Are the high fuel prices breaking your wallet due to low fuel economy of your car? We know, prices aren’t very high in the Gulf but still don’t you wish your car was more economical in terms of fuel consumption? Thinking about upgrading to a hybrid? Don’t! You can actually achieve quite an exceptional fuel economy using a few tips and techniques, even with a traditional petrol or diesel burning engine. Below are just a few of them.
Tyre Pressure
The most well-known technique for achieving a great fuel economy rating is by making sure the tyres are adequately inflated. How does this affect the fuel consumption? The science behind this is actually pretty simple; if you ever had mathematics as a high school subject, you would know that the circumference of a circular object depends upon its radii. Now if the tyre is fully inflated, it means that its radius is also at the maximum distance end to end, thus greater distance is covered with one revolution of the tyre. You can imagine how much of a difference it would make when you are travelling for more than hundred kilometre through Dubai’s vast deserts.
On that note, there’s also a law of physics that should be considered here; thermal expansion. See, the UAE houses some of the hottest areas in the world with the highest temperatures. Inflating a tyre up to the maximum capacity may cause it to expand in the hot weather, potentially bursting the tyre. Though the ideal tyre pressure is 30psi for all 4 tyres, we would suggest readers to keep the pressure at 28psi to allow for any expansion.
Aerodynamics
This is something that may not cause much of a difference at low speeds, but can result in huge savings at high speeds. When a car is in motion at high speeds, wind resistance is the most strenuous opposing force that it faces. A high level of resistance will not only cause the car to do more work into pushing it forward, but also slow it down. This is why F1 and sports cars are streamlined to allow for minimal resistance. To counter this fuel guzzling effect, simply make your car more aerodynamic. How? By doing small things such as rolling up the windows, installing an add-on fin or lowering the car’s height.
Clean the Sparkplugs
And finally, the most important thing you can do for better fuel economy rating is by regularly cleaning the sparkplugs. These sparkplugs sit on top of the cylinders that suck in petrol/diesel within the engine. As the petrol is sucked in, excess pressure causes the plugs to set off a spark, which ignites the fuel in the chamber and starts the combustion process. A dirty sparkplug can cause it not to set off the spark, as huge amounts of carbon deposits can accumulate overtime within the plugs if they aren’t cleaned properly. Also check for the gaps between the tips of the plugs, as too much of a wide gap can also cause the same to happen.