With the current global recession going on, most individuals are interested in ways they can make their car more fuel efficient, and try to save as much money when we fill up our tanks in the petrol station.While there are no petrol saving tips that will keep your car full of petrol without filling up, there are some tips that can help you save some money on petrol over the long run.

Tips 1 : Do not crank the engine excessively as this will only wastes petrol. When starting the engine, idle it no more than 30 seconds to warm it up. An engine will warm up faster on the road. However, avoid sudden acceleration before the engine has warmed up sufficiently.

 Tips 2 : Avoiding high speeds on open roads results in safer driving and better fuel economy. In highway driving, more than 50% of the power produced by the engine is used to overcome aerodynamic drag. and thus fuel consumption increases rapidly at speeds above 90km/h. On the average, a car uses about 15% more fuel at 100km/h, and 25% more fuel at 110km/h compared to when it is doing only 90km/h. However, this does not conclude that the lower the speed, the better the fuel economy - because it is not. The petrol consumption of an average car will increases sharply at speeds below 50km/h.

Tips 3 : Avoid strong acceleration. The petrol consumption remains at minimum when driving at a moderate speed of about 90km/h. Keeping in mind that every time the accelerator is hardly pressed, the engine will goes into "fuel-enrichment" mode that wastes petrol. The vehicle should always be gradually and smoothly accelerated. The engine runs most efficiently between around 1,500 and 2,500 rpm. To maintain these low revs you should change up through the gears before the revs reach 2500 rpm.

Tips 4: Anticipation of traffic condition ahead can reduce petrol consumption up to 10% by adjusting the speed accordingly, and avoiding tailgating and thus unnecessary braking and acceleration.Accelerations and decelerations waste Petrol. It take up as much as six times more petrol to move a car from a dead stop than it does for one moving at just a few km/h.

Tips 5: Turn off your engines if you are going to be idling for more than 5 minutes. Idling more than a minute consumes much more fuel than restarting the engine. By having the engine switched off, you will save more petrol than is lost from the burst of petrol in restarting the engine.

Tip 6 : Inflate Tires Properly, Check your tyre pressures at least once a week.Research by the RAC Foundation (www.racfoundation.org) shows that 20% under inflation (typically 6psi) can increase your fuel consumption by 3%, reducing tires life by 30% .

Tips 7 : Empty out your car. A lighter car uses less petrol, so get rid off all the extra staff from your car today. Empty the boot as every bit of extra weight uses up extra petrol. On the average, every 50kg added load in your car will increase fuel consumption by 2%.

Tips 8 : Clean the air-filter regularly, clogged air filters increase fuel consumption by restricting airflow to the engine, and thus should be cleaned/replaced. Clogged air filters can increase fuel consumption by up to 10%.

Tips 9 : Minimize aerodynamic drag. Additional parts on the exterior such as roof racks and spoilers, or even having the window opened, are bad for petrol economy as it increases air resistance and petrol consumption, in some cases by over 10-20%.

1. Fill up your petrol tank at night or preferably early in the morning when the temperature is cool. All service stations have their storage tanks buried underground, and the cooler the ground, the denser the petrol. When the petrol gets warmer, it expands. So by filling up in the hot sunny afternoon or in the evening, the one litre is not exactly a one litre. In the petroleum business, specific gravity and temperature of the petrol plays an important role. Every truckload of petrol dispensing to the underground tanks is temperature controlled and compensated to get the actual amount pumped. A one-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for businesses, but petrol stations don’t have temperature compensation at their pumps. Consider it this way: You’re paying for forty litres of petrol. If you fill up in the morning, you’ll receive 40.5 litres, but if you fill up in the afternoon, you’ll only receive 39.5 litres. You’d save a litre every time, this amount of saving is equivalent of about two tanks of petrol every year!

2. Fill up your petrol tank when is half-full. The more petrol you have in your tank, the lesser air occupying its empty space and this will slow down the evaporation rate when it is warm. Petrol evaporates faster than you can imagine.

3. Fill up slowly. When filling up your petrol tanks, you will notice the pump trigger have three dispensing settings: slow, medium and high. Do not squeeze the trigger to the Maximum or fullest, instead you should be pumping at the slow setting, this is to reduce the vapors created while you are filling up your tanks. Hoses at the pump are corrugated; the corrugations act as a return path for vapor recovery from the petrol that already has been metered. If you are pumping at the high setting, the agitated petrol will contains more vapor, which is being flow back into the underground tank, so you’re getting less petrol for your money.

4. Do not pump full tank of petrol Most of us are not aware that the petrol pumping host has a return pipe-line. When our petrol tank reaches full level, there is a mechanism to trigger off the pump latch and at the same time a return-valve is opened to allow excess petrol to flow back in to the pump. But the return petrol has already been metered, meaning you are donating the petrol back to petrol station

While gas prices don't seem like they will be dipping considerably in the next few months every tips to help you make your car more fuel efficient is helpful. So, follow the above fuel tips and you will see that over time your car really is more fuel efficient.

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