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Step 2Steps 3 & 4 - Ease up on the Brakes
Avoid Braking (but don't kill anybody!)
As you brake, you turn the energy of your moving car into heat. That energy comes from gasoline! If you see a stop ahead, let off the gas immediately. There's no sense using more gas to get closer to a line of waiting cars when you'll just be waiting there anyway.
To go a step farther, break just enough so that you will arrive at a light still moving as it changes. You vehicle uses the most gas to move from 0 mph to 10 mph. Avoiding a complete stop by timing lights correctly will really improve your mileage. Sometimes you can change a lane to avoid stopping, so do that whenever (safely) convenient.
Coast Down Hills and Up To Stop Signs.
To take things a step further, take your vehicle out of gear as you coast to a (almost) stop. This will let your engine drop its speed to idle, using less gas, and it will let you coast farther
without using any extra gas. The same thing goes for hills. Down a large hill, your engine becomes a drag on your vehicle rather than a power source. So shifting into neutral can let you car coast longer and faster than it would be able to when in drive.
(caution here, mis-shifting, shifting too often, or shifting while revving the engine can all cause undo wear and tear automatic transmissions. Use judgment, and make sure you're careful and practiced before you try this on large or busy roads. Also, if your vehicle has a steering column shifter, this can be difficult and you could potentially shift into reverse by mistake, so it is not recommended.)
::EDIT::
Wow Ive got the most feedback on this suggestion. Here is my reply.
Yes. Modern cars with manual transmissions -do- shut off fuel to the engine when costing in gear. This can save gas. You should keep your car in low gear when slowing down, and in high gear when on a steep hill if you would otherwise be using you brakes.
If you are coasting down a small hill though, or want to pick up speed down a hill, take your car out of gear! That gas you might save by keeping your engine in gear is very small compared to the gas you could save by not having to use the accelerator as much.
Looking at the tech-specs for some of my own vehicles, even under a relatively small engine load, I would have to have my engine out of gear for 12 minutes to make up for 1 minute of acceleration. In other words, I'm saving a fair amount of gas if I avoid accelerating by keeping my downhill speed up. Obviously this varies from car to car.
Use your judgment and experiment, but taking your car out of gear at appropriate times really can save you considerable fuel.
As you brake, you turn the energy of your moving car into heat. That energy comes from gasoline! If you see a stop ahead, let off the gas immediately. There's no sense using more gas to get closer to a line of waiting cars when you'll just be waiting there anyway.
To go a step farther, break just enough so that you will arrive at a light still moving as it changes. You vehicle uses the most gas to move from 0 mph to 10 mph. Avoiding a complete stop by timing lights correctly will really improve your mileage. Sometimes you can change a lane to avoid stopping, so do that whenever (safely) convenient.
Coast Down Hills and Up To Stop Signs.
To take things a step further, take your vehicle out of gear as you coast to a (almost) stop. This will let your engine drop its speed to idle, using less gas, and it will let you coast farther
without using any extra gas. The same thing goes for hills. Down a large hill, your engine becomes a drag on your vehicle rather than a power source. So shifting into neutral can let you car coast longer and faster than it would be able to when in drive.
(caution here, mis-shifting, shifting too often, or shifting while revving the engine can all cause undo wear and tear automatic transmissions. Use judgment, and make sure you're careful and practiced before you try this on large or busy roads. Also, if your vehicle has a steering column shifter, this can be difficult and you could potentially shift into reverse by mistake, so it is not recommended.)
::EDIT::
Wow Ive got the most feedback on this suggestion. Here is my reply.
Yes. Modern cars with manual transmissions -do- shut off fuel to the engine when costing in gear. This can save gas. You should keep your car in low gear when slowing down, and in high gear when on a steep hill if you would otherwise be using you brakes.
If you are coasting down a small hill though, or want to pick up speed down a hill, take your car out of gear! That gas you might save by keeping your engine in gear is very small compared to the gas you could save by not having to use the accelerator as much.
Looking at the tech-specs for some of my own vehicles, even under a relatively small engine load, I would have to have my engine out of gear for 12 minutes to make up for 1 minute of acceleration. In other words, I'm saving a fair amount of gas if I avoid accelerating by keeping my downhill speed up. Obviously this varies from car to car.
Use your judgment and experiment, but taking your car out of gear at appropriate times really can save you considerable fuel.
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Nov 3, 2010. 10:05 AMMetalhead91
says:
if your going down a hill, throwing your car into neutral is actually detrimental to you fuel economy. Most new cars (2001 and up) are fuel injected, and when coasting down a hill in neutral, your car uses x- amount of gas to keep the engine idling. If your car is in gear going down a hill, the injectors will supply the engine with less amount of fuel than it would while idling. think of it this way...if your coasting down a hill under no acceleration from fuel, then the tires are spinning the engine, so why should the gas have to?
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1
Nov 10, 2010. 10:15 PMRickO5 (author)
says:
I also meant to add, keeping your car in gear also slows your car down depending on your speed, gearing, incline, ect. This might be fine, but it might also be a waste of potential energy you could be using to speed your car up. Cruising a little faster down hill means having a little more momentum to go up the next. (staying within safe speed limits of course)
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1
Nov 10, 2010. 10:13 PMRickO5 (author)
says:
This is true on some fuel injected cars, but not others. For example, I tested this in a 2009 Mini-Cooper about a week ago. According to it's ECU hooked to my ODBII reader, it used several times as much gas when decelerating in-gear than it did when out of gear, depending on the engine RPM. I've tried it on other cars as well, with abut 50/50 results.
Reply
Sep 11, 2009. 8:45 AMfwater
says:
"Looking at the tech-specs for some of my own vehicles, even under a relatively small engine load, I would have to have my engine out of gear for 12 minutes to make up for 1 minute of acceleration." OMG. Where could you have possibly come up with that ratio? Accelerating at what rate? Up to what RPM? At what road speed? Say it again, folks... lighten the car, stay out of the throttle, the rest is pure amature conjecture and outright untruths.
Reply
1
Sep 11, 2009. 4:08 PMRickO5 (author)
says:
That's actually kind of a mistype on my part. Let me try to make this a little clearer so you understand. Taking your car out of gear in a manual car means your engine needs to use a little gas to continue to run at idle. So, take the amount of gas that your engine needs to run at idle for 12 minutes. Now, accelerating to make up for speed you could have gained going down a hill, under a small engine load (empty vehicle minus myself, on flat ground, accelerating as efficiently as possible ) to the same speed I would have had going down the same hill, takes roughly 12 times the gallons per minute that popping the engine out of gear does. Most people, driving less conservatively, would have used even more gas. How did I measure this? I logged data using a OBDII scanner monitoring my vehicles fuel consumption. How did I know I was accelerating as efficiently as possible? Practice, being a good and conservative driver, and using the scanner to keep track of overall fuel usage as well as instantaneous usage. How do I know this is decent data to make a claim on? Repeating the test, 3 times, at 4 different locations. Granted, this is different for other cars (as I clearly stated) but its a point to be considered. I do have an idea of what I'm talking about, and I wouldn't call myself an amateur based on my background. Thanks for the comment though. If you're thinking that, it means 100 other people were and just weren't saying so. Glad I could respond and thanks for reading.
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Sep 11, 2009. 6:05 PMfwater
says:
I stand corrected. In fact, that's exactly what I asked for. Yes, it is valid for only your vehicle, but logical conclusions can be drawn regarding other cars. A scanner can be a valuable tool. I use mine the other way, though, to squeeze out every last drop of power (which can also increase mileage in some cases).
Reply
Jun 4, 2009. 3:21 PMvehicleZ
says:
Although I read this article with much curiousity, I'd disagree with shifting to neutral while rolling free or going downhill. Since long time cars do have a fuel cutout relay, which works in carburated as in fuel injected engines, simply cutting off the fuel if the engine is turning and there is no risk of stalling (so over let's say about 1200 - 1500 rpm).... soooo car does not use ANY fuel than! If rolling on neutral, running engine uses fuel for iddling. If you don't believe, ask the expert or watch an adequate "Top-Gear"... or even better, if you have a manual transmission, just try turning off the ignition during rolling on gear. Will you hear ANY change of the engine sound? No! (if you turn down your stereo of course), that's because what you accually hear is the engine turning rather than the explosions in combustion chambers. Than turn back the ignition (but don't push to the starter) - again, not a tiny change in car's sound, although now the engine is ready to take control and inject fuel (open cutout valve) if the rpm will drop below some level. So I would say - roll on gear if you can, besides it's safer on the more steepy hills and safes your braking pads too.
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1
Jun 5, 2009. 3:42 PMRickO5 (author)
says:
Well, I completely disagree with the concept of a carburator cutting off fuel to the engine when downshifting, you are entirely right. Modern manual transmissions do cut off fuel to the engine when costing down hill. There are even a few automatics (certain CVT equipped cars) that do as well. That does save gas But, keeping the car in gear slows you down. Putting it into neutral lets you pick up speed that you would otherwise have to use gas to obtain, and keep up speed that you would have to use gas to keep. The amount of gas you'd save by turning off gas fuel is far less than what you save by keeping up your momentum. Obviously though, its a case by case basis. Just play around with it, and do what works best for you.
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