Updated: 06/23/2021
As people across the country load their cars for holiday travelling, many of them are concerned about maximizing their fuel efficiency. However, for gig economy drivers, fuel efficiency is an important part of business efficiency. As you take on busy December, here are a few quick and easy fuel efficiency hacks to improve your gas mileage and make the most of your time on the road.
1. Give your car a tune-up
Having your car tuned up can greatly improve your gas mileage. While there are a number of potentially expensive items you can replace on your car to improve gas mileage, these are a few of the more cost effective ones.
- Inflate your tires—tires that are even just barely under the optimum PSI can lead to lower gas mileage. Your tire pressure tends to go down as the weather gets colder as well, so it’s important to check your tire pressure and add air if needed. You should check tire pressure at least monthly.
- Replace your air filter—you can have a professional replace your air filter, or you can do it yourself. Either way, chances are this filter helps determine how efficiently your car uses gas.
- Check your spark plugs—like the air filter, spark plugs contribute to the efficiency of your engine. They’re also fairly straightforward and cheap to replace yourself.
- Replace the gas cap seal—The seal on your gas cap is made of rubber, which means it will dry up and crack every few years. When it cracks, more air can get into the gas tank, which leads to fuel burning less efficiently. This part usually costs about $25 to replace if you go to a dealership. Auto parts stores may have generic replacements for less, but not all car sensors are compatible with those.
You don’t need to take your car in to have it tuned-up—you can do many of these things yourself. However, even having them done at a dealership or mechanic is likely to keep your car running longer and more efficiently, which will still cost you less in the long run.
2. Use cruise control
Using cruise control actually can save you gas mileage under certain conditions. If you drive on mostly flat terrain, cruise control can keep your speed steady rather than you accelerating and decelerating regularly. These changes in speed tend to lower your fuel efficiency, so letting the car keep your speed steady for you can help keep fuel consumption from spiking as well.
However, if you drive on excessively hilly terrain, cruise control may actually have the opposite effect, since the car will have to shift gears more to maintain the exact same speed all the time.
3. Don’t idle
Idling your car can consume a lot of gas—somewhere between a half and a full gallon of gas per hour. That means that sitting with your car on for fifteen minutes while you wait for that next order could cost you a quarter gallon of gas. If you do that a few times during a shift, you can easily burn through several dollars in gas just by sitting with the car on. If you’re waiting for an order, consider stopping somewhere and turning off your car.
4. Reduce weight in the car
You may not be able to avoid carrying passenger luggage or your own groceries, but keeping excess weight out of your car as much as possible will improve your fuel efficiency in the long run. This is because it takes less energy from your engine to move the car the lighter it is.
5. Avoid speeding
Believe it or not, you actually lose fuel efficiency when you speed (on top of risking expensive speeding tickets). Most cars begin to lose fuel efficiency when they drive over 45 mph, so driving the speed limit is likely to keep your gas mileage higher.
Improving Fuel Efficiency
There you go! Five easy fuel efficiency hacks to improve your mileage. If you’re a real die-hard enthusiast, you could also consider reading up on hypermiling. Several of these techniques may annoy your passengers, but you might be able to use some of them to improve your mileage even more.
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