I have been driving on Indian roads for some years now. As the petrol prices are reaching the sky it is very important to try to save on your fuel bills. Am listing some tips below, which i used to practice mostly on petrol cars. Saving fuel on diesel engines might me more tricky as most of the have turbo charged engines which requires idling and warm up during times.
Always be on gear while coasting
People tend to apply clutch to full or move the gear to neutral while coasting their vehicle in a slop. Actually this causes more fuel consumption. Confused? Yes when the vehicle is going down on slop on gear if the slop enough it will run the wheels and the engine, so the fuel supply will be automatically cut off by the Controller. In case of going down in neutral the fuel consumed will be equal to that of idling. And idling fuel consumption will be greater than costing on gear.
Warm up your engine by driving
Many tend to warm their car engines for some minuets before moving their vehicle. But actual warm up happens when the vehicle is in a fully motional. So drive gently after you start your vehicle, it will warm up as you drive. Give some extra pedal if required.
Stop your engine at signals or traffic jams
Always try to stop your engine if the wait is more than 15 sec. Dont worry about extra wear and tear happens to your starter motor or battery, cause the fuel you are going to save is definitely more than that extra toll on the engine. Plus your are reducing the emissions to our environment.
Avoid lower gears.. Get up to speed fast.
Always try to keep the speed of car above 35 kmph whenever possible. Also try to skip a gear when when on a slope or flat path (like 1 to 3rd or 3rd to 5th)
Drive keeping your windows up
Driving with rolled down windows cause milage to drop my 9%. So it's better to keep the windows up and AC ON on cars that have Air conditioner on it. It will also help to keep dust away from the inside of car.
Please share your thoughts on these observations. Feel free to share your idea's on saving fuel.
Ajith George
2 comments:
how good is stopping the engine if i see a slop and i know there had be traffic signal ahead where any way i have to stop and since it will more than 15 secs stop i will shut off the engine. Please suggest.
Also, what is maximum speed on an i10 (1.1 engine) that i should use to maximize my mileage per litre.
Stopping the engine on a slope is dangerous, as there will be less brake as the all cars these days have power assisted brakes. You can see for yourself one you try this. The brake power will resume once you restart the engine.
The ideal speed for maximum fuel efficiency is on 50 to 60 KM speed range.
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