Gas Saving Tips For Your Car
Save on Gas, Tires, Repairs, Paint and Finish
New Car Lemon Law
Gas Saving Tips for Your Car
While it is always wise to conserve natural resources, the recent price of gasoline has made even the most wasteful
people think twice. Whatever your motivation, here are some gas saving tips from the pros at the National Institute
for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE).
Monitor tires. Under inflated tires or poorly aligned wheels waste fuel by forcing the engine to work harder. (Let the tires cool down before checking the air pressure.) Out-of-line wheels, as evidenced by uneven tread wear, should be aligned by a professional.
Remove excess weight. Remove unnecessary items from the vehicle. Store only essentials in the trunk. Less weight means better mileage.
Consolidate trips and errands. Some trips may be unnecessary. Also, try to travel when traffic is light so you can avoid stop-and-go conditions.
Avoid excessive idling. Shut off the engine while waiting for friends and family. Observe speed limits. Speeding decreases your miles per gallon.
Drive gently. Sudden accelerations guzzle gas. Anticipate traffic patterns ahead and adjust your speed gradually. Use windows and air conditioning wisely. Your mileage should improve if you keep the windows closed at highway speeds, since air drag is reduced. This is true even with the air conditioning on-assuming that the system is in good working order. But turn the air conditioning off in stop-and-go traffic to save fuel.
Keep your engine "tuned up". A well-maintained engine operates at peak efficiency, maximizing gas mileage. Follow the service schedules listed in the owner's manual. Replace filters and fluids as recommended; have engine performance problems (rough idling, poor acceleration, etc.) corrected at a repair facility. Given today's high-tech engines, it's wise to have this type of work done by auto technicians who are ASE certified in engine performance. These conservation tips will not only save gasoline, they'll help extend the life of your vehicle. Win-win, indeed.
More Tire Tips
Tire Replacement: One Size Does Not Fit All
(NAPSI)-As a driver's ultimate connection to the road, tires need to be regularly inspected and properly maintained or replaced to preserve their performance and handling characteristics.According to the experts at the Car Care Council, during a recent National Car Care month, 21 percent of the vehicles inspected in check lanes had improperly inflated tires and 16 percent had worn tread and needed replacing.
"Consumers need to be choosy when purchasing new tires and replace them with the manufacturer's specified tires for their vehicle, because when it comes to tires, one size does not fit all," said Dave Cowger, engineering group manager of the Tire-Wheel Systems Lab at General Motors.
GM's Tire-Wheel Systems Laboratory puts North American-designed tire-wheel assemblies through stringent tests to ensure they meet or exceed internal, federal and Society of Automotive Engineers criteria.
GM's tire and wheel engineers develop exclusive Tire Performance Criteria (TPC) specifications for each vehicle engineered in North America. This helps ensure tire performance, handling and durability under a variety of driving conditions. Major tire manufacturer engineers work together with GM's tire and wheel engineers during the validation process.
Only those select tires approved through GM's TPC process are stamped with a TPC spec number, so customers can go to a dealership or a national tire brand retail store and order a new tire specifically engineered to go with a GM-specific vehicle.
"Tires are an engineering marvel, with 20 individual compounds and components designed to provide the customer with an optimum blend of performance and durability," said Cowger. "Replacing your tires with anything besides the original equipment Tire Performance Criteria-specified tire can impact many performance aspects of a vehicle, including braking, steering, cornering, ride and handling, noise and vibration, traction and even fuel economy."
Basic Tire Maintenance Tips
A few simple tire maintenance steps can help identify and address problems before needing replacement:
• Check for uneven wear or excessive tread wear.
• Make sure all tires, including the spare, are properly inflated. Inflate tires to recommended pressure. Underinflated tires can reduce fuel economy by up to 3.3 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
• Properly rotate tires at recommended intervals.
• Properly align and balance wheels.
How To Tell If You Need New Tires
Tire wear depends on several factors, including driving style and tire maintenance habits. One way to know when to replace tires is when tread-wear indicators appear. A tire's built-in tread-wear indicators are "wear bars" that look like narrow strips of smooth rubber across the tread and appear when it's time to replace the tire.
A new tire is needed if:
• The indicators at three or more places around the tire are visible.
• Cord or fabric is showing through the tire's rubber.
• The tread or sidewall is cracked, cut or snagged deep enough to show cord or fabric.
• The tire has a bulge or split.
• The tire has a puncture, cut or other damage that can't be repaired well because of the size or location of the damage.
Buying New Tires
To determine what kind and size of tire are needed, check the vehicle label. For GM vehicles engineered in North America, the tires installed on each new vehicle have a Tire Performance Criteria Specification (TPC Spec) number on each tire's sidewall. When purchasing new tires, get ones with that same TPC Spec number to ensure the vehicle continues to have tires designed to give proper endurance, handling, speed rating, traction, ride and performance during normal service on the vehicle. If the tires have an all-season tread design, the TPC number will be followed by an "M+S" (for mud and snow).
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Acid Rain Damage
Acid rain damage may look like ordinary water spots, but it is much more damaging. It can actually etch the surface, creating craters with cracks and chips.
Heat accelerates acid-rain damage. Try to wash your car after every rain, especially if the sun comes out right after it stops. To neutralize any acid rain residue, try adding a tablespoon of baking soda for every gallon of water in the wash bucket.
Hand Washing
Wash your car when it is cool and out of direct sunlight.
Clean the tires and wheels first so you won't splash water all over your newly cleaned vehicle.
Begin by washing the dirt and soil off the surfaces so it won't be rubbed in and cause scratches.
Use a 100% cotton wash mitt or a high quality sea sponge.
Wash the car from the top down, in straight lines and using overlapping strokes.
Never use household liquid soaps, which can strip the protective wax coat.
Remember to clean inside the wheel wells.
When drying your car, open up all doors and lids to enable semi-exposed areas to dry completely.
Hand Waxing
Use real waxes, which can't harm the finish. Avoid products that promise to remove dirt, oxidized paint or scratches. Brazilian Carnauba wax is the wax of choice for automotive paints.
Never wax in direct sunlight, since hot metal surfaces can cause the wax chemicals to damage the finish.
If wax is applied in high humidity it may streak.
Small areas should be waxed at one time. Constantly rotate the cleaning towel to apply a fresh area for proper wax removal.
Use a foam applicator rather than a cloth.
Car Washes
Avoid brush-style car washes, which can cause dirt to scratch the paint.
At a "do it yourself" car wash, use the lowest possible setting in order to avoid blasting grit into the car's finish.
Protecting The Paint Surface
As much as possible, avoid long-term exposure to the sun. Ultraviolet light causes discoloration, cracking and a loss of gloss.
Protect your vehicle's paint by avoiding gravel roads whenever possible.
Regularly use commercially available bug removers. Bugs have very acidic bodies that will damage your vehicle's paint.
Avoid parking under trees, which may drop sap.
Remove bird droppings immediately, as they contain phosphates that will rapidly turn into phosphoric acid.
Driving in Rain
When rain water mixes with dust and oils on the road surface it can become as slick as ice. When accelerating
from a stop, do so gradually or your tires may lose traction and cause fishtailing. Also leave more room between you
amd the car in front of you, this is very important, slow down from your normal speed.
Turn on your headlights to allow others to see you through the mist and if your car starts to hydroplane, DO NOT hit
the brake. Take your foot off the gas to regain control. Hydroplaning can be caused by worn tires.
Driving in Fog
Rule number one is DON'T if you can avoid it, but if you find yourself driving into a patch of fog slow down gradually
and don't come to a stop in the middle of the road. At the first sign of fog turn on your low beam headlights but not
your high beams since they will only make seeing worse. Watch out for pedestrians, they can be very hard to spot in fog.
Be Careful of That Rut
Some drivers have the idea that if they can't get off ice or out of the rut by spinning their wheels at half speed, they just might be able to scare the car out by gunning the engine. Then it's "SCREECH" as the spinning tire digs and melts its way through to hard surface. Then it's "SNAP - CLUNK" as something breaks. With the torque of the engine suddenly applied against drive line components, something has to go.
That's more than the universal joints or CV joints, in a front wheel drive car, were designed to handle. These flexible joints that transmit power from the engine to the wheels twist as much as 29 million times in ten thousand miles. When they become worn a little, extra slack can be just enough to allow a sudden jerk to cause a break.
The spinning wheel, incidentally, turns at double the speed shown on your speedometer, enough to cause a tire to fly apart. To protect your tires, your driveline components and your automatic transmission, take it easy when you try to "rock" your car out of a snow bank.