Keep Your Car Serviced - for better efficiency

If you keep your car serviced, you'll get better fuel economy because your vehicle will be operating at it's optimum performance. Servicing your vehicle is your attempt to bring your car back to "like new" condition with respect to fuel efficiency.

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Keep your car serviced. Regular service is one of the ways to improve gas mileage in a couple of key areas.

Your car should be in proper tune. Timing and ignition come to mind as key to a car being in tune so it will have complete combustion. Complete combustion is important for better gas mileage.

For modern cars with computer-controlled fuel injection, a routine tune up isn't necessary as this is computer controlled. The ignition and fuel injectors are controlled to get better gas mileage. Just keep an eye on your MPG, and when it starts to drop, take that as an indication that something needs to be looked at. It could be that your fuel injectors are fouled, the air filter is dirty, spark plugs are fouled, or a brake is dragging.

For older cars, timing needs to be checked periodically to make certain that it is set properly.

For any age car, a clean air filter is necessary so the engine isn’t starving for air. If it's starving for air, it will work harder to draw in air and it won’t have complete combustion. A clean air filter helps you get better gas mileage.

If you do a lot of driving and track your MPG, then you’ll know when your car is getting out of tune as the MPG will start to drop a little. This is a sure sign that something needs attention.

In the absence of that, my suggestion to keep your car serviced is to check your air filter at every oil change and change your oil between 3,000 and 5,000 miles, depending on how you drive. Also, check fluid levels and follow the recommendations of your manufacturer to maintain your warranty. I don’t tune up my car periodically because it's out of warranty and gets the same great fuel economy it has since I bought it years ago.

The bottom line for fuel efficiency with computer-controlled fuel injection is to watch your MPG - when you see a drop, that's the time to make an appointment for service.

Cost or difficulty: 3
Savings: 2

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