Have you ever visited a gas station, calculated the fuel economy for your vehicle and find it is a bit lower than what the EPA said it should be actually? Wondering why your car is burning gas fast?
As the car ages, there are several factors that may lead to high fuel consumption. Read on to find out what they are and what you can do for increasing your MPG to the normal level.
Carbon Build-up
As the car ages, carbon starts building up on pistons, valves, cylinder walls, and injectors. A little bit of carbon build-up is totally normal, but there are times when too much of carbon starts building up on critical areas.
This may affect the capability of valves to seat in a proper manner or pistons to seal against the cylinder walls. This reduces the compression, which in turn lessens efficiency and thus fuel economy.
This phenomenon tends to be prominent in direct-injected cars. Direct injection injects fuel in a direct way to the cylinder, whereas port injection injects fuel prior to the intake valve. As gasoline is a solvent, it ends up washing the intake valves in a port injected vehicle, drastically lessening carbon build-up. Carbon build-up can be removed through a good fuel system cleaner.
Worn Piston Rings
As the vehicle becomes old, the piston rings can wear out so that they do not seal as well as against the cylinder wall. This lessens compression, which in turn also lessens fuel economy. Wear on cylinder walls or piston rings is accelerated when the wrong oil is used, oil is not changed at the right interval or oil runs low.
Repeatedly lugging your engine could also cause this problem. As most of the oil pumps are positive displacement, if you ask for high load RPM the oil pump will run at a low pressure, which sends less oil to important parts of the car.
The solution is very simple to downshift before stepping on the gas and let the clutch out slower.
Having Lead Foot
As fun and exciting it may be, gunning it and stepping in gas is terrible for the fuel economy. Several cars yield single-digit fuel economy at wide-open throttle. Failing to handle a safe following distance will fast cause poor gas mileage. While your tailgate, you end up hitting the brakes and accelerating vigorously to keep from rear-ending the person in front, while remaining right on their tail.
In addition, it creates waves in traffic that will slow down and anger other drivers. If you remain calm while in traffic and increase your following distance, you will watch a noticeable and respectable increase in fuel economy.
Cold Weather
When it is cold outside, it takes longer for your vehicle to reach normal operating temperature. Oil is more viscous at cold temperatures, which lessens efficiency. You will see this effect the most on short trips.
So, the next time if you find your car has a bad gas mileage, find out which among these reasons are behind that.