How to decrease petrol consumption

I

Imoe

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So every day I travel to work and back, and for the last two years and some odd months have been traveling 80km's one way. I do on average 1100km's a week, this includes weekends.....yeah i know it is alot and relocating is not an option.

I currently drive a Toyota Auris 1.6. About a year back the petrol started taking its toll.....from the petrol slips, shock and horror R29 000 for the year. With the thought of setting money on fire, I decided to change my driving behaviour. Tried a few simple steps that made a huge difference. Some of these changes include:

Filling the petrol tank to full, not overfilling the tank
Reducing my highway speeds from between 120-140 to an almost constant 100km/h
Reducing brake usage by keeping a two to three car spacing
Working flexi time to avoid major traffic congestion times, start time 06h00 end time 15h00

The above gave me an extra 190km's on a tank, which is basically an additional trip to office and back.

Please feel free to add tips to decrease you petrol consumption.
 
The flexi time thing works for me too. I usually do 06h00-15h00 or 09h30-18h30.

If you do get stuck in traffic, always try and keep your car rolling, rather than stopping and taking off again. I usually do this by slowing down and maintaining speed by using the gears (for eg. drop into 2nd and when you feel the car slow down, immediately shift into 3rd to reduce the revs and maintain your speed. Repeat if you need to slow down further. Obviously sometimes you have no choice but to come to a complete stop.).

Also, try to reduce aircon usage for slower speeds. Tinting your windows is more than just aesthetic - it reduces the radiation and, to some extent, your dependence on the aircon.
 
E-e-e-a-s-y does it on the pedal when moving off: in workaday traffic there's no real need to do robot-racing pullaways. But find the balance between getting going as smoothly as possible and not having some hacked off oik behind you trying to drive into your tailpipe. Change gear upwards as soon as speed/torque allows - IOW "short-change" your 'box. You're keeping the revs down ...I'm sure you can figure out what that means.

Also: hypermiling (scant info there tho', see GOOG for more.)
 
drive like a granny, or drive a citi golf... with a citi it does not matter how you drive it... you still get 16km/L
 
Good points, I'll try and use em, one thing I've noticed that almost ALWAYS works is to drive slow when you don't need to speed, sticking to the speed limit is also good for saving petrol. Use your cruise control!, Never drive slow in high gears like 5 or 6...rather get up to the speed, say 60, and then start coasting in 5th or 6th other than being in 5th when your only doing 40...puts strain on 'box AND you can see it puts strain on engine, which in turn uses more fuel!

Another thing is to keep clutch in while coming to a stop - rather let it idle...also heard this crazy idea from Jeremy that you must keep the car in gear...don't know why lol...nothing to do with hijackings.

Also make sure tyres are correct inflated, this makes a big difference - other than that, driving style as OP described is the best way...
 
ALFAHOLIC said:
Another thing is to keep clutch in while coming to a stop - rather let it idle...also heard this crazy idea from Jeremy that you must keep the car in gear...don't know why lol...nothing to do with hijackings.
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That increases fuel consumption, especially on a fuel injected car. When the ECU detects the throttle is at the fully closed position (using throttle position sensor) it cuts fueling, allowing the crank shaft to be turned by the momentum of the car, whereas idling requires fuel to be injected to keep the crank turning.
 
I have ABS brakes, and I love using them.
 
Tyre pressure is quite important. Also when u going faster than 60km/h close ur windows (u actually better off with the aircon above 60). Try to avoid having to make a dead stop at red traffic lights by timing urself as u approaching 1. And on a dangerous note, when going thru a series of robots, skip the 1st red light and u should catch the rest in green
 
rezabz said:
Also when u going faster than 60km/h close ur windows (u actually better off with the aircon above 60).
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Yeah I saw that episode of Mythbusters too, it's actually 60mph, so more like 100km/h ;)
 
Here is one that works when u hit a downhill as u almost always will switch to neutral...
 
Imoe said:
Filling the petrol tank to full, not overfilling the tank
Click to expand...

What do you mean by this do you just fill it until the pump stops and no more how does this save petrol

I was always under the impression that the less air in your tank the less evaporation so as your tank gets empty the more evaporation occurs so it is advisable that you keep you tank as full as possible.
Also a good idea to fill the tank in the morning rather than the afternoon Petrol is more dense when its cool so you can put more in your tank for the same money.
 
I just put a Dastek Unichip on my old Sentra 160si (the fuel consumption went to hell and gone and nobody could find the problem). The Chip takes over the Cars ECU functions. So the fuel management is fully customizable via computer, while they have it on the dyno... Had mine set to give me more miles on a tank, not more power on the road!!! But I still gained 4kw and 10nm of torque! Now to see how long a tank lasts (was getting 360km on a 50l tank).

edit: oh ja, R3800 fitted and tuned plus minor service, all done at steves auto clinic.
 
killkom said:
What do you mean by this do you just fill it until the pump stops and no more how does this save petrol

I was always under the impression that the less air in your tank the less evaporation so as your tank gets empty the more evaporation occurs so it is advisable that you keep you tank as full as possible.
Also a good idea to fill the tank in the morning rather than the afternoon Petrol is more dense when its cool so you can put more in your tank for the same money.
Click to expand...

The petrol tank has an overflow and excess petrol just expels when you are in motion. I usually stop on the second air pocket, which is around 42 litres.
 
Saw a nahnah almost rock his little Nissan bakkie onto its side whilst getting some BP flavour juice yesterday. Had to laugh... :rolleyes:
 
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