- Boosting your car’s gas mileage can be as simple as maintaining the correct tyre pressure, regularly changing the oil, and replacing dirty air filters
- Missed engine tune-ups, faulty O2 sensors, Check Engine Lights, and clogged EGR valves are some of the biggest car maintenance mistakes that rob your fuel economy
- Besides keeping the fuel injectors clean, you might want to take your car in for a carbon cleaning, especially if it’s a high-mileage one with direct injection
From changing how you drive to what you drive, there are plenty of strategies for increasing your fuel economy. But before you modify your car or lifestyle to improve your gas mileage, ask yourself: is the maintenance done?
Regular maintenance doesn’t just keep your car running longer, but also running efficiently for longer. And if you’re not doing some of the things listed below, you might be leaving some mpg on the table. The simplest way to improve your gas mileage is to keep your tires inflated and aligned properly
Regularly Maintain Your Car Tires
For how important tire maintenance is, tyres literally keep your car on the road, it’s neglected all too easily. But if safe handling isn’t enough of a motivator, what about poor fuel economy? According to the EPA running on old or poorly-inflated tires can drop your fuel mileage by 0.6% on average. And in some cases, it might drop by 3%.
Ideally, you should check your tyre pressure at least once a month. And if your area experiences extreme temperatures or temperature swings, check it more frequently. Merely increasing your average tyre pressure by 1-2 psi can improve your fuel mileage by 0.2%, the EPA says. Plus, it extends your tires’ lifespans. And it only takes a few minutes.
In addition, even if you haven’t recently replaced your tyres, make sure they’re properly aligned. A poor alignment doesn’t just affect safe handling—it can also make your engine work harder. And that means poor fuel mileage. Fortunately, unless your car sustained some pothole damage or had some major suspension work, an alignment is usually a once-per-year maintenance item.
Changing your oil on time and with the right grade is another way car maintenance can improve your gas mileage
Speaking of simple car maintenance items to improve your gas mileage, let’s talk oil. Besides preventing engine wear and tear, following your car’s prescribed oil change interval also helps it run efficiently. But following the schedule is only half the battle.
In addition to changing your oil at the correct time/mileage, you also need to replace the old stuff with the correct new stuff. Using the wrong grade of oil can lower your gas mileage by 1-2%, the EPA and DoE say. Admittedly, some extreme circumstances do require an oil-grade swap. But if you’re in that situation, fuel efficiency isn’t a priority. So, to save fuel, change your oil on time and with the correct grade.
Clean Air Filter Makes Getting Good Fuel Mileage Easier
This next car maintenance task doesn’t necessarily improve gas mileage on its own. However, it’s an important first step in improving your fuel economy and literally only takes a few minutes. And that task is changing your engine air filter.
In the carbureted past, clogged air filters genuinely cost cars several percentage points of fuel economy, the EPA and DoE claim. Today’s fuel-injected engines, though, can accommodate a dirty filter to some extent. However, driving with a dirty air filter does rob acceleration, which makes you work the engine harder to compensate. And that, indirectly, lowers your gas mileage.
Please note that you don’t have to replace your stock filter with a high-performance air filter. They can boost performance slightly, especially if you have a turbocharged car, but the efficiency gains are rarely huge. So, don’t feel bad about putting money towards other maintenance or fuel economy work.
Give Your Engine a Full Tune-Up
Technically, replacing the air filter is part of a modern engine tune-up, as is changing the oil and other fluids. But it also includes changing the spark plugs and ignition coils, which are what let the engine burn fuel in the first place. And along with the other tune-up tasks, replacing the plugs and coils can improve your gas mileage by 4% on average, the EPA says.
Check Your Oxygen sensors or CELs
Diagnosing a Check Engine Light can be one of the most frustrating car maintenance tasks, especially if you lack an OBD2 scanner. However, resolving the cause of a CEL is genuinely beneficial to your engine’s health. And some CELs, especially ones linked to your emissions controls, tank your gas mileage if they’re not addressed. That’s particularly true for faulty oxygen sensors.
The oxygen sensor, aka ‘O2 sensor,’ monitors the air-to-fuel ratio in the gases flowing into your catalytic converter. Without this information, your car can’t tell if its engine is running efficiently. And if the sensor breaks, it can cause anything from rough idling to misfires and, most importantly for our purposes, poor fuel economy.
A faulty O2 sensor can decrease your car’s gas mileage by up to 40%, the EPA report. Hence, when my parents’ Odyssey got a new one, its fuel efficiency dramatically improved. So, if you’ve got any kind of CEL, especially one that’s sensor-related, get it fixed ASAP or you’ll be throwing money into the gas pump.
Clean or Replace Your EGR Valve
Your O2 sensor isn’t the only emissions-related part that can improve or tank your car’s gas mileage. So does the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) valve, which, as its name suggests, regulates the flow of exhaust gases.
Normally, the EGR valve opens and closes to let some exhaust gases back into the combustion chamber to reduce smog and NOx production. But over time, soot and other grime can clog it. When that happens, your engine can start misfiring, idling roughly, and burning more fuel.
Conclusion
Fuel economy in the car is more important than ever to any car owner in Nigeria, and with these tips, you will be able to easily improve the fuel economy of your car and save on fuel
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