How To Save Gas and Brakes While Driving

Have You Ever Really Thought About How You Can Save Money on Gas and Extending The Life of Your Vehicles Brakes.

Well you know if I am not speaking out of line here, probably Guys and Girls we have all been a little guilty of a “little squeak” or a “big squeal” of our tires meeting and greeting the road surface. I remember way back when I was still in senior high school and working weekends pumping gas to make extra money.

I Had saved enough money to buy this little car with a very small engine in it, maybe the equivalent power of “Six Hamsters on steroids”, so here I am one night with a few of my buddies waiting for me to close up the gas pumps till the next day. As I went about my closing-up procedure one of my buddies asked me for my keys to my car and says he will put in a few dollars of gas.

Did I know what was coming next ? no but I was a witness to it. What it lead to was my little “hamster mobile” was parked out by the gas pumps but not to close, buddies number two comes running in to say, I better get out to the front of the gas bar because something is going on, like right now.

From where I was inside the building I could hear an engine revving up to the extreme and as I came running outside I thought my little car was on fire. There was smoke and lots of it coming from the back of my car, well that was my car’s engine revving way too high and real smoke coming off my tires.

Between the noise from the car and the laughter in the background and the grin on the guy in the driver’s seat and the open can of engine oil, I soon realized that they had pooled up a slick of oil under the rear tires.

It was unbelievable that the tires were actually spinning around and creating a smoke show. When I think back on that event, that was the only time in the life of that little car with the “Hamster Engine Power”, the wheels never spun like that again. As we all had a good laugh and the Gas Bar closed up for the night it was time to drive around on the two dollars of gas and a trip to A+W (Amburgers and Wootbeer).

Did that use up some of my gas quicker than the usual way that I would drive? Yes, it did, probably only about .25 cents, but that’s a case of using fuel up unnecessarily. As far as shortening the life of my wee little engine I would have to say yes and very possible the tire life had been challenged.

The brakes never needed to stop the car, as soon as the tires found some less slippery more aggressive asphalt to grab, then the show was over.

What Else Causes Extra Fuel Consumption?

• Taking off from a stop with too much heavy acceleration
• Pumping the gas pedal while listening to your music, probably Rock Band tunes
• Always passing others to be in front of the pack of vehicles ( a need to be first)
• Driving around in a lower gear expressing the bark of your newly installed rumble-sounding mufflers
• And of course the sitting and waiting to pick up loved ones on those cooler days with the engine running to keep the interior of your Ride warm and cozy

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What Else Causes Extra Wear and Tear on Your Brakes?

• Well, how about when charging up to that stop sign and hitting the brakes quickly and hard to bring your ride to a stop very very quickly, instead of easing into your brake pedal for a soft smooth stop? The less aggressive smooth stop may prevent your head or mouth from making contact with the steering wheel, have you experienced that, I have and it hurts a lot (young and crazy) moment for me.
• How about when we come down a long steep hill continuously riding the brakes to try a keep our speed down for those sharp turns on those winding roads? Drop your transmission down into a lower gear, for an automatic pull the lever down to 2nd or even 1st gear if you are going slow enough. With a standard just gear down again to a lower-range gear to give us some hold-back. This means using our engine for a brake retarder feature, this will surely save on our brake pad wear. If not then this is what You will be doing soon in the future – come on in to see
• Hears one we have probably encountered at some point in time, that is putting too much weight into the back of His or Her truck, example would be a day out in the woods loading up the truck with fresh-cut timber (from authorized locations only) probably paperwork required? you may be overloaded but, the wood is a catch for the day and you or even I don’t really want to unload any pieces that, we have already loaded, that sound familiar?

Okay I have listed a few areas of heavy brake wear driving conditions. If you Girls or Guys have a good story to share I would really like to hear it. I welcome comments and real life situations.

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Thanks for now Doug