ideas for saving fuel???

[silverclaws]

Ok, I have been wondering aout the use of gears whilst watching my vac gauge, if I drop a gear down to slow down instead of using the brakes, I notice maximum vacuum there fore maximum economy, so what I do when driving about is hop up and down through the gears to suit the road with hardly any extra throttle. As soon as the vac needle goes towards the bottom of the fair sector heading to poor, I know the engine is starting to labour, ( stereo blasting all the time), so I drop a gear and throttle to keep te vac as high as possible, too much throttle and the vac indicates poor economy.

Oh and I live in Devon where everywhere is either an up or a down.

Now when I learned to drive, I was told to get up int o top gear sharpish and stay there, but that burns fuel and there is speed involved, but I have discovered if one is mooching around built up areas in towns and such why bother trying to get into high gear when low gear is more fexible, slower and burning less fuel.

But engine breaking, I also learned that one with 4 x 4 s desert driving, then later my old veedub camper with non servo brakes.

 

[unkleGsif]

.... Im guessing you got a prius....

Wash your bloody mouth out!!!!!
There's more to getting mpg than a bloody Pius!

I'll challenge any Pruis owner to get better mpg than my VW as easily as I do


G

 

[legrandefromage]

Prius is a con anyway. They are only bought for the free congestion charge and road tax. I bet hardly any have actually recouped the £20,000 purchase price.

If you want 'environmentally friendly' buy a good second hand car.

Our second hand 9 year old Fiat is averaging 56, gets treated like a van and as only needed a driveshaft this year. It cost £1600 two years ago.

 

[silverclaws]

I am just waiting for it, waiting for the big bang when various authorities own up to the fact that diesel fumes are linked to cancer, and it will be a big bang, because everything runs on the stuff. But up till now it is the smokers that are being blamed for lung cancer, a minority group again whilst anything to do with oil is swept under the carpet. Take what we call petrol now, yeah that so called unleaded stuff which burns hotter than the old stared stuff and by burning hotter, it wears quicker and added to the fact that lead was added to the fuel to lubricate the upper cylinder and valve gear, without which engines aren't lasting as long as they once did and by wearing faster are chucking out more pollutants quicker, but the exhaust fumes, containing lead is likely such heavy gases would become airborne or is it more likely the stuff would head towards the road, unleaded on the other hand being lighter gases up in the air it will go, but I do think unleaded went it's way as a scapegoat for diesel, which was prior to it being used in a diesel engine,it was a waste product. Leaded fuel was expensive to make compared to unleaded.

But of unleaded, is it truly free from lead ?

But regarding what nasties come out of the back of a diesel, I believe Mr Dyson had a good idea about that, he before he created his cyclone vacuum cleaner, created a cyclone sulphur trap which could easily be fitted to the exhaust pipes of diesel engined vehicles to catch the damaging particles so they could be tipped out and disposed of as hazardous waste instead of being pumped into the air we breath, but that idea sunk without trace, as to understand, if it was taken on, then the cat would have been out of the bag, diesel fumes are bad. I believe the Scandinavian ( Scania) articulated wagon tractor units have something similar in their exhaust system, but not us here, we breath the stuff as if it was well air

But the cost of diesel being such a low grade fuel is rising higher and higher all the time, why, why indeed when I remember it being about half the cost of petrol back when it was virtually unheard of in private motor vehicles, but why has it climbed so high in cost, could it be a case of maximising profits before the stuff is revealed as being a killer?

What got me interested in diesel, is the fact I worked for ten years with agricultural diesels often in confined spaces, where the fumes were that rich, one's eyes were watering and regular trips out to fresh air was needed before going back in and working on the things. I started looking deeper into these motors when it was I had a troublesome motor running a compressor for divers, something was wrong with the fuel and it turned out to be a microbe in the fuel that was blocking the pump and injectors and if left, it ate the metal ruining tolerances, it was by way of this research I found the fume issue. Working on my own initiative in my own time I presented a report to my company and got made redundant a week later, good eh, but I heard after my departure that report was rattling around for a good while after, for it confirmed the company was supplying questionable products, not surprised I got the push really, I had trod on some big toes.

But some food for thought ;

http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/diesel_lung_cancer.html

Now I do hope all you cyclists that ride in city traffic wear your respirators

 

[JamesM]

but they ruffle their wrinkly brows about going down through the gears to slow a car down on level surfaces.

They advocate braking, then - and only then - selecting the correct gear for any acceleration (or clutch, neutral and possibly handbrake if having to stop).

And in fairness, that's the sort of use of gears you'd be expected to make, if you were to take a driving test, these days.

The thing is though, changing down gears whilst slowing down, accompanied by a blip of the throttle between shifts, sounds cool!!!

 

[Neil]

but they ruffle their wrinkly brows about going down through the gears to slow a car down on level surfaces.

They advocate braking, then - and only then - selecting the correct gear for any acceleration (or clutch, neutral and possibly handbrake if having to stop).

And in fairness, that's the sort of use of gears you'd be expected to make, if you were to take a driving test, these days.

The thing is though, changing down gears whilst slowing down, accompanied by a blip of the throttle between shifts, sounds cool!!!

Maybe - in a sort of wannabee racing driver way.

So long as it's not accompanied by one of those spoof, wastegate speaker devices...

I know people often talk about performance and motorsport with all the sequential downshifts, but in many motorsport scenarios, they have no choice other than to use each gear in sequence.

Not sure whether it was banned, or whether they still do it, but for a period, at least, F1 cars / drivers had configurable buttons on their steering wheels that did downshits like 6th->2nd or something like that - if on particular tracks certain patterns of downshift were repeated.

 

[JamesM]

So long as it's not accompanied by one of those spoof, wastegate speaker devices...

Spoof wastegate speaker devices?

Don't tell me that you can now get a pretend wastegate for non turbo cars???

I remember BITD, when I had a Peugeot 309GTI, being a bit jelous of the "cool" wastegate nosie the RS and R5 turbo's etc. made, but I had a nice (non-muffled) induction roar instead. Having a fake wastegate on an obviosuly non-forced induction car is up there with having six 4" tailpipes on a 3 cyclinder 1.0 Corsa :facepalm:

 

[unkleGsif]

Spoof wastegate speaker devices?

Don't tell me that you can now get a pretend wastegate for non turbo cars???

Sadly, yes

The other advantage of downsifting as we are discussing, is that it allows you judge and alter your speed according to the road ahead (such as a red light)... if you time it right, you just adjust your speed using the gearbox, then when the lights change you dont have that sudden "drop it a gear and accelerate" situation... =lower mpg



Quite some conspiracy theory you have there, SilverClaws.... but btw, lead was added not to primarily to lubricate, but to aid combustion as a result of increased engine output. As the petrol engine was developed and refined, output increased and with it, stresses and heat in the chambers. Pistons and valves would burn out through pre-detonition. Lead was added (Thomas Midgely... what a guy :facepalm: ) came up with the idea, and the rest, as they say, is history


G

 

[Neil]

Spoof wastegate speaker devices?

Don't tell me that you can now get a pretend wastegate for non turbo cars???

Sadly, yes

The other advantage of downsifting as we are discussing, is that it allows you judge and alter your speed according to the road ahead (such as a red light)... if you time it right, you just adjust your speed using the gearbox, then when the lights change you dont have that sudden "drop it a gear and accelerate" situation... =lower mpg

Just for clarity, here - and I'll add I'm on the fence and somewhat ambivalent, really - the advanced driver / driving lobby advocates a similar rationale (ie being in the correct gear for the road speed / planned road speed) - the only difference being they would expect you to slow the car with the brakes, with the car still in the current gear, and only then downshift to the correct gear for the conditions / speed / acceleration requirements, once you'd established it.

I'm not advocating that per se (although it does tend to be how I drive in the main). Personally, I believe in thinking about it, and adapting my driving technique to the conditions. So were I descending a steep hill, or driving in snow and / or ice, I may use the gearbox differently, than if I were driving in largely level surfaces, in normal conditions. I try and keep an open mind, and adapt if there's merit, rather than clinging to dogma and tradition for driving technique.

 

[REKIBorter]

A couple of observations not pointed at anyone. Modern petrol and diesel engines have very little engine braking compared to engines from 20 years ago. Deisel particulate filters - most modern diesels have them.