Fuel-Efficient Driving Tips

Looking for easy ways to save money and reduce vehicle emissions?

Your driving habits – when and where you drive, how often, the speed you travel, your aggressiveness on the road and other factors – have a lot to do with your vehicle's fuel consumption and costs.

You can control the costs of operating a vehicle and minimize the emissions it produces by making a commitment to drive less and to drive more efficiently. For greatest operating efficiency, follow the recommendations in your vehicle owner’s manual regarding the grade of fuel and the type of motor oil. The following 20 tips can improve your fuel efficiency by helping you drive more efficiently.

1. Drive smoothly
Aggressive highway driving involving rapid acceleration and braking can use as much as 33% more fuel than sensible driving*. Avoid accelerating or braking too hard and try to keep your steering as smooth as possible. Aggressive driving actually saves little time, but it does increase fuel consumption. A European test** showed that rapid starts from traffic lights and hard braking reduced city travel time by only 4%, or roughly 2½ minutes in a 60-minute trip, and consumed 39% more fuel.

The fuel-efficient option is to accelerate smoothly, maintain a steady speed and plan ahead so that you can also brake smoothly. Similarly, avoid over-revving your engine. If you have a manual transmission vehicle, change gears in good time when you pull away or when you’re accelerating. Never “redline” the rev counter. When you rev the engine needlessly, you consume fuel that takes you nowhere.

2. Service your car regularly
A well-tuned engine alone can improve fuel economy by up to 4%*, so follow your car manufacturer’s recommendation on servicing, and change your oil as required. It’s also important to keep your entire vehicle well maintained. A poorly maintained vehicle can increase fuel consumption by up to 50%**. Even replacing dirty spark plugs can improve fuel consumption by 5%****. You should read the vehicle owner’s manual thoroughly to familiarize yourself with its mechanical maintenance requirements.

3. Keep your tires at the right pressure
Correctly inflated tires are safer and last longer. A tire that is under-inflated by just two psi (14 kPa) can reduce fuel efficiency by as much as 2% and reduce the tire’s life by about 6,500 kilometres.** An under- or over-inflated tire is also more susceptible to failing. You should check your tire pressure frequently, and particularly after a sharp change (warmer or colder) in the temperature.

4. Avoid carrying excess weight
For every extra 45 kg (100 lbs) you carry in your vehicle, your fuel efficiency can drop by 1-2%*. So keep your trunk or back seat clear of unnecessary items that just add weight to your vehicle. If there’s something you don’t really need to take along – don’t take it. Transporting something heavy? Unload it as soon as possible. Remove Winter extras like sandbags once Spring arrives.

5. Take the roof rack off
If you’re not using your roof rack, remove it. In addition to the impact of the weight of the roof rack and its contents, it affects the aerodynamic efficiency of your vehicle and creates drag, reducing fuel economy by as much as 5%*.

6. Use the correct oil
Always use the recommended grade of motor oil. Using a lubricant meeting the vehicle manufacturer’s recommended specifications can improve fuel efficiency by 1-2%*. Higher quality motor oils can also help your engine operate more efficiently. Most of today’s motor oils are multigrades (10W30 or 5W30 for instance). Your vehicle owner’s manual will tell you which multigrade to use and it may differ for summer and winter driving. The best oils for fuel economy carry the label “Energy Conserving” and can improve fuel efficiency by up to 2.7%.** Just a note for do-it-yourself oil changers: Please take the used oil to your local recycling depot. One litre of engine oil can contaminate two million litres of water.

7. Avoid excess idling
Idling gets you nowhere but still burns fuel. Unless you’re at a stop light or stuck in traffic, turn the engine off when you’re in a motionless lineup, or waiting for someone. Excessive idling (including warming up your vehicle on a cold day) wastes gasoline and moves you exactly 0 km/litre. And forget the idea that an idling warmup period is good for your vehicle. It’s not true – and in fact it can contaminate engine oil and damage engine components. Even in winter, today’s vehicles need no more than 30 seconds of idling before driving away.**

If you expect to be stopped longer than 10 seconds, except in traffic, it’s better to turn off your engine because you’ll use more fuel than turning off the engine and restarting it will. In the winter, use a block heater with a timer set to turn it on two (but only two!) hours before you need the vehicle. It will help your engine start more efficiently and help it to warm up your vehicle more quickly. In temperatures below 0ºC, block heaters can improve fuel economy by about 10%.**  At 0°C, your cold engine’s fuel consumption increases by about 8%, and by –30°C, it’s up by about 30%****.

If every Canadian motorist reduced idling time by just five minutes a day, carbon dioxide emissions would be reduced by 1.6 million tonnes per year.****

8. Plan trips carefully
Cutting down on time spent in the car is the easiest way to conserve fuel. To reduce driving time and fuel consumption, combine a number of short trips and errands into a single longer journey. Several short trips taken from a cold start can use twice as much fuel as a longer multipurpose trip covering the same distance when the engine is warmed up and running in a fuel efficient manner.** They will also increase engine wear.

Trips of less than five kilometres don’t usually allow the engine to reach its optimum operating temperature, particularly in winter months, resulting in higher fuel consumption and more exhaust emissions. As part of your planning, give yourself enough time to get to your destination. Being late and feeling hurried may cause you to accelerate more quickly, brake harder and more often, drive faster – all of which burn more fuel. Also, if you own more than one vehicle, drive the one that gets the best gas mileage whenever possible.

9. Avoid high speeds
The faster you go the more wind resistance you’ll encounter and the more fuel your vehicle will consume just to maintain speed. In general, increasing your speed from 100 km/h to 120 km/h will increase fuel consumption by about 20%. In the other direction, decreasing your speed to 90 km/h from 100 km/h will reduce fuel consumption by about 10%.** As a rule of thumb, that means you can also assume that each 10 km/h you drive over 100 km/h is like paying an additional nine cents a litre for your fuel based on the February 2006 national Canadian average regular unleaded fuel price of 92.6*** cents per litre.

10. Use higher gears
If your vehicle has a manual transmission, the higher gear you drive in, the lower your engine speed is, which can improve fuel efficiency. So change up a gear whenever you can, without labouring the engine. Today’s cars can generally cruise in their top gear even at speeds below 60 km/h. A manual transmission is about 10% more fuel efficient than an automatic transmission.

11. Avoid rush hour
If you can travel outside of peak times, you’ll spend less time stuck in traffic and consume less fuel as a result. This can be particularly true if you can also stagger your work hours to avoid commuting in peak rush hours.

12. Control emissions
If your vehicle stalls or has poor acceleration, or if its exhaust contains blue or black smoke, or a “Check Engine” or similar warning light turns on, the vehicle’s emission control system needs servicing. A study conducted under the Government of British Columbia’s AirCare program showed that fuel consumption improved by 15% when the emission control system was repaired.

13. Keep the windows closed
At highway speeds, wind blowing through an open window will slow you down. To compensate, you may put your foot down harder, using more fuel.

14. Use cruise control
Using cruise control on major roads when it is safe to do so helps you maintain a constant speed and, in many cases, will reduce fuel consumption.

15. Keep your distance
Leave a sensible distance between yourself and the car ahead to give you ample time to brake evenly. Hard braking uses up more fuel than controlled smooth braking does. And don’t drive with your left foot resting on the brake pedal: it increases fuel consumption, it wears out your brakes, and it makes your brake lights stay on all the time, confusing the motorists travelling behind you.

16. Use air conditioning (and other electrical appliances) sparingly
Using an air conditioner in city driving can increase fuel consumption by up to 20%.** Air conditioning puts added strain on the engine and uses fuel to operate, so limit use to particularly hot or cold days. On hot days on the highway, use the vehicle’s flow-through ventilation or fan instead. In the city at slower speeds, open a window. Note that at highway speeds, aerodynamic drag caused by an open window can reduce fuel economy, so flow-through ventilation is a better choice. If possible, use tinted glass and passenger window shades to help keep your cool.

17. Check the air filters
Air filters keep impurities from damaging your engine. Replacing a clogged air filter can improve fuel economy by as much as 10%** and will help protect your engine.

18. Conserve momentum
Think ahead when you’re driving. For example, speed up a little before you reach the foot of a hill, and slow down early when you see traffic slowing or stopping ahead of you. Be alert for changes in driving conditions. Anticipate traffic lights, stop signs and merge lanes to avoid rapid acceleration, hard braking and sudden stops.

19. Avoid small fuel fills
Fuel evaporates every time you open the fuel cap. To reduce this loss, avoid repeatedly topping up your tank. However, it’s never a good idea to let your fuel tank get too low, either. A good compromise is to fill up when you’re roughly at a quarter tank. Also, ensure that the seal on your fuel cap is airtight and that you close it completely.

20. Perform a monthly check
While most maintenance should be left to professionals and scheduled according to your vehicle owner’s manual recommendations, you should never simply wait for the next “official” checkup date. Instead, you should perform your own monthly checks – or more frequently – for such things as tire pressure, fluid leaks, fluid levels, cracked or loose hoses and wires, adequate braking efficiency and wheel alignment.

It’s also a good idea to track your fuel consumption (litres per 100 kilometres, or kilometres per litre) for early warning signs that your vehicle needs special attention. If you always use the self-serve pumps, every second or third fill-up you should check your car’s oil, windshield washer fluid and tire pressure, and while you’re under the hood do a quick visual check if you can of the radiator coolant level.

 

* Estimates for fuel savings from sensible driving are based on studies and literature reviews performed by Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc., Washington, DC.
** Natural Resources Canada Office of Energy Efficiency Auto$mart Thinking program
*** M.J. Ervin & Associates FuelFacts Price Monitor
****Transport Canada Media Room