Taking a little of the sting out of high gas prices part II
Don’t you just love it when the dentist tells you, “This may pinch a little,” right before she sticks a foot long needle in your jaw. Heck, that’s not a little pinch, it hurts like the blazes -- kind of the way its been feeling lately when you gas up your car. The last “Under the Hood” column touched on this aching throb coming from the wallet, and offered some suggestions on how to mitigate this pain a little.
The first suggestion offered was that you find out exactly what kind of gas economy you’re experiencing right now. Do this by noting your odometer mileage, or resetting your trip odometer the next time you gas up. When it’s time to refuel, take the number of gallons of fuel you’ve used and divide it into the number of miles you’ve driven. This should be done two or three times to get an accurate baseline and allow you to determine whether or not any of the changes you might choose to implement has a positive effect on your fuel mileage.
Once you know what your fuel economy really is, it’s time to see if it can be improved a little. In the last column we suggested that you try changing your driving habits by leaving for work early and reducing your actual commute time, by driving smoother and accelerating briskly, one third to one half throttle to your desired speed, and by over inflating your tires to reduce rolling friction, but not exceeding the tire manufacturer’s inflation limit. Here are a few more suggestions you may consider:
Turn off that A/C when you’re stuck in traffic. If you leave for work early enough you’ll discover the ambient temperature is really very pleasant on most days, even in the dead of summer. While Myth Busters recently aired a program that allegedly busted the myth that turning off you A/C does any good for your mileage, they did that at highway speeds where the aerodynamic drag caused by an open window offset any gains that were earned by reducing the drag the A/C compressor puts on your engine. At lower speeds the aerodynamic drag isn’t that appreciable, but the drag on your engine from the A/C is even greater because you don’t have a good flow of cooling air dissipating the heat from your A/C condenser. You definitely want to check your mileage to see if you enjoy any economy gains from this tip. Some vehicles run their A/C compressor independently of whether or not the A/C is on, so turning off that flow of cool air might not give you gains.
Make certain your engine’s air filter is clean and free of any obstructions like leaves or dead birds. Yeah, it’s just like the commercial says. A word of caution though, it’s very easy to spend more on air filters that what you’ll save on gas. This is especially true if you let that lube guy sell you a new filter every time you change your oil, or if you buy a high performance air filter for $40 or more. The superstore usually has name brand filters for only a few dollars, and they’re easy to change out. If you don’t drive on any dirt roads an air filter can easily last for a year and provide you with a whole pocketful of savings.
Perform scheduled maintenance on your vehicle and keep it running as good as it can. Again, don’t go to extremes, but a car with a gunked up crankcase because it never had an oil change is going to use a lot more fuel than that same car would have if the owner had taken care of it. I recently bought a used truck for my shop and it got rotten gas economy. When we fixed all of the gas leaks the economy improved considerably, enough so that if the previous owner had done this he probably would have kept the truck. Remember that any money spent on unnecessary maintenance is going to offset any savings you’ll enjoy on your fuel economy, but proper maintenance is not only going to pay for itself in vehicle depreciation and reliability, it can also save you a bunch on your fuel bill.
Don’t buy oversize tires or jack your vehicle up high in the air. It may look cool, but those giant tires use up a lot of energy to keep them rolling. Installing a lift kit on a truck or SUV also hurts the fuel economy by increasing the vehicle’s aerodynamic drag. In addition to wasting a whole bunch of expensive gasoline, these modifications increase bearing wear and decrease the vehicle’s stability. The extra height increases the vehicles chances of being involved in a rollover accident, thus increasing the occupant’s chances of being killed or injured. In fact, if a vehicle is involved in a rollover accident the occupants are sixteen times more likely to be killed or injured than if it were involved in a non-rollover accident. I didn’t make that statistic up, I got it from the National Traffic and Safety Administration’s web site.
While implementing one or two of these suggestions might not offer enough savings to justify the effort, implementing the majority of them could just be the ticket to enough savings to get you through this gas crunch. My next column is going to delve into what kind of alternative forms of vehicular transportation is available, and may just offer you a long term solution to your high gas price blues. If you have any suggestions or comments I’d appreciate you e-mailing them to me at . Happy motoring!
Georgetown Express Autobody is a premier auto body specialist focusing on quality collision repair with late model foreign and domestic vehicles. We specialize in high end and newer vehicle repairs and our autobody shop serves local markets including: Georgetown, Round Rock, Hutto, Jarrell, Leander, Cedar Park, Liberty Hill, Wallburg, Bartlett, Pflugerville and Northwest Austin. Give us a call at 512-930-5900 to find out how we can help you get back on the road!
