10 Easy ways to save over a grand on gas

[Rayne]

Click for the original article (http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/105298/10-Easy-Ways-to-Save-Over-a-Grand-on-Gas)


At first I was curious to see what the article may say. Turns out the information presented is and/or could be considered common sense. The title for number eight, pasted below, made me chuckle a little bit.

8. Lose Weight:

Possible Savings 13.1 gallons/yr for each 100 pounds you remove ($104/yr)

Government estimates say that an extra 100 pounds in your car can reduce fuel efficiency by up to two percent. And that's an average -- the smaller the car, the more extra weight makes the engine work harder.

So, empty the trunk. In winter, don't just scrape the windshield, scrape the entire car -- snow and ice add to the weight of your car.


Anyway take the information presented in the article for what you deem it is worth.

[Edgar]

I know another way, lower the damn prices

[mjjstang]

great ill let you all know when I reach 70 lbs and tell ya how much I save, that is if my bag-o-bones is still alive.

[S14DB]

How many times can you use possible, some and can in an article? Seems like he found some random stuff and use the words to protect him self. Maybe AC systems in the 70's did that but most modern AC is less than 1%.

His Volvo gets worse mpg then epa estimates.

[fbiphil]

It's funny- this guy and Jiffy Lube are spouting about the savings from having your oil changed every 3000 miles, and some environmental group is saying to wait until your owners manual recommends to help reduce waste oil.
As a former Jiffy Lube employee, I can tell you that 3000 miles is WAY too soon for conventional oil on a non-high-performance vehicle. 5000 is probably closer to correct, although that cuts the oil change place's profits!
As for this guy, I don't think a $27/ year savings on gas makes up for the cost of all of the oil you'll be throwing away!

Some of the other points made good sense- next time someone asks you why you have all of your seats and carpet removed, you can tell them you're doing your part to conserve fuel and save the planet!

[Silverbullet]

As a former Jiffy Lube employee, I can tell you that 3000 miles is WAY too soon for conventional oil on a non-high-performance vehicle. 5000 is probably closer to correct, although that cuts the oil change place's profits!




there really isn't a number set in stone. The 3000 mile oil change came from older cars. Modern cars can last double that due to the fact that they were made much much better. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it Mercades or something that recommends a 8-10k oil change on some of their cars?

[Frosty_spl]

Yes, my 07 C230 goes about 8k between oil changes.

[Max777]

Thats because it uses 8 quarts, and not 4 like most cars... or at least that's how much my old w202 C class took, 8.7quarts of mobil one and a 10K oil change.

[pwr-adr]

It's funny- this guy and Jiffy Lube are spouting about the savings from having your oil changed every 3000 miles, and some environmental group is saying to wait until your owners manual recommends to help reduce waste oil.
As a former Jiffy Lube employee, I can tell you that 3000 miles is WAY too soon for conventional oil on a non-high-performance vehicle. 5000 is probably closer to correct, although that cuts the oil change place's profits!
As for this guy, I don't think a $27/ year savings on gas makes up for the cost of all of the oil you'll be throwing away!

Some of the other points made good sense- next time someone asks you why you have all of your seats and carpet removed, you can tell them you're doing your part to conserve fuel and save the planet!

Thats funny because I work at Jiffy Lube as well and I can tell if the oil has gone over the recommended amount of mileage. 3000 miles is a good round number but you can get away with a lot more miles but is it worth it? I can notice a difference when my oil has been changed and I change it every 2000 miles or 1500 if she see's some track time. Keep changing your oil and friction modifiers are our friends people.

[shade]

9. Lose the Roof Rack
Possible Savings 13.1 gallons/year ($53/yr)
Wind resistance is the enemy of fuel efficiency. Do you have a roof rack? Every time you drive, it's making your car fight wind resistance, and burn fuel. Most of the time, that's money you're spending to carry an empty roof rack. Get a two percent boost by taking the thing off.


I would actually put one on my car instead. I'm actually looking for a damn roof rack for my car. I still have the roof rack holders, just too lazy to take them off. I think they were a dealer option, I think. I guess I just have live with hauling around the surfboard in the hatch..

[ZenkiCam]

damn, where did they get 104 dollars a year for 13.1 gallons of gas???


gas in Buford GA right now where i live is around 3.70..

cheapest gas i know of in GA..

[thejapino]

Another good one that is never mentioned in these enviro-friendly articles is:

Lower your car. A lower car has less wind resistance allowing it to slice thru/slip under the air better. Think about it...


"Why do you want to go LOWER? You're already low!"

"Save gas muthafunka, save gas."

[The ROMAN]

I heard a good idea is to get an early 90s truck, like a F250, that comes with dual tanks. That way they can hold like 400 gallons and you don't have to fill up as much. :bigok:

[sr20boostn20]

I heard a good idea is to get an early 90s truck, like a F250, that comes with dual tanks. That way they can hold like 400 gallons and you don't have to fill up as much. :bigok:

is that really saving money on gas,

or just "saving" gas by allowing you to hold on to it longer.

[Silverbullet]

Thats funny because I work at Jiffy Lube as well and I can tell if the oil has gone over the recommended amount of mileage. 3000 miles is a good round number but you can get away with a lot more miles but is it worth it? I can notice a difference when my oil has been changed and I change it every 2000 miles or 1500 if she see's some track time. Keep changing your oil and friction modifiers are our friends people.

That is in your head. Your not going to notice any difference in performance after an oil change, especially after only 2000 miles. FYI, color of the oil has nothing to do with how dirty it is. If it is a heavy track season, its wise to change your oil often for safety measures, but if the car has only seen high way miles for the past few months, i dont sweat going 4000 miles for an oil change.

Just because Jiffy Lube tries the push the sales of oil modifiers, doesn't mean they do anything. Manufacturers of auto engine oils wouldn't sell a product that is lacking key ingredients, especially if they are used for commercial, and racing industries.

[Gnnr]

I'll rather shed a 100 lbs from my car.

Drive 60 on the Highway, Not 75:

Wouldn't this also depend on your cars gearing? Thats a pretty broad statement.

That is in your head. Your not going to notice any difference in performance after an oil change, especially after only 2000 miles. FYI, color of the oil has nothing to do with how dirty it is.

The guys at Bob Is The Oil Guy (http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/) will disagree with you. Basically every car is different, and many factors contribute to what is the proper oil change interval for your car.

[SkyHawkX]

Oil can go a lot more than 3000 miles. Those who change their oils religiously at every 3000 miles are actually causing more wear and tear to your engine. This is all from the SAE as well.

After reading that you may never change your oil again at even 10,000 miles!

There are millions of miles of oil analysis that not only prove short duration changes increase wear but also result in a lack of additive activation in the motor. If you own a Jiffy Lube then I would expect you to subscribe to the "3,000 mile Mentality" myth.

Oil additives are activated by heat and pressure. Due to the additives having to hold up over time i.e. longer than 10,000 miles the formulations take a certain period of time to become active in protecting the motor. Draining the oil at lets say 3,000 miles simply means the additives have just become active at the point you are draining your oil! In other words you are increasing wear by about 500% doing 3,000 mile drain intervals!

Oils that carry the extended drain ratings such as 506.01, 507.00 etc mean that the additives are formulated to remain active for periods up to 2 years, 40,000 kms or 640 hours of usage. Oils like Mobil 1 0w40 are formulated to withstand 400F sump temps WITHOUT breaking down and losing viscosity. Furthermore the oils cannot break down due to the PAO makeup of the oil. These oils do not rely on elastomers like the conventional oils do. This means that the oil can fully protect your motor at any temperature without the concern of thermal break-down and thinning out of grade.

If you doubt the 10K oil change intervals perform an oil sample at 1,000 miles. Most cars with a fresh sump of oil will peak out at the 1,000 mile mark. After that the wear metals may increase by only 5-10% over the course of 10,000 miles! Nearly 90% of the engine wear occurs in the first 1,000 miles on an oil change! Increasing oil change frequency increases the duration your engine spends in the activation period of the additives and greatly increases the damage in your motor from failing to follow the guidelines of the manufacturer.

Just looking at iron in a VW motor typical readings are around 20-35 ppm after 15,000 miles of use maximum on a motor that has more than 60,000 miles. The oil filter is not capable of filtering this much metal simply because the wear metals are so small they can't be filtered from the oil. Also because there is so little wear metal you do not get wear as a result of the metal being suspended in the oil.

Dispersants require time to bond to the wear metals and byproducts in your engine oil. As byproducts such as soot (gasoline or diesel make soot just different sizes which discolor the oil) are created additives coat them and prevent them from clumping and becoming larger. Typical soot particles in diesel oil are in the nanometer range in terms of size 10 times smaller than what any bypass filter can even capture which is rated at 2 microns absolute. Your oil filter in your motor is rated at capturing particles in the 7 micron range with only a 75% first pass rating...Bottom line is your car would last forever if you change the oil every 20,000 miles and NEVER replace the oil filter simply because your motor is not making enough metal or by-products to ever get captured! Oils especially those for diesels can handle upwards of 8% soot, that my friend is a LOT of soot! To put that in perspective a typical motor after 25,000 miles without an oil change or filter change will only have 1% soot in the oil. This oil will appear tar black yet the oil still has 80% of its rated levels of protection remaining!

Most oils are limited by time in the sump rather than miles due to sulfur in the fuel. Most gasoline motors can safely go 2 years between changes when using quality oils formulated for extended drains such as Mobil 1 0w40 and Truck and SUV 5w40. These oils along with those sold as VOW 506.01 have very high TBN ratings that neutralize acid formation for upwards of two years (1 year in diesels due to higher sulfur content which causes the acids).

Here's the deal, forget the myths about frequent oil changes and basing your perceptions on how the oil looks. The best advice is use a quality oil and drain it at the specified interval. The worst thing you can do to a modern car is over maintain it, yes this is possible due to the very specific regimen that VW engineers figured out to keep your car running at peak performance with maximum durability.

[bo2o]

3.70 for gas in ga?

dam in La i juss paid 4.65 for 87

[MrChow]

Drive 60 on the Highway, Not 75:

Wouldn't this also depend on your cars gearing? Thats a pretty broad statement.

Try it. It true. For my stock 168k KA I get 30 MPG on the highway when I drive 60ish . Normally it's 28 or 27 when I'm driving 75+.

You can't forget you create more wind drag when you go faster.

[thejapino]

Try it. It true. For my stock 168k KA I get 30 MPG on the highway when I drive 60ish . Normally it's 28 or 27 when I'm driving 75+.

You can't forget you create more wind drag when you go faster.

Definately right. Remember, S13's were rated their MPG's back when 55mph was the speed limit. If you've read the the EPA freeway is 28mpg (i don't know if it is, just throwing a number out there), it was tested to get that mpg while driving 55mph back then. Driving 65 or more causes you to use more gas obviously so don't expect to get 28mpg cuz you read it on an old spec sheet!

Also, driving smoothly saves gas. When you want to accelerate, push the pedal like there is an egg between your foot and the pedal. Push too hard/quickly and you'll smash the egg and lose mpg.

[SlideWell]

good tires and wheel bearings are good for fuel economy.

[aznpoopy]

weak sauce gas tips
need to be like these guys
saving gas isn't just for ur wallet
its a damn sport now. they actually have competitions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypermiler
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/01/king_of_the_hypermilers.html

they save gas by coasting every chance they get
cornering as fast as possible
avoiding using the brakes as much as possible
shutting off the engine every possible chance they get
slipstreaming trucks on the highway
etc.

results?
60mpg in an accord
150mpg in an insight

[S14DB]

Damn, how many laws can you break to save gas?

[ZenkiCam]

3.70 for gas in ga?

dam in La i juss paid 4.65 for 87

damn, i really hate it for you cali guys...

yea man, were having gas wars right now. thanks to Marathon Gas stations (they were the first to try low gas prices around here) now shell has theres down to like 3.80 and shell imo is the best gas out there. and now people from all over the atl area are coming to Marathon and there making a killing.. i wish all gas stations would see that... like im talking 4 people in line for 1 pump. the whole gas station is grid locked with people... and theres 2 marathons within a mile of each other on the same road, and the new one just opened up so no one knows its a marathon yet, and there prices are as cheap as the other haha. but i did ride around today on the other side of buford and gas was like 4.02.

[essforteen]

i heard you can drive behind a big rig and save gas by reducing drag. not the best option can any one say brake check... haha that will suck

[Silverbullet]

Wouldn't this also depend on your cars gearing? Thats a pretty broad statement.


Aside from gearing, much more work is required to move a car 75mph compared to 60mph due to the resistance of the air. 50-60mph is the magic speed on the high way for gas saving.



The guys at Bob Is The Oil Guy (http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/) will disagree with you. Basically every car is different, and many factors contribute to what is the proper oil change interval for your car.

Of course it depends on many factors, espeically how the car is driven, but which article in particular are yo utalking about? I can't find anything that relates to the contradiction of my statement.

[LS240]

Also, driving smoothly saves gas. When you want to accelerate, push the pedal like there is an egg between your foot and the pedal. Push too hard/quickly and you'll smash the egg and lose mpg.

That is true, but one thing also you have to consider is the maximum efficiency range of your engine. Every engine has a certain speed range where it is making the most amount of power and torque(which can be transferred into accelerative forces) for the least amount of fuel used. Almost universally, this maximum efficiency range is somewhere in the area between your peak torque output and peak power output. This means that when you are accelerating from any given speed up to any other given speed, it is almost always best to downshift and allow the engine to run in this range, which might be higher rpm than you're accustomed to using on public roads.

So in other words, if you're lazily cruising along at 1800rpm(which is perfectly fine as long as the engine isn't under much load, i.e. flat ground) and you merge onto an on ramp or something, it is not beneficial to your fuel consumption to stay in that gear and accelerate until you reach 3000rpm then shift or what have you. It is actually better to shift down to put your engine in it's efficiency range, say, around 4500rpm, and accelerate from there, shifting once you get past your peak horsepower. This is also doubly beneficial, because, as thejapino pointed out, mashing on your gas typically uses up more fuel. The reason for this is simply because when you press the loud pedal down more, it opens up the throttle more and ingests more air, thus telling your car to dump more fuel in as well. When you accelerate from low revs, it takes more fuel and air to do so because of the increased load on your engine. Anyone that's ever ridden a multiple-speed bicycle knows exactly what I mean. Try peddling uphill while maintaining or picking up speed in a high gear. Good luck.

So in short folks, use the power of your engine to your advantage, by accelerating at a higher rpm, but at the same time not going full throttle. This will not only help with fuel consumption, but reduce wear on your engine greatly.

[HyperTek]

Wear correct size tires and correct wheel alignment, you dont want to increase rolling resistance.. Make sure tires are properly inflated.

Dont put a bodykit, shit increases wind drag
ohh bowlegged negative camber stance? Grippy tires? pffffp
but then again maybe negative camber aint so bad cuz u dont have the whole tire patch on the ground? lol Obiously your wheels sticking out of the wheel wells hitting air? lol

[HyperTek]

oh and USE YOUR A/C. A/C beats driving a car with teh windows down, which parachutes your car.

[golfer17]

interesting, but none of those really apply to me. the car is already "tuned up", a/c is only used for brief periods on long highway drives, I drive 75 because that's the speed limit on the turnpike and my time is worth way more than the gas saved, I accelerate quickly around town because its fun and that is the whole point of the car, I already coast to stoplights in neutral, my 20+lbs of tools in the trunk are quite important, and the wide tires I have are needed for traction.

anyways, +1 rep for the article, i found it interesting/funny enough.

[OptionZero]

According to mythbusters, that's not quite accurate:

Below 55MPH, windows down hurts mileage less than a/c. Wind ain't moving that fast.

Above 55mph, the air is moving fast enough, A/C is more efficient.

Also, they tested the effects of drafting behind a bigrig. It's very, very effective. Even 100ft behind a truck, they saw something like a 27% increase in mileage; at 20 feet or something it was 38%. You'd go from 25 MPG to around 33, for example, which is pretty nice.

This was on a Dodge Magnum at highway speeds, IIRC 50mph. I imagine the effect would be even more dramatic at 70mph.

I am quite sure that unless I am totally messed up, I can outbrake a truck from 60mph with a 100ft gap, even with reaction time.


The law should be for all trucks and large SUV's to let people draft behind them. If you want to be stupid and drive a big pointless Yukon, you can chip in for everyone else's gas.

[golfer17]

According to mythbusters, that's not quite accurate:

Below 55MPH, windows down hurts mileage less than a/c. Wind ain't moving that fast.

Above 55mph, the air is moving fast enough, A/C is more efficient.

Also, they tested the effects of drafting behind a bigrig. It's very, very effective. Even 100ft behind a truck, they saw something like a 27% increase in mileage; at 20 feet or something it was 38%. You'd go from 25 MPG to around 33, for example, which is pretty nice.

This was on a Dodge Magnum at highway speeds, IIRC 50mph. I imagine the effect would be even more dramatic at 70mph.

I am quite sure that unless I am totally messed up, I can outbrake a truck from 60mph with a 100ft gap, even with reaction time.


The law should be for all trucks and large SUV's to let people draft behind them. If you want to be stupid and drive a big pointless Yukon, you can chip in for everyone else's gas.

haha, +1 for new law. though you gotta watch out for semi's, those things always seem to have rocks hidden somewhere on them that love to come off right when you're passing them and slam into your brand new windshield! that or all those tires just kick up a ton of crap to scratch up your i/c and hood.

[OptionZero]

haha, +1 for new law. though you gotta watch out for semi's, those things always seem to have rocks hidden somewhere on them that love to come off right when you're passing them and slam into your brand new windshield! that or all those tires just kick up a ton of crap to scratch up your i/c and hood.

The trucks that carry hay are the most annoying. It doesn't matter which lane you're in, the hay manages to fly in all directions.

You could be dozens of cars behind it, and the hay finds you.

I will kill my mileage for a few seconds just to speed up and get the fuck away from them.

[The ROMAN]

Keep in mind that some cars will overheat when drafting. My daily started to at one point when I was driving behind a semi (of course it has a blown headgasket so results my vary).

[LS240]

I already coast to stoplights in neutral

That's not actually saving much gas, at least not compared to engine braking. While engine braking, your engine is actually under vacuum and isn't using much, if any, fuel. Thus, you actually use less fuel when you engine brake than sitting at idle while coasting. For your next few tanks of gas, try engine braking as much as you can, and don't rely on the brakes as much. You should see a small increase in mileage.

[az240wanted]

That's not actually saving much gas, at least not compared to engine braking. While engine braking, your engine is actually under vacuum and isn't using much, if any, fuel. Thus, you actually use less fuel when you engine brake than sitting at idle while coasting. For your next few tanks of gas, try engine braking as much as you can, and don't rely on the brakes as much. You should see a small increase in mileage.

But then your putting more wear on your clutch right? And a good clutch isn't cheap to replace.

Just a thought.

[Gnnr]

Keep in mind that some cars will overheat when drafting. My daily started to at one point when I was driving behind a semi (of course it has a blown headgasket so results my vary).

Nah if you have a good fan and the rest of your cooling system is in order that shouldn't happen.