoid doing this yourself. You can stay moving (albeit slowly) without needing to stop.
When they take off, you don't accelerate much, if at all. Let them get away from you, in order to re-establish that buffer zone in front of you.
When those cars are accelerating and braking over and over again, they're wasting fuel, and not getting to their destination any faster. Your average speed is the same, whether or not you coast along or start and stop constantly.
AshlandPone@reddit
Keeping it in neutral won't reduce your fuel consumption. Leave it in drive. The biggest fuel drinker when the car isn't moving is air conditioning. Unless it's oppressively hot, roll down your windows and turn off the air conditioning. Also, a lot of cars will run the a/c even if you press the button and turn out the light, if the blower is directed in anyway at the windshield. Even if it's windshield and foot split. So if you want the blower on but don't need the a/c don't set it to blow on the windshield at all.
S3ERFRY333@reddit
Yeah in my Volvo 740 the AC will run on defrost mode. I took the switch apart and disabled that so it only runs when I want it on. Takes so much power up.
AshlandPone@reddit
Yo, hold on to that brick. We almost totally regret letting go of ours. Absolute unit of a car. If you ever decide to get rid of it (and it's manual) i kniw a guy...
Confident_As_Hell@reddit
Does AC actually consume a lot of fuel? I drive a V50 with a 1.6 diesel. I'd imagine it being diesel makes it not use that much more fuel
AshlandPone@reddit
It really depends on the driving conditions and power versus requested acceleration. At idle or in crawling traffic it does load the engine as well. A/c will usually munch about 5-10%. But it can be more if you have a small gas engine. Diesels seem to be less effected, and i'm gonna guess that's because of all the low down torque they produce.
My smart car has a 0.9T I3 gas motor with more than enough power to keep with any fairly average compact or smaller. Throw the a/c on, and she is suddenly more of a mirage than a civic. Also, i get about 4L/100 km on the highway and about 5-5.5 in the city or on freeways above 115 kph. Throw on the a/c and those numbers hop up to 5 and 6.5-7 respectively.
I noticed the same change in my 3.8L V6 Oldsmobile 98, and my Genesis Coupe 3.8 GT. though both get around 6.5 on the highway and 9.5-10 in the city/highspeed freeway. Those numbers bump up to 7.5 and 11-12, respectively.
In my dads hemi Ram we could eek out 9.5 with the cruise at 101 kph (exactly the very bottom of 6th gear) but thrownon the a/c (or the tiniest fart of head wind) and it was instantly 10.5.
Now there is another point to be made here too. A/c on the 2 V6's and the V8 above are belt driven and leech directly off the motor. Wheras my smart and many, if not all hybrids, use electric a/c which is more efficient, and juat loads the alternator instead. On my smart you can literally feel the extra engine braking when it's on, if you're coasting, in a hybrid the difference is minimal and barely noticed.
S3ERFRY333@reddit
Not fuel, power. It's so much slower with it running.
Alrjy@reddit
What fuel consumption did you measure exactly? If you only look at the fuel gauge it might not be linear and have a different rate than your previous car. i.e might appear to drop faster in first third of gauge.
Get an OBD2 dongle and graph the liter (or quart) per hour consumption at idle with warm engine, charged battery and A/C OFF. Should be around 1.5 or less for a 2 liter else you have a problem. Then graph your trips individually to get a better picture.
Jarocket@reddit
Fuel gauges on the dash are programmed to be inaccurate too.
Customers prefer their fuel gauges to say the tank is full or nearly full for as long as possible. Usually the last 1/4 drops away fast.
ready2xxxperiment@reddit
Drive less.
Walksuphills@reddit
Stop and go traffic is the worst case for fuel economy. Air conditioning, as was mentioned, will make it much worse. Depending on specific conditions, you can save a little bit by leaving a gap and coasting as much as possible without coming to a full stop and not accelerating too hard. If you know you will be stopped for a while, you can shut the engine off. This will have an effect on the starter, though it’s debatable how much in modern cars.
ham4fun@reddit
Google hypermiling. May mot work well with CVTs though.
Walksuphills@reddit
Every car is going to have different strategies, but I like CVT’s for hypermiling. Not as much as a manual, but those days are mostly over.
eternal_peril@reddit
Sniff...
sleepyj58@reddit
Also tire air pressure is a big one. Pump them up to the max recommended pressure it allows on the sidewall. Might ride a little bumpier but it helps quite a bit.
Try to drive so that you aren't using brakes. Any time you use them, that's wasted energy. Coasting to a stop is always better where possible. Putting it in neutral usually won't help, it still has to idle the engine to keep it running.
hellojuly@reddit
Change the engine air filter
IrritablePanda@reddit
If you can actually watch your car consuming gas it sounds like there could be a problem there, unless you were stuck in traffic for multiple hours or something.