Make Sure Your Tires are Fully Inflated
One of the most overlooked items to ensuring that your car is running at it’s peak gas mileage are fully inflated car tires. Tires can be inflated at levels lower than you would ever want to be without any noticeable difference to a fully inflated one.
Make sure to use a tire pressure gauge on a regular basis. If you do not own a tire gauge, they are fairly inexpensive, even for digital ones. Otherwise, you can always stop by your local gas station, though they can sometimes not be properly calibrated. To find the recommended amount of pressure, check on the sticker in the driver’s side door jam. It will show you the proper amount of pressure in psi for each of your tires. Do not use the maximum amount of pressure shown on your tires, as that may be way more than your car requires.
The major incentive to keeping your tires inflated is maintaining your vehicle’s fuel efficiency. For each 1 psi drop in pressure on all of your tires, there is 0.3 percent decrease in gas mileage on your car. You can potentially ensure that you are not losing up to 3.3% of your total gas mileage, which equates to about $.07 a gallon. Not too bad for such a simple maintenance measure.
Your safety can also be at risk when your tire levels are low. You increase your risk of having a car accident, the life of your tires is shortened and there is a decrease in road grip. Make sure those tires are always fully inflated so that you are reducing your car’s’ maintenance costs as well as increasing your safety while driving.
