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2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/diy/ - Do It Yourself

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718016 No.718016 [Reply] [Original]

General thread, what have you done to your car/truck/suv to improve its gas mileage? Let's pool some ideas.

Pic unrelated.

>> No.718017

>>718016
It's risky but I tried it and it worked. If you put paint thinner in your gas tank at 1/4 level gas and let it run for 3 hours it will clean your pipes and give you about 3 more miles, but my best friend tried it on his 1999 ford ranger and it rekt the engine. If you got a shit car you'll get a shit response

>> No.718019

>>718017
'01 Camry. Fuck that shit.

>> No.718022

I added idle fuel cut off when foot off accelerator and clutch. Most efi cars have a variation of this anyway but mah old one didn't.

>> No.718023

Seafoam the intake. Seafoam the oil before changing.
Cold air intake. Not the BS open element stuff.
E3 spark plugs. Bigger Guage spark plug wires.

>> No.718031

>>718016
>>>/o/
auto can help you with that

>> No.718032

>>718016
I attack the problem at the source and avoid driving whenever possible. No driving, no spending money on gas.

>> No.718033

>>718023
What?

>> No.718051

I removed the antenna (it was one of those old-style, metre-long ones). It was mostly because it was making a whining noise at speed, but that sound requires energy to be created.

>> No.718084

i replaced my front left caliper. Now my fuel milage is amazing. It was sticking

>> No.718117

>>718033
it's soap for your engine oil. basically one of those aditives you add to your oil so you dont need to rebuild your head and scrub the carbon off with a wire brush. its nonsense.

you could just add the right viscosity oil to your engine and change it at the appropriate time and it would do the same thing.

>>718084
lol. well yes having your brakes stuck on is going to drastically affect mileage.

FOR AN OLD BEATER: pretty much the most important thing you can do is improve your cooling on your engine. change the oil when it changes color, for a recently purchased beater, change the oil until the oil stops going black leaving at least a month between changes. people always run those things into the ground and dont even know how to oil change.

change your coolant, people never change this.

test spark plug leads and check plugs.

check alternator and battery voltages.

about 99% of problems with engines are either an electrical problem caused by insufficient voltage supply, lubricating the engine with tar or having a dirty air filter. basic stuff.

>> No.718133

>>718117
>you could just add the right viscosity oil to your engine
What viscosity/oil is that?

>> No.718148

>>718023
have you seen a modern car ? :
They all run cold-air intakes ; above/in-front of the radiator etc
[but yeah for old cars : get some 'plumbing' : for example 90mm stormwater/downpipes are a perfect fit to older Mazda Mx5/Miata throttle-bodies]

>> No.718149

>>718133
It should be in the cars manual. Be sure to make adjustments based on your location and time of year.

>> No.718164

Change your driving habits. Be smooth on the gas and brakes. Try not to speed so much.

>> No.718169

>>718133
>What viscosity/oil is that?
Depends on the temperature hot or cold. If hot, like summer or in desert somewhere, a heavier more viscous oil is appropriate, in order to curtail heat properties to expand liquids thus rendering oil too thin, and unable to distribute heat (cool shit down). Winter same problem only opposite.

>> No.718171

>>718016
Get rid of your automatic-transmission car and get a new car with manual transmission. I get better than highway mileage in my Tacoma driving a combination of city and highway by driving smarter than any automatic transmission ever could. Also stop driving you car everywhere and walk or ride a bike, then you'll lose that fat ass of yours too.

>> No.718191

>>718169
All recent cars list this in the manual. Some don't even require different blends for different seasons.

My last three cars run 5/30w oil year round up to -10f or something
. If you live in Canada or Alaska you need a thinner blend in winter though, your car manual will tell you, what you should use exactly depends on your specific car and temperature range.

>> No.718199

>>718171
Unless you can get that replacement car for free, your ROI will be measurable in years.

>> No.718204

If you have old diesel car without electronic engine management, remove catalyser.
It will be half clogged with soot anyway.

>> No.718229

I've always heard over-inflating the tires by a little bit improves it, but I never got around to trying.

>> No.718239

>>718017
This but instead use seafoam because it's formulated for engines.

As far as improving gas mileage that isn't common sense (do maintenance on your car). You can reduce drag. Basically seal up all the body panel gaps on the vehicle. You can do this with tape. You can remove things like antennas and windscreen wipers for a tiny improvement (but why would you do that?).

>> No.718251

>>718016
Where is that picture from? It looks like an egoraptor video but I could not find anything from him. Also, reverse google imagaminabling returns zip squat.

>> No.718317

Something that hasn't been mentioned is weight reduction but after you've done everything you can do you still hardly gain anything ,get a 250 motorbike or something you will get about 80 mpg

>> No.718322

>>718199
Yah? Well 99.99% of all 'improve your gas mileage' products or schemes are complete snake-oil in the first place and won't do shit, so you want to save on gas? Get a car that's less than 5 years old with a manual transmission. If saving money at all costs is what you're after then ride a bike or walk. Cars will never save you money, they just spend your money.

>> No.718360

>>718229
It helps. But just do it a little or else it'll get bad.

>> No.718373

I bought the skinniest tires I could buy in the appropriate load range for my vehicle. I lowered it slightly, and fixed a couple of underbody panels that weren't properly secured anymore. I replaced the cap and rotor and the plugs (which the P.O. had replaced with incorrect gaps). I replaced the bad CV joints and front wheel bearings. Replaced the transaxle oil, which was due anyway.

I get about 44mpg out of my 17 year old Civic, so I think it's worked out ok.

>> No.718398

>>718031
have you ever been on /o/, the only thing they have to say about this is
>if it not gettin miles per gallon you don't have shit on my 350z
or
>lol can't afford gas for an American shitbox/land yacht

>> No.718400

>>718051
energy can neither be created nor destroyed

>> No.718414

>>718322
Or you could, and stop me if this sounds crazy, get out a pencil and paper, and calculate the ROI on whatever you're planning to spend on saving money, and spend it on whatever offers the quickest return.

Something free like "taking off the unused roofbars" has an immediate ROI, whereas "buy a whole new car" is probably going to lag behind "insulate your loft properly" or "replace those halogen downlighters".

>> No.718416

Other than tune ups, making sure your tires are properly inflated, and changing driving habits, all that's left to do is to get your hands dirty or drop money on modifying a vehicle.
I've managed to increase the overall efficiency of my Grand Marquis by a bit by just removing the factory single exhaust and replacing it with a higher flowing dual exhaust setup, replace the engine pulleys with more efficient under drive pulleys, and tweak the air intake to have less restrictions.
Just start experimenting with things you're comfortable with on your car and see what happens.

>> No.718423

>>718400
Sound, however, can be both created and destroyed.

Language is funny like that.

>> No.718425

Get rid of mechanical cooling fans and add electric ones, build an air dam, underbody panels, smaller lighter side mirrors, you can also block the grill for highway trips aslong as yoy keep an eye on engine temperature (new cars have this built in), and for extreme measures add a boat-tail and golf ball dents in your body panels. http://ecomodder.com/

>> No.718429

>>718425
http://www.theregister.co.uk/Print/2014/10/19/crawling_from_the_wreckage_essay_making_cars_more_fuel_efficient/

>> No.718482

>>718429

Good article. Why do't manufacturers think of this shit now that everyone wants a more fuel efficient car?

>> No.718580

>>718482
>>718482
They do.

The XJS was made in the seventies, when no-one cared about fuel economy, and most of the technologies he's talking about weren't available.

A modern Golf Bluemotion does 88mpg.

>> No.718587

>>718373
>P.O.
Postal Office?

>> No.718599

>>718587
Previous Owner

>> No.718935

>>718171
>Get rid of your automatic-transmission car and get a new car with manual transmission.
But that's wrong you fucking retard. It's not the 70's anymore, automatics are just as, if not more efficient than manuals.

>> No.718963

>>718935
Depends if they have the same gearing. Manuals generally have more gears than autos. While it is common to find five and even six speed autos these days many are only four speed. If you get an auto with the same gears as an equivalent manual you should be fine but sometimes you can get more gears on the manual than the most offered on the auto for the same vehicle.

This is ignoring stuff like cvt transmissions of course.

>> No.718983

I wonder why all new cars don't come with underbody panels.

I added some corrugated plastic to the underside of my slow as shit hilux and bumped my the top speed by 8km/h. And sure a giant brick with bash plates and solid axels is going to benefit more than a mostly smooth frond drive but the outlay would be pretty small.

>> No.718987

>>718963
they're going up to 8 speed on compact cars. i expect CVT to be more common in the future. people need a car that can climb hills when its full and still accelerate when its empty. its been one of the big problems with compact cars forever. five people in the car and some camping gear means it wont climb a hill. or chug like all shit because the gearing is for one 70kg person with no luggage.

>> No.718991

>>718987

CVTs are shit, the new 9 speed auto surpasses those CVT transmissions in all aspects

captcha: disaster tsdcom

>> No.718992

>>718987
I'm pretty sure that more women than men use small cars. Do you think the engineers take this into account. They gear and spring things with a 60kg load in mind rather than a 80kg load? Do you think they put lighter springs in for japan then they do for lard ass Americans?

>> No.719033

>>718935
No they're not, and they never can be. There's always a loss in the torque converter that wouldn't be there if you were using a clutch.

Flappy-paddle gearboxes can be as efficient as manuals, but automatics can't be.

>> No.719036

>>718983
They do. At least cars do.

A hilux isn't a car, it's a pickup, and these have different requirements. The last thing you want is to get beached because your underpanel hit a rock.

>> No.719037

>>718987
Or you could drive a manual and select the appropriate gear.

No-one outside America has this kind of problem.

>> No.719338

>>718322
LOL!!! save money on fuel by throwing away your current car and buy a $20,000 car! Flawless plan!


this is /diy/ we would rather fix what we have

>> No.719420

Took out the back seats and steel tailgate which lightened my truck by about 150 lbs. Switched over to steel wheels which saved 10lbs of unsprung weight. Put in an AC bypass pulley and switched over to skinny steel wheels for summer because it never gets hot here.
I also change my airfilter & fuel filter every 3k miles, may not be practical for car owners but together both cost me 15 dollars and take less than ten minutes to change and they pay for themselves.

I never use e85, always straight gas and got a decent ecu tune.

Went form 16 mpg highway to 23.

>> No.719447

>>719338
I'd have to agree with him mostly. parts can be hard to find for 10 year old cars. I've only driven 20yo POS junkers because I am australian NEET. there's very little you can do with a car that cost 500$, has a broken crank sensor that costs 1000$ and the fuel timing relies on input from that.

>> No.719448

>>719420

A fuel filter is a 100k+ mile item.
An air filter is typically ~40k+ If you think that's doing anything but wasting your time and money feel free. At worst you should take out the filter, make sure it's clear, beat out whatever is in the folds and put it back in

>> No.719452

>>718016
>General thread, what have you done to your car/truck/suv to improve its gas mileage?
I have OP's mom suck my dick before I go out so that I weigh that couple ounces or so of cum less.

>> No.719694

>>718251
It's from one of the Game Grumps Animated videos (Grep Animated I believe.)

>> No.719706

>>719452
>OP's mom suck my dick
Or you could...never mind. You are a sick puppy.

>> No.719942

>>719033
Lock up torque converters exist. Still won't be better than a wet or dry clutch though.

>> No.719943

>>719036
They have some panels but not full aero. Most of what they do have is to keep water out of the engine bay.