How to Become a Hypermiler

Step 3 Maintenence

Keep your engine in Tune and use the lightest weight of oil as possible. In addition to friction, you also have to combat viscous forces. The thicker the oil, the more resistance your engine has to overcome.

O2 sensors are very critical pieces of equipment - especially the 1st one (primary).

If you have a check engine light (CEL) and your car is a 1996+ model (for US vehicles) - get your car scanned. Certain auto parts places will scan codes for free (such as Autozone). Fixing parts yourself can save a lot of money - that is, only if you feel comfortable doing it.

Comments

[swander]

You can no longer get your car scanned for free at Autozone in CA, seems the garages were losing too much business, so they lobbied a law against that. Use the lowest numbered oil your car can take, like a 0w15, this is thin oil that is designed for warm climates.

[jimmytvf]

Every engine has his own specific kind of oil, you can play a little with the thickness, but a very liquid oil, makes that the engine won't lubricate as designed and will even grip. The same happens with a thicker oil, the pistons can become stuck, or won't dissipate the specified heat to the block and this kind of things. The best you can do, is leave the oil as default and play a little with viscosity, one or two degrees, but no more

[trebuchet03]

Perhaps it was too implicit.... "Lightest Oil Possible" - as defined by the engine specifications. Typically there's more than one oil type specified depending on environmental factors with significant amounts of overlap (where it is okay to use either the thicker or thinner option). I'll edit this later for clarity.

[crispy010]

Also don't overfill your engine with oil. But this does other bad things, too.