How you can save fuel and the environment

[.]

Driving and Car Maintenance: Transportation accounts for 66% of U.S.
oil use -mainly in the form of gasoline. Luckily, there are plenty of
ways to improve gas mileage.

Driving Tips:- Idling gets you 0 miles per gallon. The best way to
warm up a vehicle is to drive it. No more than 30 seconds of idling
on
winter days is needed. Anything more simply wastes fuel and increases
emissions.- Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration, and
hard
braking) wastes gas. It can lower your highway gas mileage 33% and
city mileage 5%. Drive at lowest and constant rpms; 2000 rpm are
enough; you can save up to 30%. Even a Porsche can be driven at the
4th gear at 20 mph and at the 6th gear at 50 mph with 2.5 times less
fuel consumption.- Avoid high speeds. Driving 75 mph, rather than 65
mph, could cut your fuel economy by 15%.- When you use overdrive
gearing, your cars engine speed goes down. This saves gas and reduces
wear.- Use air conditioning only when necessary.- Clear out your car;
extra weight decreases gas mileage. Each 60 pounds increases fuel
consumption by 10%. - Reduce drag by placing items inside
the car or trunk rather than on roof racks. A roof rack or carrier
provides additional cargo space and may allow you to buy a smaller
car. However, a loaded roof rack can decrease your fuel economy by
5%.- Check into carpooling and public transit to cut mileage and car
maintenance costs.


Car Maintenance Tips:- Use the grade of motor oil recommended by your
cars manufacturer. Using a different motor oil can lower your
gasoline
mileage by 1% to 2%.- Keep tires properly inflated and aligned to
improve your gasoline mileage by around 3.3%.- Get regular engine
tune-ups and car maintenance checks to avoid fuel economy problems due
to
worn spark plugs, dragging brakes, low transmission fluid, or
transmission problems.- Replace clogged air filters to improve gas
mileage by as much as 10% and protect your engine.- Combine errands
into one trip. Several short trips, each one taken from a cold start,
can use twice as much fuel as one trip covering the same distance
when
the engine is warm. Do not forget that in the first mile your car
uses
8 times more fuel, in the second mile 4 times and only after the
fourth mile it becomes normal.Long-Term Savings Tip- Consider buying
a
highly fuel-efficient vehicle. A fuelefficient vehicle, a hybrid
vehicle, or an alternative fuel vehicle could save you a lot at the
gas pump and help the environment.See the Fuel Economy Guide
(www.fueleconomy.gov) for more on buying a new fuel-efficient car or
truck.


Source:
www.eere.energy.gov and
http://www.vcd.org/155.html

 

[Sansui Samari]

On Jan 18, 10:42 am, "." <sustainable.future...@gmail.com> wrote:

Driving and Car Maintenance: Transportation accounts for 66% of U.S.
oil use -mainly in the form of gasoline. Luckily, there are plenty of
ways to improve gas mileage.

Driving Tips:- Idling gets you 0 miles per gallon. The best way to
warm up a vehicle is to drive it. No more than 30 seconds of idling
on
winter days is needed. Anything more simply wastes fuel and increases
emissions.- Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration, and
hard
braking) wastes gas. It can lower your highway gas mileage 33% and
city mileage 5%. Drive at lowest and constant rpms; 2000 rpm are
enough; you can save up to 30%. Even a Porsche can be driven at the
4th gear at 20 mph and at the 6th gear at 50 mph with 2.5 times less
fuel consumption.- Avoid high speeds. Driving 75 mph, rather than 65
mph, could cut your fuel economy by 15%.- When you use overdrive
gearing, your cars engine speed goes down. This saves gas and reduces
wear.- Use air conditioning only when necessary.- Clear out your car;
extra weight decreases gas mileage. Each 60 pounds increases fuel
consumption by 10%. - Reduce drag by placing items inside
the car or trunk rather than on roof racks. A roof rack or carrier
provides additional cargo space and may allow you to buy a smaller
car. However, a loaded roof rack can decrease your fuel economy by
5%.- Check into carpooling and public transit to cut mileage and car
maintenance costs.

Car Maintenance Tips:- Use the grade of motor oil recommended by your
cars manufacturer. Using a different motor oil can lower your
gasoline
mileage by 1% to 2%.- Keep tires properly inflated and aligned to
improve your gasoline mileage by around 3.3%.- Get regular engine
tune-ups and car maintenance checks to avoid fuel economy problems due
to
worn spark plugs, dragging brakes, low transmission fluid, or
transmission problems.- Replace clogged air filters to improve gas
mileage by as much as 10% and protect your engine.- Combine errands
into one trip. Several short trips, each one taken from a cold start,
can use twice as much fuel as one trip covering the same distance
when
the engine is warm. Do not forget that in the first mile your car
uses
8 times more fuel, in the second mile 4 times and only after the
fourth mile it becomes normal.Long-Term Savings Tip- Consider buying
a
highly fuel-efficient vehicle. A fuelefficient vehicle, a hybrid
vehicle, or an alternative fuel vehicle could save you a lot at the
gas pump and help the environment.See the Fuel Economy Guide
(www.fueleconomy.gov) for more on buying a new fuel-efficient car or
truck.

Source:www.eere.energy.gov  andhttp://www.vcd.org/155.html

I would like to add... Instead of buying the newest fuel efficient car
at every drop of a hat, you may save oil usage by keeping your old car
running well, and not buying a new car for a while. If you buy the
new experimentally fuel efficient car now, it will probably not be as
good as the same model, after a few years of consumer use and feedback
(if feedback does in fact exist). So the amount of oil, other raw
materials and energy used to make your new car, + the amount of energy
to prematurely recycle your old one, may very well be more than the
amount saved by buying the latest experiment. At least for a while.

-J

 

[William Sommerwerck]

Idling gets you 0 miles per gallon. The best way to warm up
a vehicle is to drive it. No more than 30 seconds of idling
on winter days is needed.

Wrong. No idling is needed. The car's computer adjusts the fuel/air mixture
appropriately.

Use air conditioning only when necessary.

The amount of energy consumed by the A/C system is small compared to the
total energy needed to move the vehicle. (The issue of whether rolling up
the windows improves mileage sufficiently to offset the use of air
conditioning has never been resolved -- in my mind, anyway. I don't remember
what Adam and Jamie concluded, only that I wasn't fully convinced.

Extra weight decreases gas mileage. Each 60 pounds increases
fuel consumption by 10%.

Again, bad reasoning. Any difference in gas mileage will only be seen during
acceleration, not constant-speed driving. And as 60 pounds is barely 3% of a
light car's weight, it seems hard to believe that you would have a 10%
increase in fuel consumption, even during acceleration. (Kinetic energy
scales lineraly with mass.)

Do not forget that in the first mile your car uses 8 times
more [sic] fuel, in the second mile 4 times and only after
the fourth mile it becomes normal.

Again, this makes little sense, as the car's computer is running things.
Yes, the fuel/air mixture will be richer when the engine is cold -- but
eight times as rich? You'd flood the engine.

 

On Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:13:10 -0800, "William Sommerwerck"
<grizzledgeezer@comcast.net> wrote:

Idling gets you 0 miles per gallon. The best way to warm up
a vehicle is to drive it. No more than 30 seconds of idling
on winter days is needed.

Wrong. No idling is needed. The car's computer adjusts the fuel/air mixture
appropriately.


Use air conditioning only when necessary.

The amount of energy consumed by the A/C system is small compared to the
total energy needed to move the vehicle. (The issue of whether rolling up
the windows improves mileage sufficiently to offset the use of air
conditioning has never been resolved -- in my mind, anyway. I don't remember
what Adam and Jamie concluded, only that I wasn't fully convinced.

They did a truly stupid test - keeping the air conditioning on maximum

(needing caot & gloves to drive) instead of maintaining some
reasonablr temperature (78F) and comparing the gas mileage.

The pickup truck test that got bett rmileage with the tailgate up
than with it down does show that wind resistance matters and that how
it works is not always obvious (the "rolling ball" of air in the bed
of the truck).

Unless the air can get out of the vehicle (as in the pop-out side
windows on a 68 Beetle), the winodws act as scoops and the wind just
punds against the interior of the car (comparing the 61 Beetle without
pop-out side windows to the 68 Beetle with the pop-out windows).

Extra weight decreases gas mileage. Each 60 pounds increases
fuel consumption by 10%.

Again, bad reasoning. Any difference in gas mileage will only be seen during
acceleration, not constant-speed driving. And as 60 pounds is barely 3% of a
light car's weight, it seems hard to believe that you would have a 10%
increase in fuel consumption, even during acceleration. (Kinetic energy
scales lineraly with mass.)

Agreed - the 60 pounds = 10% is one of the worst internet junk stories

I've heard.

My pickup gets 20-21mpg in town and 26-27mpg on the highway (at
65mph). I make several long trips (600+ miles one way) each year. The
highway mileage doesn't change between summer (A/C on) and winter (A/C
off), nor does loading up a bed-full of tools (box of hand tools is
~40 pounds, plus power washer, drill, circular saw, reciprocating saw,
batteries & charger for cordless tools, etc) and the fiberglass "car
top" carrier in the bed that provides a weatherproof place for the
tools.

Driving 5mph faster or slower makes a noticeable differene in mileage
on the highway. I have an OBDII scanner connected to a laptop PC to
provide instantaneous and trip engine data. The software I use
(TouchScan) allows setting up for multiple "trip" logs, so I typically
have onelog that tracks an entire trip and others that track from
fill-up to fill-up.

Do not forget that in the first mile your car uses 8 times
more [sic] fuel, in the second mile 4 times and only after
the fourth mile it becomes normal.

Again, this makes little sense, as the car's computer is running things.
Yes, the fuel/air mixture will be richer when the engine is cold -- but
eight times as rich? You'd flood the engine.

I might accept this for an old vehicle with a thermally controlled

automatic choke (my 57 Chevy would have been a great example) - the
mix was kept rich until the engine was warm enough to run on a normal
fuel/air ratio. However, any vehicle that uses fuel injection (either
direct or throttle-body injection) controls the fuel/air ratio based
on engine temperature, exhaust content (oxygen sensors), and load. My
2008 Tacoma pickup idles up to maybe 1500 rpm when started on a cold
day (20F) but quickly drops to ~ 700 rpm as the engine warms just a
little bit (less than a minute at idle).

 

[GregS]

In article <ce008f53-8d30-4ac9-b6b1-756336d52247@k19g2000yqc.googlegroups.com>, Robert Macy <macy@california.com> wrote:

On Jan 20, 9:44=A0am, n...@jecarter.us wrote:
....snip...
I might accept this for an old vehicle with a thermally controlled
automatic choke (my 57 Chevy would have been a great example) - the
mix was kept rich until the engine was warm enough to run on a normal
fuel/air ratio. =A0However, any vehicle that uses fuel injection (either
direct or throttle-body injection) controls the fuel/air ratio based
on engine temperature, exhaust content (oxygen sensors), and load. =A0My
2008 Tacoma pickup idles up to maybe 1500 rpm when started on a cold
day (20F) but quickly drops to ~ 700 rpm as the engine warms just a
little bit (less than a minute at idle).

On my old Z the Bosch L Jetronic had no exaust sensor.
It still had fast cold idle, and rich mixture, with a kind of analog computer.

On my 93 Dakota, you have a hard time controlling revs while parked, and when the idle
motor acts up, it does not idle.

Why has everyone dismissed the REAL reason for warming up a vehicle:
Stabilize temperature, lube bearings

AT least 10 mintues before driving and you extend the life almost 2
times. [from memory]

I got some conflicting comments when a while back, I was discussing the merits of
my remote start on my truck. Below freezing it takes 15 to 20 minuites foir the truck
to have any kind of heat, partly because of the heater core. People were telling me to just
take of and go. The truck never heats up enough with zero degrees outside.

I also turn on the lights when I'm trying to get heat if I was parked. I'm not sure if that
really helps, be I also rev it up a bit while parked.

greg

 

[GregS]

In article <epeel55e4dms6t3i7ec64hstk18b40vldg@4ax.com>, news@jecarter.us wrote:

On Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:13:10 -0800, "William Sommerwerck"
grizzledgeezer@comcast.net> wrote:

Idling gets you 0 miles per gallon. The best way to warm up
a vehicle is to drive it. No more than 30 seconds of idling
on winter days is needed.

Wrong. No idling is needed. The car's computer adjusts the fuel/air mixture
appropriately.


Use air conditioning only when necessary.

The amount of energy consumed by the A/C system is small compared to the
total energy needed to move the vehicle. (The issue of whether rolling up
the windows improves mileage sufficiently to offset the use of air
conditioning has never been resolved -- in my mind, anyway. I don't remember
what Adam and Jamie concluded, only that I wasn't fully convinced.

They did a truly stupid test - keeping the air conditioning on maximum
(needing caot & gloves to drive) instead of maintaining some
reasonablr temperature (78F) and comparing the gas mileage.

The pickup truck test that got bett rmileage with the tailgate up
than with it down does show that wind resistance matters and that how
it works is not always obvious (the "rolling ball" of air in the bed
of the truck).

Unless the air can get out of the vehicle (as in the pop-out side
windows on a 68 Beetle), the winodws act as scoops and the wind just
punds against the interior of the car (comparing the 61 Beetle without
pop-out side windows to the 68 Beetle with the pop-out windows).




Extra weight decreases gas mileage. Each 60 pounds increases
fuel consumption by 10%.

Again, bad reasoning. Any difference in gas mileage will only be seen during
acceleration, not constant-speed driving. And as 60 pounds is barely 3% of a
light car's weight, it seems hard to believe that you would have a 10%
increase in fuel consumption, even during acceleration. (Kinetic energy
scales lineraly with mass.)

Agreed - the 60 pounds = 10% is one of the worst internet junk stories
I've heard.

My pickup gets 20-21mpg in town and 26-27mpg on the highway (at
65mph). I make several long trips (600+ miles one way) each year. The
highway mileage doesn't change between summer (A/C on) and winter (A/C
off), nor does loading up a bed-full of tools (box of hand tools is
~40 pounds, plus power washer, drill, circular saw, reciprocating saw,
batteries & charger for cordless tools, etc) and the fiberglass "car
top" carrier in the bed that provides a weatherproof place for the
tools.

Driving 5mph faster or slower makes a noticeable differene in mileage
on the highway. I have an OBDII scanner connected to a laptop PC to
provide instantaneous and trip engine data. The software I use
(TouchScan) allows setting up for multiple "trip" logs, so I typically
have onelog that tracks an entire trip and others that track from
fill-up to fill-up.

My 93 V6 Dakota get 12 MPG around town. Maybe 19-20 on the highway,
if you back off the gas. It constantly shifts going up large hills,
trying to keep 65-70 MPH. The V8 gets better milage on the road.

I drive with the air conditioner on in the summer and most
always have a window open. I also try to keep a window open in the winter.
There is no other way to dispose of the ashes !

I have a theory that we could save a lot of fuel if all drivers would slow up going up
hills, and let it drift downhill. I have found a tendancy in people to want to naturally speed
up the hill. Some kind of power trip.

I tried to save gas on a trip, but still averaged 65 MPH, and got 35 MPG with the Cavalier
trying to keep it in overdrive as long as possible, slowing up hills then speeding up
downhill. Basically works well. Thats when I head southeast, but northeast is flat.

greg

Do not forget that in the first mile your car uses 8 times
more [sic] fuel, in the second mile 4 times and only after
the fourth mile it becomes normal.

Again, this makes little sense, as the car's computer is running things.
Yes, the fuel/air mixture will be richer when the engine is cold -- but
eight times as rich? You'd flood the engine.

I might accept this for an old vehicle with a thermally controlled
automatic choke (my 57 Chevy would have been a great example) - the
mix was kept rich until the engine was warm enough to run on a normal
fuel/air ratio. However, any vehicle that uses fuel injection (either
direct or throttle-body injection) controls the fuel/air ratio based
on engine temperature, exhaust content (oxygen sensors), and load. My
2008 Tacoma pickup idles up to maybe 1500 rpm when started on a cold
day (20F) but quickly drops to ~ 700 rpm as the engine warms just a
little bit (less than a minute at idle).

 

[Robert Macy]

On Jan 20, 9:44 am, n...@jecarter.us wrote:
....snip...

I might accept this for an old vehicle with a thermally controlled
automatic choke (my 57 Chevy would have been a great example) - the
mix was kept rich until the engine was warm enough to run on a normal
fuel/air ratio.  However, any vehicle that uses fuel injection (either
direct or throttle-body injection) controls the fuel/air ratio based
on engine temperature, exhaust content (oxygen sensors), and load.  My
2008 Tacoma pickup idles up to maybe 1500 rpm when started on a cold
day (20F) but quickly drops to ~ 700 rpm as the engine warms just a
little bit (less than a minute at idle).

Why has everyone dismissed the REAL reason for warming up a vehicle:
Stabilize temperature, lube bearings

AT least 10 mintues before driving and you extend the life almost 2
times. [from memory]

 

[BillW50]

Robert Macy wrote on Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:05:25 -0800 (PST):

On Jan 20, 9:44 am, n...@jecarter.us wrote:
...snip...
I might accept this for an old vehicle with a thermally controlled
automatic choke (my 57 Chevy would have been a great example) - the
mix was kept rich until the engine was warm enough to run on a normal
fuel/air ratio. However, any vehicle that uses fuel injection (either
direct or throttle-body injection) controls the fuel/air ratio based
on engine temperature, exhaust content (oxygen sensors), and load. My
2008 Tacoma pickup idles up to maybe 1500 rpm when started on a cold
day (20F) but quickly drops to ~ 700 rpm as the engine warms just a
little bit (less than a minute at idle).

Why has everyone dismissed the REAL reason for warming up a vehicle:
Stabilize temperature, lube bearings

AT least 10 mintues before driving and you extend the life almost 2
times. [from memory]

That is what I did and what I practiced. That is until somebody told me
if don't use high RPMs and don't push anything hard for the first few
minutes, it will last just as long.

So I started doing this about 30 years ago and I can't tell the
difference. And I never had an engine ever fail, burn oil, or anything
in all of that time.

If it matters, I have had four vehicles in the last 30 years.

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 702G4 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Xandros Linux (build 2007-10-19 13:03)

 

On Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:34:36 -0600, BillW50 <BillW50@aol.kom> wrote:

Robert Macy wrote on Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:05:25 -0800 (PST):
On Jan 20, 9:44 am, n...@jecarter.us wrote:
...snip...
I might accept this for an old vehicle with a thermally controlled
automatic choke (my 57 Chevy would have been a great example) - the
mix was kept rich until the engine was warm enough to run on a normal
fuel/air ratio. However, any vehicle that uses fuel injection (either
direct or throttle-body injection) controls the fuel/air ratio based
on engine temperature, exhaust content (oxygen sensors), and load. My
2008 Tacoma pickup idles up to maybe 1500 rpm when started on a cold
day (20F) but quickly drops to ~ 700 rpm as the engine warms just a
little bit (less than a minute at idle).

Why has everyone dismissed the REAL reason for warming up a vehicle:
Stabilize temperature, lube bearings

AT least 10 mintues before driving and you extend the life almost 2
times. [from memory]

That is what I did and what I practiced. That is until somebody told me
if don't use high RPMs and don't push anything hard for the first few
minutes, it will last just as long.

So I started doing this about 30 years ago and I can't tell the
difference. And I never had an engine ever fail, burn oil, or anything
in all of that time.

If it matters, I have had four vehicles in the last 30 years.

I've never done much more than let the idle speed stabilize before
driving - my previous vehicle was a 1989 Nissan pickup (4 cyl, 5 speed
manual) that I sold after 18 years. It ran fine, but the metallic
paint has gone ratty - just not in the time frame to get the "secret
factory warranty" repaint. When my wife refused to ride in it and
told me to get a new vehicle, I thought "Yes, dear"was the proper
response ;-)

The Nissan pickup had replaced a 10 year old Mazda GLC wagon (4 cyl, 4
speed manual) that was totalled.

John

 

[Sansui Samari]

On Jan 20, 11:47 am, zekfr...@zekfrivolous.com (GregS) wrote:

In article <ce008f53-8d30-4ac9-b6b1-756336d52...@k19g2000yqc.googlegroups..com>, Robert Macy <m...@california.com> wrote:

On Jan 20, 9:44=A0am, n...@jecarter.us wrote:
....snip...
I might accept this for an old vehicle with a thermally controlled
automatic choke (my 57 Chevy would have been a great example) - the
mix was kept rich until the engine was warm enough to run on a normal
fuel/air ratio. =A0However, any vehicle that uses fuel injection (either
direct or throttle-body injection) controls the fuel/air ratio based
on engine temperature, exhaust content (oxygen sensors), and load. =A0My
2008 Tacoma pickup idles up to maybe 1500 rpm when started on a cold
day (20F) but quickly drops to ~ 700 rpm as the engine warms just a
little bit (less than a minute at idle).

On my old Z the Bosch L Jetronic had no exaust sensor.
It still had fast cold idle, and rich mixture, with a kind of analog computer.

On my 93 Dakota, you have a hard time controlling revs while parked, and when the idle
motor acts up, it does not idle.

Why has everyone dismissed the REAL reason for warming up a vehicle:
Stabilize temperature, lube bearings

AT least 10 mintues before driving and you extend the life almost 2
times. [from memory]

I got some conflicting comments when a while back, I was discussing the merits of
my remote start on my truck. Below freezing it takes 15 to 20 minuites foir the truck
to have any kind of heat, partly because of the heater core. People were telling me to just
take of and go. The truck never heats up enough with zero degrees outside..

I also turn on the lights when I'm trying to get heat if I was parked. I'm not sure if that
really helps, be I also rev it up a bit while parked.

greg

Turning the lights on will probably only add heat, if you put your
face on them.

As for the heater taking a long time, and never being hot enough when
it's below zero. You might just need a different thermostat. They
open to let the coolant circulate after the engine coolant reaches a
certain temperature. So you get no heat until it opens. If you get a
new one and put it in yourself, be aware that you might have to drill
a bypass hole in the new one. Some aftermarkets forgot the bypass, or
made it too small.