Gas Prices Soar, where will it end, and what can we do?

Well unfortunately we can’t control gas prices, but there are a few things you can do to get the most mileage out of your gas dollars.

Friction is one of the main causes for poor fuel economy, so how can we reduce friction?

Tire Pressure

The easiest and most simple thing is Tire Pressure, make sure your tires are properly inflated, check your owners’ manual, or look on the drivers’ door or door pillar, you should find the recommended pressure for your vehicle. Also ck the max. pressure rating on the tire itself, it will be labeled on the side wall of the tire, generally speaking, 35 pounds pressure is a good number for Cold tire pressure, a little higher for low profile tires and truck tires, but never exceed the pressure rating of the tire itself. All gas stations should now have a tire air station for your use. Look at yours tires, excessive wear on the outer edges means under inflation, excessive wear in the center tread, means over inflation. Adjust your pressure to obtain proper wear.

Clean engine oil, no rocket science here, clean oil equals less friction, change your engine oil. Synthetic oils claim even less friction.

Brakes…this is the big one, most, if not all cars today have disc brakes. Discs brakes, unlike drum brakes, are always touching/rubbing, there are no return springs to retract to brake when not in use, the brake pads are always in contact with the brake rotor. When working properly, the slight run out of the rotor and the design of the caliper will release the brakes with minimal friction level when not in use. However a sticking caliper or brake pad will not allow the brake to fully release causing excess friction. Your car my stop fine and straight and your pads may have plenty of life left, but if they are binding in any way, you’re loosing gas mileage. So have your brake system checked and your calipers serviced on a regular basis to maintain optimum fuel economy.

Tune-up, how long has it been? These claims on 100,000 mile tune-ups really only pertains to the Platinum spark plugs that cars have today, (and frankly if you leave them in that long, they may not come out). 60,000 tops….30,000 recommended.

Oxygen sensor

1996 and newer cars all have On Board Diagnostic computers (OBD II), these computers are very smart and are constantly checking your air/fuel ratio, based on the information it receives from various sensors in the car. The most important sensor (for fuel economy), is the Oxygen sensor. This sensor is in the exhaust system and monitors the exhaust gases to maintain the proper air/fuel ratio. It actually generates voltage between 0 & 1 volt, (0 = lean, 1 = rich mixture) and sends this info to the OBD II computer. The transition time between rich and lean, called cross counts, is a measure on how fast the Oxygen sensor is reacting to the mixture change. A slow or lazy 02, could cause your mixture to stay rich (too much fuel), too long. This in turn, will have a direct effect on your fuel economy. So make sure to have your technician ck your Oxygen sensor operation while performing your tune-up.

Call for an appointment TODAY, make sure your getting the most miles out of your gas dollar.

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