What else to do to boost gas mileage?

[Atty]

Did the fill my car up, reset trip odo, fill her up again, and figure out mileage a few times. Twice on old spark plugs and filled up again today on fresh new spark plugs.

Before I averaged 22 mpg and based on my fill up tonight I'm now doing 28.

I want more.

What else can I do? Do those advertised clean engine/fuel injector/etc cleaners really do anything? Or the cleanings that auto shops advertise? Any other replacements to help boost my engines fuel performance?

Car is a 1999 Camry CE I4. I know I've complained about poor mileage before but after replacing the spark plugs (and seeing how corroded the old ones were) and getting this MPG boost I'm itching to see what else I can do.

 

[speedy2]

Where did you get your results at?

All highway? All City? All mixed?

And were the different runs all the same as well?

a 6mpg increase seems like a lot just for a spark plug change. Unless your plugs were just total crap before.

 

[Eli]

Air filter can be a big one. Oil change. Use the lightest weight oil specified for your engine and the environmental conditions you're driving in.

Fuel injector cleaner... meh. I suppose it wouldn't hurt, but to have any hope of actually cleaning anything, you'll need the expensive stuff.

Filling your tires a couple PSI over what the sticker on the door says can have a huge impact on mileage. Do not do this unless you understand the potential consequences, though.

 

[Atty]

Where did you get your results at?

All highway? All City? All mixed?

And were the different runs all the same as well?

a 6mpg increase seems like a lot just for a spark plug change. Unless your plugs were just total crap before.

All mixed, since I only use the car for trips out of town to school or to visit friends/family, that is where it all was. 200 mile round trips out of town, random runs around the towns I visited, etc.

Kept the lead out of my foot every time I tested it, drove the same all the time.

The old spark plugs were rotten, they were corroded to the point that we couldn't figure out how they even worked anymore. As far as the repair history says, the plugs hadn't been changed in 110k miles.

 

[chin311]

110k miles holy shietttttt no wonder you got a boost from it lol.

 

[StageLeft]

Over fill the tires (but not to sidewall!) and drive with a very light foot. Unless something is WRONG with the car the main way to save mileage is driving habits, that is absolutely huge.

 

[CraigRT]

Light foot is key. All else is just trying to get blood from a stone.. If you don't drive the car like you stole it, it will return good mileage.

Doing other things will indeed help slightly especially if say your tires are under-inflated currently, but really the key is not much gas pedal.

If you still want more, get a smaller car.

 

[Vette73]

Spray out the throttle body with Carb Cleaner.

PCV valve, Fuel filter, Trans filter, air filter, and Rad cap.

Also remove anything from the car that does not need to be there. Got books or anything of weight in the truck/backseat?

 

[SickBeast]

I just got 750kms (500 miles) on a 44 litre (11 gallon) tank of gas in my Civic. The one thing I did recently was to feather the gas pedal when going up hills, and then give it a shot of gas at the top of the hill and coast down in neutral. I made sure not to exceed 60mph on the highway. At every opportunity, I coasted in neutral down hills.

I do quite a bit of pulse-and-glide driving where I can if I'm on a quiet country road. Especially if I'm on a slight decline, I'll give it a good shot of gas, and then coast in neutral for a mile or so.

I also inflated my tires to the PSI specified on the tires, not what it said inside the car door. The car seemed to handle great so I'm not worried about it.

 

[zsdersw]

I doubt the Camry CE has anything like automatic climate control, but keeping the AC off will significantly help too.

I know in my Acura TL I almost always have the system off. It's never truly off, though, so I set the temp high in the summer and then turn it off so it's not trying to run the AC compressor.

 

[Eli]

I just got 750kms (500 miles) on a 44 litre (11 gallon) tank of gas in my Civic. The one thing I did recently was to feather the gas pedal when going up hills, and then give it a shot of gas at the top of the hill and coast down in neutral. I made sure not to exceed 60mph on the highway. At every opportunity, I coasted in neutral down hills.

I do quite a bit of pulse-and-glide driving where I can if I'm on a quiet country road. Especially if I'm on a slight decline, I'll give it a good shot of gas, and then coast in neutral for a mile or so.

I also inflated my tires to the PSI specified on the tires, not what it said inside the car door. The car seemed to handle great so I'm not worried about it.

Note that when coasting in neutral, you are using more fuel than if you were engine braking. The engine is idling in neutral, but fuel is cut-off when engine braking.

Though I realize engine braking will slow you down, especially on a slight incline. I use the clutch to modulate speed; the only time I'm in neutral is when at a stop light(to facilitate auto stop).

 

[StageLeft]

I just got 750kms (500 miles) on a 44 litre (11 gallon) tank of gas in my Civic. The one thing I did recently was to feather the gas pedal when going up hills, and then give it a shot of gas at the top of the hill and coast down in neutral. I made sure not to exceed 60mph on the highway. At every opportunity, I coasted in neutral down hills.

I do quite a bit of pulse-and-glide driving where I can if I'm on a quiet country road. Especially if I'm on a slight decline, I'll give it a good shot of gas, and then coast in neutral for a mile or so.

I also inflated my tires to the PSI specified on the tires, not what it said inside the car door. The car seemed to handle great so I'm not worried about it.

But are those Liberty gallons, like from America, or the Queen's gallons, which are quite a bit more voluminous?

I have relatives who love to go on about their mpg when they hear about mine, like crazy numbers such as mid or high 30's driving a corolla around the city and I'm like nicka hold up, are those real gallons or your jacked up 4.2 liter gallons?

 

[PricklyPete]

I just stomp the shit out of the accelerator and that usually works well. I kid, I kid. In all seriousness I just can't drive the "new" car slowly. We did take a 1000 mile trip over a long weekend last weekend and managed 24.1 mpg. One of the fill ups that was 100% highway was 25.2mpg. That's pretty impressive for going 75-80mph most of the trip in a 333hp car that is 8 years old. I stomped on it at every highway entrance ramp as well.

Around town though, I think I've been getting around 17mpg due to my new driving habits.

 

[alkalinetaupehat]

I've found that too light of a foot decreases my fuel mileage a bit. If I drive normally, I get close to 20mpg around town. That number moves closer to 18 or 19 if I really baby it. It still makes me smile that I can hit 31mpg going 80mph.

 

[canadageek]

I just got 750kms (500 miles) on a 44 litre (11 gallon) tank of gas in my Civic. The one thing I did recently was to feather the gas pedal when going up hills, and then give it a shot of gas at the top of the hill and coast down in neutral. I made sure not to exceed 60mph on the highway. At every opportunity, I coasted in neutral down hills.

I do quite a bit of pulse-and-glide driving where I can if I'm on a quiet country road. Especially if I'm on a slight decline, I'll give it a good shot of gas, and then coast in neutral for a mile or so.

I also inflated my tires to the PSI specified on the tires, not what it said inside the car door. The car seemed to handle great so I'm not worried about it.

I hope the amount of money you're saving will cover the cost of your prematurely worn out tires.

 

[Possessed Freak]

I also inflated my tires to the PSI specified on the tires, not what it said inside the car door. The car seemed to handle great so I'm not worried about it.

Sidewall...?

 

[speedy2]

The PSI on the sidewall is usually only the MAX PSI. lolz This could be good.

 

[madeuce]

careful with overfilling your tires. Run too much pressure and you will wear out the center of your tire faster than normal. Replacing your tires 10,000 miles early could wipe out any money you saved in gas.

 

[Raizinman]

Remove spare tire and jack. That can easily save you 40 lbs of weight. Instead, carry a can of Fix-A-Flat.

Keep you gas tank always less than 1/2 full. Carrying around 5 or 6 gallons of fuel is an additional 40 or 50 lbs too.

Remove the one pound owners manual, ice scrapper, extra glasses, and other crap from glove box and console. Also remove head rests from other seats.

Best way to get ultimate gas mileage bragging rights? Try pushing the car.