Increase Your Gas Mileage

Gas Saving Rip Offs

2008-07-24T20:16:00.000-07:00

There are many places on the web that provide real fuel efficiency tips that will help increase your gas mileage. And with the cost of gas skyrocketing, many consumers will do anything to increase their gas mileage or stretch their gas dollar farther. Products claiming to improve a car's fuel efficiency or offering discounts at the pump are filling up the web. Beware the old axiom – “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

Fuel-Efficiency Products

Products that sound too good to be true – Run your car on water, add pills to your gas, adding acetone to gas, magnets on the fuel lines, oil additives, and mounting devices on the engine that manipulate gas and air. The EPA tests 100’s of such products only to find that only a handful of them increase your gas mileage (barely), some even decrease your gas mileage. AND POSSIBLY VOID THE CAR WARRANTY. All car warranties have clauses covering modifications or abuse. You could wind up paying for damages caused by installing one of these gas saving devices.

Gas Rewards and Discount Gas

Web ads promoting free gas cards are another too good to be true item. These promotions involve signing up for offers on web sites in return for a card good for gas discounts or free gas. The total cost of these offers may wind up costing more than if you had just bought the gas outright. Alternatively, the gas savings card may not even arrive, much like the rebates that “get lost” in the mail. Or the free gas card offer is disqualified because all the rules to receive the card were not met. The Better Business Bureau is warning consumers to carefully investigate these offers.

Watch for red flags when investigating the free gas offers:

Look for contact information about the company offering the free gas offer.

Look for details of how much it will really cost for the free gas offer.

Carefully read the details of the free gas offer.

Finally, copy the web address of the company into a search engine and add one of the following terms without the quotes “+ scam”, “+ fraud”, “+ complaint”. This will quickly bring up a list of any sites that have reviews or consumer complaints about the free gas offers.

Gas Rewards Credit Card

At $4.00 a gallon, a credit card with a 3% rebate equates to saving 12 cents a gallon. Though you may get a nasty surprise on your credit card bill; some gas stations charge as much as $.50 per gallon as a surcharge for using plastic to pay for gas, but you won’t know that until the credit card bill arrives in the mail.

Visa and MasterCard prohibit gas stations from charging a surcharge for paying with plastic at the pump; Discover and American Express do not. If you discover extra surcharges, report it to your credit card issuer and dispute the charge. They want to know; after all they are getting fees from the merchants that accept their card. Anything that would discourage you from using your credit card they want to know.

Gas Vouchers and Coupons

Coupons and vouchers for almost everything imaginable can be found on Ebay. Scarfing up a $2o gas voucher for a few bucks seems like a real prize. But these vouchers and coupons are often counterfeit or can be printed off the internet for free. Doing a quick internet search with the words “coupon” +the issuer’s name will often bring up a list of sites that have the real scoop on the deal.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. To get real gas discounts and savings, it takes a little research to sort through all the scams and frauds that are waiting to pick your pocket. No one gives away anything without wanting something in return. Always ask, “What are they going to get for giving me this?” Usually, it’s your money. If it is a card for free gas, how come they aren’t using it themselves?

Improve Gas Mileage with Secretes of the Hypermilers

2008-07-11T12:10:00.001-07:00

Get more mpg with the tips of the 70-mpg hypermiler

Hypermilers improve gas mileage by squeezing out every bit of fuel efficiency they can – to the extreme. You can too, by incorporating their secretes in daily driving habits.

Car maintenance basics – Fresh spark plugs and wires, clean air filter, changing the oil at recommended intervals, proper tire inflation, remove unnecessary items from the car and trunk.

Improved mpg basics – drive at the speed limit or slightly under, look for traffic light patterns – are they timed for a certain speed, no aggressive acceleration or aggressive stopping, use cruise control.

Hard-line Improved mpg - roll up the windows at highway speed and the ac off, turning off the engine at traffic lights, avoid the fast food drive-thru by going inside, coasting to a red light.

Extreme Hypermiler Tricks

(Warning – some of the tactics employed by hypermilers are dangerous, not just in the case of safe, legal driving practices, but you could piss off the wrong person on the highway!)

– accelerate up to the speed limit - turn off the engine and coast for a few seconds, remove the spare tire and jack, draft behind large trucks (within 50 feet), turn off the engine and push the car into a parking spot, drive below the highway speed limit but above the legal minimum, purchase digital mileage gauge to monitor fuel efficiency, purchase hybrid cars or “lean burning” engines.

Improve gas mileage safely by incorporating some of the tricks used by hypermilers. But, stay safe and legal - don’t do anything that doesn’t feel safe or comfortable.

Plan Ahead to Improve Gas Mileage

2008-07-11T10:19:00.000-07:00

Improve gas mileage with a warmed-up engine. Making short trips with a cold engine can dramatically decrease fuel efficiency.

Combine as many short trips into one long drive as possible. For example: shopping, getting car inspection, picking up prescriptions, and getting a haircut. List the destinations with the farthest first. Drive to the most distant destination first to allow your car’s engine to warm up fully, then the next farthest and so on. Driving in this fashion will take advantage of an engine that is at optimum operating temperature and be at its most fuel-efficient.

If the engine is cold, idle for 30 seconds to 1 minute before driving away. Idling an engine to warm-up doesn’t help your fuel economy; it actually uses more fuel and creates more pollution.
Don’t aggressively accelerate. Aggressive driving - speeding, rapid acceleration, braking – will lower mpg by as much as 33% at highway speeds and 5% in stop and go traffic.
Observe the speed limit or drive slightly under the speed limit - each 5 miles per hour (mph) driven over 60 mph can reduce fuel economy by as much as 10%.
A 20-mile trip at 60 mph is only 3.4 minutes longer than the same trip at 70 mph.
Drive at a safe speed that doesn’t impede traffic. Use the right hand lane, it is supposed to be for slower driving.

Combine these tips along with: using cruise control, proper tire inflation, high flow air filters and regular engine maintenance to maximize gas mileage.

Air Filters improve fuel economy

2008-07-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

There is a connection between increased gas mileage and intake airflow restriction. The theory is simple, the harder an engine has to work to pull air into the engine, the more gas gets wasted in the process, decreasing fuel economy.

Replacing old air filters for improved mpg comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Replacing a dirty or clogged air filter is one of many recommendations to get the most from your gas. Many users report an increase in their fuel economy after beginning to use high flow air filters and intakes, as well as increased horsepower.

There are many elements that can be manipulated to improve gas mileage.

tire inflation
the type of fuel
driving speed
having an overdrive gear
acceleration
stopping
engine maintenance
idling
using cruise control
type of motor oil
air filters

High flow air filters combined with an after market intake system are less restrictive than disposable filters and are less restrictive than the factory air intake system. A high flow air filter along with regular maintenance will help increase gas mileage as high as possible.

Increase Your Gas Mileage

2008-07-11T05:02:00.000-07:00

Get More Mileage from your Gas

Increase Gas Mileage with Regular Maintenance for your car.

Oil – every 3000 miles with conventional oil, every 15,000 miles with synthetic.
Air filter – every 12,000 miles with disposable, every 25,000 miles with reusable air filters. More airflow increases fuel combustion.
Tire air pressure – check monthly – stay within a lb or 2 of the recommended max pressure listed on the side of the tire. Over inflation will cause uneven wear and decrease the life of the tires, under inflation will decrease your gas mileage – even if it is only under inflated by 5 lbs.
Spark plugs – change at the car manufacturer’s recommended interval or if using high performance spark plugs, change at the spark plug manufacturer’s recommended interval.
Spark Plug Wires – change at least once every 5 years or 50,000 miles. Stick with the OEM replacement wires unless you have a high performance car. The stock spark plug wires are sufficient for an everyday driver.
Transmission Fluid – every 25,000 miles. This is often overlooked, but in both manual and automatic transmissions, the fluid does break down over time. Changing the fluid will increase the life of your transmission and decrease friction and heat. Less friction, increased gas performance.

Radical Increased Gas Mileage Tactics

Empty out your car. Take out unnecessary items to decrease weight.
Drive with the windows rolled up and the ac off. Driving with the windows down increases the wind resistance on a car. If driving in heavy stop and go traffic, turn the ac off and roll down the windows. In highway driving, it is better for fuel economy to roll up the windows and turn on the ac.
Shut off the car if you will be stopping for more than 20 seconds at a red light. Ultra-high milers use this tactic at their own risk, stating that re-starting the car uses less gas than idling at the red lights. But what about the life of the starter motor?
Don’t use the drive-thru windows at fast food restraints. Park the car and go inside.
Drafting – If you have watched NASCAR then you know what it is. Drafting is driving behind another car so close that your car takes advantage of the low-pressure area created behind the lead car. The bigger the lead vehicle the better. Stay 3 seconds behind the lead vehicle; get too close and your gas mileage may decrease.