Saving petrol : bad for motor?

[RagingWaters]

Since i had some economic problems lately, i tried to apply an advice that one friend gave me: To save petrol, i keep the revolutions of my car below a certain value, lets say 2000rpm, when it usually works at 3500.

Is this harmful for the motor on the long run?

[zwmusic]

Driving at low RPM is not at all harmful to the engine RW. It's also ecofriendly.

http://www.ecodrive.org/The-golden-rules-of-ecodriving.249.0.html

[jason12]

I don't think that is entirely true. If were to keep your car in 6th gear all the time it would stay at a low rpm bout it would be taxing the hell out of the engine. If you have a fairly new automatic car is knows exactly how to shift to put the least amount of strain on the engine and give you the best gas mileage. You just can't drive with a lead foot.

[zwmusic]

The difference between automatic and manual is that automatic transmission won't reach too high rpm to shift gear if you don't put your foot down every time you have to accelerate from a stationary point.

For what I understand, driving at extreme low rpm won't do any good to the alternator and the electrical system, therefore increasing emissions because efficiency decreases - more current or more rpms means more electricity - but keeping it (rpm) down during gear shift isn't a bad thing to do.

[BEAST]

Theres a difference between driving at the lowest revs possible and driving smoothly and properly to save petrol. Just stay in the right gear, dont accellerate too hard, coast when approaching roundabouts of junctions. All that sort of thing will help save you petrol money.

Im reffering to manual cars, automatics are crap :D

[greddy]

automatic transmission in the dumbest thing ever created. in aurope all cars come standart on manual, actually eevrywhere its like that except for america. personally, i wouldint get a car on automatic if you paid me, stick is so much more fun. oh and i usually rev my shit up all the way to the red line, cuz i be tearing up these new york highways, but i can keep my rpm below 2,000 as much as i want

[RagingWaters]

Well, after driving for a while in this manner, i found that i consumed 10€ worth of petrol in 114 kms... it actually wastes petrol! Maybe it is beacuse of the engine... a 1400cc with 8 years.

[BEAST]

How many miles does your car do to the gallon? Driving the way I described makes my 1.6 VW Golf average 44 MPG. You shouldnt be in 5th when doing 30 or anything like that, just avoid ragging the hell out of your car!:lol:

[RagingWaters]

so lets see now... my car uses 40€ worth of petrol in 600 km, and i drive about at the same speed as you.
One litre of petrol costs 1'14 € here, so:

40€ * 1/1,14 L/€ = 40 * 0.887 L = 35'48 L.

Dividing that by the KM:

35'48L * 1/600 km = 0.06 L/km aprox.

Passing that to imperial units (i hate imperial units)

0.06L/km * 0.62 km/mile * 3.7 gallons/L = 0.13 gallons/mile.
(I'M REALLY BORED)

So i guess every car is a world on its own...

[zwmusic]

Errrrrrr... How many miles to the gallon? :lol:

According to your calculation, your car makes less than 10 miles to the gallon :shock: ... a car like that I would scrap.

[K-man]

Its not that difficult a calculation really:

600 (km) / 35.48 (ltr) = 16.91 km / ltr,

16.91 (km) x .621 (1 mile) = 10.5 miles / ltr,

10.5 x 3.7 = 38.85 miles per gallon. :cool

I also drive a 1400cc engine (mines nearly 10 years old) and I find that driving anywhere between 3000 - 4000 rpm gives optimum fuel consumption. Anything over 4k and I really start to notice the difference. Always check (weekly at least) that your tyres are properly inflated as this can have a huge impact on your consumption.