What's the common (and proven to work) tips and tricks to saving petrol?
Things I've heard - myth or proven?:
Accelerating/decelerating too much consumes petrol
Filling petrol during late nights/cool mornings saves you money because petrol is more dense and doesn't evaporate as much as during hot days
Taking the quickest way instead of the shortest but filled with traffic
keep your vehicle well maintained with fuel saving engine oil and fuel saving tires, yes these work, everyone seems to overlook them, keep your tires inflated, make sure all of your wheels are aligned 100%, try not to come to a stop, your engine uses something like 400% more fuel getting it off a standstill, doing this might cause other problems (angry drivers, rear end accident if you're distracted or not paying attention or tunnel vision etc), fill up your tank when its cheap, not when you're empty, use your car less, plan your trip into 1 big trip, a car runs rich when its cold so smaller trips means there is more stop start and more time wasting fuel warming up the engine, its even worse if you drive the car while the car is cold, avoid lengthy idling, turn off your car if you know you're going to be sitting in traffic, minimise wind resistance by removing any roof racks and making sure all vehicle panels are linear, aerodynamic wipers, closing your windows when driving at higher speeds and using your a/c only on highways, speeds above 90km/h, and parking in the shade prevents your fuel from evaporating, our fuel caps are limited to a certain amount of pressure and will leak out any excess pressure thats where you are losing the evapurated fuel..Motorcycles or scooters use less fuel but need to be maintained regularly especially tires..
anyway tl;dr
cliffs; fuel saving tips..
Repost
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/118497
My post:
I've found the following tips to be very useful. By doing the following, I went from travelling 550km on a tank in my Toyota Celica (~11L/100km) to a phenomenal 700km (~7.8L/100km):
Gear changes/cruising: Best practice is to cruise in the low 2000s and shift up in the high 2000s. This would vary for each car based on the torque curve but from my experience, it's been a general rule of thumb.NB: When cruising, you should be at around 25% of your throttle position.
Launch: Gradually pick up speed and swiftly change gears up as per my first point. Aggressive launches have a big impact on your mileage.
Downhill descends (for manual vehicles): When descending down a hill, I would not recommend having the vehicle out of gear as it could be dangerous plus you'll be using some fuel. Put the vehicle into the appropriate gear such that the RPM for your vehicle are above the fuel cut-off threshold.
Slowing down (for manual vehicles): When you're approaching a stop, ease off the gas and let the car cruise in gear until it slows down. This way, you allow for engine braking and use no fuel in the process. I also sometimes shift down to a lower gear progressively at appropriate RPMs without riding the clutch too much.
Fill tyres up: Flat tyres leading to higher rolling resistance. Make sure your tyres are always filled to its recommended levels (or even +1-2psi). NB: Your tyres will lose traction if they're filled too much. Ensure the levels are optimal and safe for use.
Use main roads and highways: Fewer stops = more mileage. Also, studies have shown that the efficient cruising speed is 70-80km/h; I.E. It's a myth that you get more mileage for more speed. Increasing speed = increasing road resistance and wind resistance = more power needed from engine.
Scan ahead: I seriously don't understand why people accelerate only finding themselves hard braking after a couple seconds; it's all wasted energy! If you see traffic slowing down, ease off the pedal. If you see cars stopped at an intersection, ease of the pedal and let the car come to a rolling stop. If you're approaching a corner, slow down at a gradual pace.
Do all of the above and you will see yourself achieving the best mileage yet!
Scan ahead:
Oh man this one big time!
If you're behind a bus and you see it pulling over to pick up passengers, it is acceptable to change lanes provided it's safe to do so!
If the lights have just turned Red up ahead, there's no prize for stopping at them first!
If you're turning right in 5Km, there is no reason for you not to drive in the Left hand lane for another 4.5Km.
At the light's if a car moves forward in front of you, but the lights are still red remain stationary unless it's obvious that cars behind can be advantaged (ie can access a slip lane) or moved from danger.
Engine Breaking: I would coast as much as possible but don't engine break because this adds wear to the engine, which are much more expensive than break pads.
More worried about clutch wear than engine wear! It's far more likely to need attention than the engine due to wear over the lifespan of a vehicle.. even then, still far better to engine brake than just heating up and wearing out your discs and pads, especially on hill descents.
All these are good points + if you can try avoiding RIGHT turns. Google "UPS avoiding left turn policy"
Point one and three - I disagree.
Point two - I agree.
I think point 2 is wrong too because out of gear the engine needs fuel to keep going whereas in gear, even though the revs are higher, the engine keeps going without fuel.
Point 1 - used in some countries already. Cant be fkd googling which ones.
2) Huh ? - low revs, low petrol use.
Point 3 is a proven fact. You'll get further on regular and ethanol than regular.
Point 1) Vietnam has countdown traffic lights (from 30). I think some Eastern European countries do too.
i know Czech republic does, but its like a 5 or 10 second count down.
nearly all newer cars (from probably the last 10 years at least) dont inject petrol when in overrun condition (no accelerator, in gear) so it uses more fuel to idle in neutral than it does to have no throttle in gear.
only time where being in neutral is better is just rolling on flats/slight downhills, rather than to have no accelerator on in gear (as that would slow the car down).
but for approaching lights, in gear no accelerator = no fuel usage.
Don't coast out of gear because you may need to accelerate to get out of an emergency situation. Just coast in gear. The RPM is the same in and out of gear when you are not pressing down on the accelerator at all.
Audi already has a system developed that automatically links to traffic lights. It estimates the speed you should travel so you get to the light when it turns green. If you're still caught at a red light it stops and starts the engine again a couple of secs before the light turns green.
Point one will turn a good battery into a bad battery.
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/136930#comment-1887446
Point 2) i disagree
I used to have an aftermarket ECU which monitored injector duty cycle.
I can't remember the exact figures (except off throttle)
On idle it was say 5%
Throttle anywhere from 5-90%
Off throttle ie. engine braking down a hill, or coming to lights, injectors were at 0%.
Just because the engine is revving, because the car wheels are pushing the engine, doesn't mean your pushing fuel into the system.
So out of gear, coasting to lights, is using more
Are we talking auto or man ?
In my 2001 manual vehicle, if I coast to the red light out of gear - I'm using fuel
And when stationary and out of gear - not using fuel.
And my wifes 2003 manual vehicle, AS she stays in gear at the red light, she is ….wearing out the clutch !!
Mate you're seriously delusional (not sure if trolling). Your knowledge on this topic is extremely contentious.
1) Australia, unlike USA and other nations, DO NOT have time-based traffic light systems. We're more technologically advanced on this front and make use of detectors in each lane. E.G. You stop at a set of lights and other vehicles facing perpendicular to your direction start moving. In peak hour, assuming the queue isn't exhausted, the traffic light has an assigned max time before turning red. But during off-peak times, the traffic system detects the moving vehicles and assumes the max time, say 30s, to be applicable. However, say 10 seconds in the queue is exhausted and there's no traffic. The traffic system detects this and suddenly changes the remainder 20s cycle to a 3s one.
2) Mate do you even physics? The engine needs to operate at a minimum RPM of 600-1000rpm at idle. When you turn on your car and it's just sitting there in the garage, it's chugging through fuel right? Same principle when you disengage the clutch when going down-hill; the engine idles and USES FUEL. However, when in gear, the momentum of your vehicle is moving the tyres -> which moves the gears in the gearbox -> transfers energy via clutch/flywheel to engine -> turns engine. Pretty much any fuel injector manual car would use no fuel in this circumstance. However, there is a fuel cut-off threshold and my car's is around 1000rpm, below which the ecu injects fuel into the engine to prevent it from idling regardless of the clutch being engaged.
PLUS, it's pretty dangerous rolling your car in neutral since your drivetrain is disconnected from the wheels with no control of rotational speed stability on the "driving" wheels.
3) FALSE. If your car is specifically tuned with the fuel, then it may be a different case. There's some misconception over octane rating and efficiency. Sure the gain could be negligible but if the engine hasn't been tuned to use that octane rating, then it's really just a waste of your money. Your ECU fuel map is static on your stock vehicle and every time you fill up, regardless of what fuel you put Into your tank, the ecu will tell the fuel injectors to inject the same way each and every time. Octane/RON rating is a rating of how STABLE and CONTROLLED fuel is under pressure rather than how EFFICIENT it is; big difference!
In the future, I would advise you only give facts on topics for which you have a sound understanding, and perhaps sources to back your facts.
slix - settle down. I guess you're cranky writing at 2am. "Extremely contentious" -20 negs would indicate that. Trolling, no. Contibuting to an open forum, yes. My quals = I drive a car. Yours?
1) I've sat at red lights off peak with no cars to be seen ..sometimes for sooo long. I'm sure you have too. Senseless set of lights.
Then as I get the green light and go, the perpendicular traffic comes barrelling along from their previous red light to the (just turned) red. Either out of sync or not synced - no better than overseas.
So engine OFF ..for sooo long saves fuel.
2) no I'm not a scientist - you're explanation is way too complicated for me, but my thinking is if you're not using the engine/gears, then you're not using (as much) fuel.
As for rolling (and not downhill), I do have brakes - how is an engine in gear going to STOP me without me braking? (rhetorical - please dont answer).
But if you're saying releasing the accelerator also switches off the fuel injectors to ZERO, then perhaps that would use less fuel than coasting/rolling to a stop.
3)Source - ACA but cant find the link. Maybe TT.
4) here's another gem from them too: (surely I'll get a pos vote for this one, please)
We (ACA) tested the theory of whether the type of fuel used has an impact on efficiency. Is BP better than Caltex or Shell better than BP? We picked a fleet of the same model of car and drove them under the same conditions.
Over a 174km drive, we found the difference between the lowest and highest performing fuel was 16.36 litres of fuel used compared to 15.16litres – a difference of 1.2 litres, or 8 percent.
So on our results, if you fill up with Caltex fuel over the course of a year the average motorist could save as much $360.
Let’s look at the final results:
Results for each car (in order) that traveled from Sydney to Hunter Valley:
1) Caltex - Travelled 174km - Used 15.16L - Trip cost $21.98
2) Shell - Travelled 174km - Used 15.64L - Trip cost $22.68
3) United - Travelled 174km - Used 15.67L - Trip cost $23.03
4) Mobil - Travelled 174km - Used 16.09L - Trip cost $23.33
5) BP - Travelled 174km - Used 16.36L - Trip cost $23.72
Now slix, my advise to YOU - get an early nights sleep before responding.
1) slix was definitely getting too excited here.
2) You need to learn how engines and transmissions work! Cause as a driver of a Manual Car you should be fully aware of Engine Braking! And you need to understand that an engine can only bun fuel when the fuel is injected into the engine.
3) Octane has nothing to do with energy content of a fuel.
4) It was Today Tonight (or ACA) they're not even journalism, let alone science!
8% difference is within the error margin especially for such a short trip and in different vehicles which means different drivers, different air pressures and different engine tuning
Ethanol has a higher octane but contains less energy for the same volume as unleaded (hence the cheaper price for fuels containing ethanol). A higher octane will only be beneficial if your car is tuned (or the ECU can adapt) to adjust timing/fuel to burn efficiently.
I'm pro biofuels but thought I would add extra information.
Producing enthanol from corn in the USA can cause more polution than just drilling and refining certain oils.
E10 in the USA is more about fuel stability and increasing corn prices and less about the environment.
I'm not saying it's good or bad, just that there are arguments against current biofuels.
1) If you car is not designed to turn on/off at lights, you will wear out your starter system
2) You "loose control" of your speed. The difference between coasting in gear and coasting out of gear is insignificant when you compare it to how much fuel you burn to accelerate or even maintain a set speed. Coast in gear. It's considered safer.
3) Octane is not energy density. Octane rates how hard a fuel is to ignite. Sports engines are tuned for higher pressures, so they need fuels which wont catch fire before the spark, hence require a higher octane. E10 is normally 91, the same rating as most regular UnLeaded Petrol (ULP).
The chemicals in petrols change regularly, but generally E10 will have slightly less energy per litre compared to ULP.
That said, some fuels use ethanol to increase octane. These are labelled 95, 98 or higher and won't advertise ethanol content.
dont use a/c.
To be fair, A/C off AND Windows up will definitely save you fuel - and it comes with a free sauna visit!
After filling up the car at the bowser, before taking out the nozzles, lift up the hose and give it a good jiggle, so every drop of petrol will go into the car.
Also, fill up the to a price that ends with 2 cents or 7 cents, and pay cash… that way you'll get 2 cents of petrol FREE!
just remember to bring cash to pay with you, else you won't get the rounding difference paying by card obviously.
why wouldn't you pay with ING and get 5% off?
Whats better, the 2 cents saving or the reward points from credit cards/ING cards etc?
its not reward points, its 5% cash back on the purchase price. like 5% as in straight into your account, not in the form of points.
ING cards isnt the only card available btw, theres other companies offering credit cards with reward points (ie. Amex)- hence "credit cards/ (or)ING cards"
ME also offers 5% cashback now.
always use my MEbank debit card at the servo.. usually get about $3-4 off
For this to make a difference, ensure you preset an amount at the pump before hand. Keep the nozzle trigger pressed a while after your preset amount is reached and the pump shuts off. This way the petrol is cut off at the pump's end rather than at the nozzel end, so you get all the petrol within the long hose. If you don't want to look like a cheapskate lifting up and jiggling the hose, park your car so that the petrol lid is furthest from the pump.
Filling petrol during late nights/cool mornings saves you money because petrol is more dense and doesn't evaporate as much as during hot days
yeah, if you siphon petrol out of your neighbours car you save heaps
Until they catch you and give YOU the five finger discount ;-)
I can only handle 2 fingers :(
buy on the cheap days. Right now is good time to buy for Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide
http://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/petrol-diesel-and-lpg/recen…
Would you fill up to full regardless of how full/empty the tank is?
Only if I'm gonna run out before the next cycle otherwise i'll wait another 2 weeks (I don't drive much). If yes then yes i'll fill up to full. Only time I don't fill to full is if I need petrol and the price is high then I'll get less than half.
Using the right RON rated fuel for your car
http://ecomodder.com/forum/EM-hypermiling-driving-tips-ecodr…
But basically, use the accelerator as little and as light as possible - which means arranging things so you don't brake and waste all the energy.
More importantly use the brake as little as possible..
Braking = wasted fuel cause you have to accelerate again, or because you burned too extra fuel to go faster than the traffic flow and have to slow to match traffic flow.
Walk..
10 tips for efficient fuel consumption :)
http://www.environment.gov.au/settlements/transport/fuelguid…
Lift your hose and give it a shake when finish pumping. Oops it has been mentioned. sorry.
This sounds rude, or it's just my mind … :)
I do the "Hose shake" when I finish pumping(LOL) so I don't get dribble down the side of my car.
That All sounds Wrong…
I always wonder if people are looking at me (Wow look at that cheap skate) Care factor minimal..
Ride a bike.
I also use premium unleaded…increased power = better fuel efficiency…plus I also believe that the fuel companies are going to start putting "fillers" into the fuel eventually (if not already) to cheaply boost the volume of fuel and that premium fuel would probably be harmed last. And cleaner fuel, less crap in the filters, engine etc…should = lower service costs.
Does your car prefer premium or it's a personal preference?
Just curious, have you tried regular and premium in the same vehicle at different full tank fills? Can you feel the difference (smoother run, efficiency, savings)?
I read an article on a comparison of fuels the other day, Use to Price ratio.
Best was Regular Unleaded, Then E10, then premium.
Apparently Premium has the best l/Km But price rules it out, E10 needs to be more than 6c cheaper to be on par with regular unleaded. which left Regular unleaded.
Diesel seems to be creeping up in price tho it's ~30% more efficient.
Apparently talk sounds like LPG will be just going up and up and up one even predicting $1.60+ per/L.. (Tho you'll probably save 3-4k before it hits that mark).
Were looking at a new car and can't decide what to go with..
Unless your car needs the extra octane, putting premium in a car that only needs regular is a waste of money. Modern fuels are clean enough that the additives from premium aren't really necessary.
Premium unleaded only guaranteew a certain octane rating. Fuel mixes can vary from month to month. Energy density dictates fuel efficiency and is not advertised as changes with the fuel mix.
I've heard something along the lines of filling up more often. I.e. not waiting until the tank is near empty before filling.
Something to do with less air volume in the tank for fuel to evaporate into.
Apparently this is not the case anymore:
Can I avoid fuel evaporation and loss by keeping my tank almost full?
It shouldn't be a concern. Technical changes to vehicle fuel systems have virtually eliminated fuel evaporation losses.
Although the Source doesn't exactly explain why.
Motor Mouth is a great website to determine the cheapest petrol stations in your area. You can configure time and frequency of emails. A cool app for android users
is the app link dead?
The app isn't free and doesn't rate very well, from the reviews. It's $2.99 see if this link works
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.com.MotorMo…
Buy a smaller car.
*11. stop posting
Naughty by name, naughty by n..
the only thing i do is try to string stuff along on one trip
ie. if you're dropping someone off, do the post, buy some shopping etc. all on one trip
Don't worry too much about slipstreaming trucks on the hway. If there is a crosswind the stream ends up in the gutter anyway. Plus you end up having to feather the throttle to stay in position which uses fuel. And it's dangerous.
Windows are more efficient than air con even on the hway. In real world conditions people only need to wind down the windows a crack at 90ks to get sufficient ventilation which doesn't increase drag too much.
Small cars with 4 speed auto gearboxes really start to use the juice at 100 ks and above. Plus the whine of the engine gets pretty annoying. Try to drive a manual if you can.
Getting rid of the spare tyre tyre iron and jack lightens my load by about 40kgs which means that my car is about 5% more efficient going up hills. Not much difference on the flat though.
Body damage can really suck some juice. My front spoiler got pulled off and I really noticed the increase in fuel efficiency when I fixed it up.
With an auto, use the transmission to shift up into third as soon as possible. Most autos rev too much in the lower gears
You need the spare tyre and jack for a car to be road worth and pass rego. Most insurers require a car to be road worthy for insurance to be vaild. Just a heads up.
On that note, a spare tire (at least in my Mazda 3, ) acts as part of the shock absorption in the event of being rear ended. Not having that protection could cost you even more
I bought a Prius and converted it to gas, as gas is half the price of petrol and it costs me around 4c per km that the equivalent of 90mpg on petrol.
Why not?
Not anymore. LPG isn't as efficient per km and its price is rising daily after the tax was introduced.
David these figures were calculated last week, LPG prices have dropped over 10c/l since Christmas, I agree they will go up as the yearly tax goes on though.
To be precise I get 4.5l/100 km on petrol and 5.4l/100 km on LPG.
I pay 74.9 c for LPG at a station near yarraville.
I converted c/km to mpg with petrol at $155/ l
Anyway it's just my personal choice, each to their own but these are the facts in my case.
I dont know if you guys agree but i do feel the the fuel injector cleaner helps my car runs smoother and more powerful so i end up saving fuel by not pressing the gas pedal as much.
How to save petrol…
One big way is to sit down and ask yourself WHY do I have to be the fastest away at the lights and the first to get to the next red light…. ??????????
Also learn to drive like a chauffeur… :-)
This is only of benefit if you don't have one of those Coles/Woolies voucher.
If you are best friends with the petrol station attendant, fill up 25 times on $2.02 (bowser minimum is $2). So you get a net saving of 50 cents.
Plus all of the above comments that's already been said.
I guess if you're unemployed or your time is worth that much…
You'd probably make more money spending the time looking for money the floor.
Yes this is true. But the topic was about Tight Arse fuel savings.
I wanted to offer something not yet suggested.
You reminded me of how I used to collect money from the slot machines at Crown Casino.
Go to the area with slot machines with minimum bet 3 to 5 cent bets. People leave 1 or 2 cents in the machine because it's not worth cashing out and not enough for a minimum bet. Retrieve 1 or 2 cent tickets from the machine.
Minimum denomination at the cashier is 5 cents. If I've collected five 1 cent tickets I'll be paid 25 cents. If I chuck all five 1 cent tickets back into a machine and retrieve just one 5 cent voucher I'll only be paid 5 cents at the cashier. So better to cash multiple tickets.
Many pumps lock after two unpaid transactions. Tying up five pumps is a jerk thing to do.
Why don just fill up 100000 times with $0.02 each for free if you have that kind of time?
buy petrol in smaller tanks, with wooden stick to hold the two tanks. use it as dumbells, jog to wherever you go with it. Petrol evaporates slowly through the container cap - consume least compare to cars.
I've gone on a diet to lose weight just so I'm less heavier to save petrol :-)
-Buy a car on gas.
-Work for a woolworths/big w, any where with a 5% staff discount.
-Buy Woolworths giftcards for 5% off.
-total saving of 9.75% Off already cheaper gas.
Even get your car converted to gas you still get $1000 rebate in victoria, gas is great, the technology has come a LNG way in the last few years so the economy is not that different I just don't understand why you wouldn't do it
Does it really work??
Theres lots of tips to save fuel but I reckon the savings are so small it just isn't worth it.
Better to organise your life so you don't do unneeded trips, stop buying that latte at lunchtime, bringing lunch in to work rather than buying it etc
Amazing that people will worry about saving $5 a week on fuel yet do $200/$300 of unpaid overtime
Correct tyre pressure, engine maintenance, removing excess weight from car, accelerating and decelerating too quickly, labouring the engine in the wrong gear, planning several short journeys rather than one journey to do several things, travelling more than approximately 90 kph.
I'm not sure about the petrol station one, but since the tanks are underground I would imagine they would maintain a fairly consistent temperature, apart from when the tanker unloads into them.