Inhale

Once you understand an internal combustion engine you soon realize that it is actually not very efficient due both to its design and to manufactures trying to make them as quite and smooth as possible. If you can improve the efficiency of the engine you will both increase the horsepower and also increase the gas mileage. The first place I like to start is with the intake if you can remove some of the restrictions placed on the intake by the factory you can easily increase the efficiency of the motor. There are two common ways to reduce the intake restriction of a modern fuel injected vehicle. The first is by simply replacing the air filter with a filter that is less restrictive than the factory paper filter. There are several different filters to choose from such as K&N or Fram Airhog, I personally prefer the K&N because it has given me the best results in my test and they have a filter for almost every application including motorcycles. If you want a larger increase in fuel mileage and performance you can go with a full aftermarket intake for your vehicle. These intakes usually cost several hundred dollars and can be installed in your garage with simple hand tools in most cases. Fram and K&N both make full intake kits that can offer an increase of several MPG in most cases and they wont void your warranty. These intakes claim to be 50 state emissions legal and most of them are safe even for California but if you have any doubt please contact your local mechanic to make sure. Either way these two simple modifications to your vehicle will allow you to squeeze a few more miles out of every gallon.

Just cruisin!

Another very simple but often overlooked way to increase your gas mileage is by using your vehicles cruise control. If you use the cruise control everytime you get on open road and just let it take care of itself you can often see increases of up to 15% depending on the terrain. If you vehicle came without cruise control you can have an aftermarket unit installed for around $250 in most cases. Depending on the amount of highway driving you do it may well be worth the $250 price tag to have cruise control installed.

Squeaky clean!

In my never ending search to improve my fuel mileage I came across several articles from respectable sources that indicate washing and waxing your car regularly could improve gas mileage by 7%. Obviously I was skeptical because I cant believe a fresh wax job could cause such an aerodynamic improvment to increase your gas mileage by 7%. I decided it was time for a bath on the dirty old truck anyway so I figured I might as well document the fuel mileage before and after, before the wash I went on my same 200 mile loop around the wonderful city of Austin and recorded an average MPG of 19. I wrote all of my data down and headed to the car wash with a bottle of mothers wax and a sponge in hand! After roughly 4 hours of washing an waxing it was time for the moment of truth ... I once again made the same 200 mile loop and to my absolute amazement my MPG this time was just over 20, thats about 6%!!! Now there are too many variable to say for sure if this was due to the wax job but it does support what many engineers have said in the past.

Calm down!

One of the best ways to save money on your fuel bill is also the easiest and its FREE. Simply by changing your driving habits you can increase your fuel mileage by 10-33% thats like saving .30-.96/gallon!! Some of the behaviors that cause the worst fuel mileage are speeding, rapid acceleration and rapid braking, if you can cut down on all of these habits you will notice a much smaller fuel bill at the end of the month.

The Basics

Ok lets get the basics out of the way before we start exploring any gadgets or off the wall ideas for improving gas mileage. In my opinion there are really seven important aspects that have the biggest affect on gas mileage. I know there are more than just these seven and many sites list many more than this but from my experience these are the seven that have the most impact in all situations I have seen.

1.)Keep your engine tuned up! Replace your air filter and spark plugs when reccommended by the manufacturer.

2.)Don't use your air conditioner unless you really need it. The A/C system creates extra drag on the engine that will greatly reduce fuel economy.

3.)Make sure your tires are properly inflated and maintained. Under inflated tires are by far the most common problem on American highways today. This problem alone is responsible for wasting millions of gallons of fuel a day!

4.)Keep your oil changes as recommended by your manufacturer. Also look into the use of synthetic oils, these have been found to increase fuel mileage up to %10 in some cases.

5.)Keep the weight in your vehicle to a minimum. If you carry more cargo than you need it will greatly benefit you to remove it from your vehicle.

6.)Use your cruise control whenever possible!!

7.)Remove accessories, such as luggage rack, ski rack, bike rack, etc. These items increase the drag on your vehicle as well as increase the weight. It is very common for this step alone to produce gains of up to 3-4 mpg!

By following this seven simple steps you can increase your gas mileage by up to %25 in some cases. These steps will give you the biggest increase in gas mileage and best of all most of them can be accomplished with little or no money and very little time as well!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog devoted entirely to helping you increase the fuel mileage of your car or truck. Along with tips on improving your fuel mileage I will also post my real world experiences with many of the gadgets advertised on TV and radio that are supposed to increase your fuel mileage.

I have been in the automotive industry for over 10 years as mechanic and also a service manager for a large dealership. During this time I have witnessed the years of absolute disregard of fuel prices and the recent shift to a fuel driven economy. I have seen the rise of the hybrid and have had many customers approach me about improving their fuel economy. After over a year of helping customers improve their fuel mileage I decided to try and help as many people as I could by offering this advice on the Internet.