Save Money On Gas: Driving
How you drive your car can determine how much money you will save on gas. Here are some tips on how to save money on gas when driving your car. If you have a standard transmission you should always drive in the highest gear possible. In many cars gas efficiency will go down by 10% if you have the air conditioner running while you are moving. If you have a lower temperature setting on your A/C, use it. Run the A/C until the interior gets cooled down and then turn it off and let the fan circulate the cool air. You should never run your AC with your windows open. Cars that were built after 1990 don t need to warm up before driving in the morning. For the first five minutes of driving, don’t exceed 35 mph. The engine actually warms up better if it is driving instead of idling in your driveway. Driving the speed limit will help you out as well… maybe as much as 10%. Accelerate slowly when you are leaving a stoplight. The fastest person through the intersection just gets to spend more money on gas. If you follow the tip of driving in high gear, you won’t be accelerating all that much anyway. Try buying 87-octane gasoline (Regular). Read your car manual. Some vehicle advertisements tell you to use premium gasoline, but the owner’s manual actually says that 87 is fine. Turn the engine off when you’re stuck at a light or waiting for a train to pass or when you don’t expect to move for a few minutes. When the engine is idling and not moving, you end up with 0 mpg. Revving the engine is a huge waste of time and gas as well. Unless there is a mechanical problem with your car, there is no need to do this before you turn your vehicle off. If there is a mechanical problem, consider fixing it before it turns into a more expensive problem later on. Following these tips can give you an advantage over gas prices at the pump.Olivia is a writer with over fifteen years writing video scripts and webcopy. She authors several websites and blogs. for more information on how to save money on gas <a href="http://milagecare.myffi.biz">click here!</a>
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Igniting a Spark
Your Volvo has thousands of parts in it. Some play a crucial role in the car, while others do not. Some are used all the time, while some are needed only for a specific time. One of the latter is your Volvo’s ignition coil. Also called a spark coil, the ignition coil is an induction coil in the automobile’s ignition system. The Volvo ignition coil transforms a storage battery’s 12 volts into the thousands (which sometimes could reach as high as 120,000 volts) needed to ignite the spark plugs. Invented by A. Kent Atwater in 1921, the ignition coil is a simple transformer that has two sides: the 12 volt or primary side and the high voltage or secondary side. The primary side contains a few hundred turns of a large diameter wire and it builds up the magnetic field in the coils. On the other hand, the high voltage side contains thousands of turns of small diameter wire. The coil uses electromagnetic induction to create the high voltage. When the voltage in the primary side is turned off, the collapsing magnetic field in the secondary side induces a voltage in the secondary side, producing thousands of volts. In older vehicles, a single, large ignition coil would serve all the spark plugs, distributing voltage via an ignition distributor. In modern systems, the distributor is omitted and ignition is controlled electronically, instead. Much smaller coils are used with one coil for each spark plug or one coil serving two spark plugs (so two coils in a four-cylinder car). These coils may be remote-mounted or they may be placed on top of the spark plug (coil-on-plug or direct injection). Where one coil serves two spark plugs (in two cylinders), it is through the “wasted spark” system. In this arrangement, the coil generates two sparks per cycle to both the cylinders. The fuel in the cylinder that is nearing the end of its compression stroke is ignited, whereas, the spark in its companion nearing the end of its exhaust stroke has no effect. The wasted spark system is more reliable than a single coil system with a distributor and cheaper than coil-on-plug. Where the coils are remote mounted, they may all be contained in a single molded block with multiple high-tension terminals. This is commonly called a coil-pack. Your Volvo ignition coils are part of a larger system, which is the ignition system. The ignition system is part of an even larger engine system. The ignition system’s primary responsibility is the timely burning of the fuel-air mixture in the engine. Your Volvo user’s manual would carry the recommended service interval for your ignition system, including your Volvo ignition coil. Your Volvo engine might run rough, buck, surge, stall or even get poor fuel economy. These are signs that your ignition system might need servicing as they are potentially an ignition system problem. When this happens, drive to the nearest Volvo dealership and have a qualified technician take a look around. Your Volvo engine might be in problem in the long run. John Garrett is an automobile mechanic who knows every crook and cranny of his truck. He's also a vintage car enthusiast , and he's dedicated to fixing and restoring them. He is a motorist who believes in continuous research and improvement.
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What’s up with Hybrid Vehicles?
If the price of gasoline has got you scared, and you’re thinking about maybe trading in your car for a moped, you’ve got half the solution right. It might be time to trade in your car, but forget the moped — get a hybrid car instead. The dictionary defines the word hybrid as: Offspring resulting from breeding between parents of two different species, and that’s a good definition for our purposes. That’s because a hybrid car has a power plant that’s a cross between a gasoline powered engine and an electric motor. What’s the big deal about hybrid cars? The automobile industry claims that a hybrid car can give you as much as 20 to 30 miles per gallon more performance than a standard gasoline engine. That means that you buy less gasoline, and buying less gasoline leaves more money in your pocket. You’ll need that extra money, however, because hybrid cars are still relatively expensive compared to traditional gasoline-powered cars. As more hybrid cars are sold, manufacturing prices will drop, and that drop will be seen in the selling price. How does a hybrid car save gasoline? In a typical automobile, the engine is connected to the transmission via a mechanical link called the drive train. When the engine’s sparkplugs fire, they ignite gasoline vapor which pushes a piston up and down. This piston movement gets transferred to the transmission via the drive train. The transmission turns the wheels and the car goes down the road. Well, the hybrid car is almost exactly the same except that in addition to the engine being connected to the transmission, an electric motor is also connected to the transmission. Actually, there are two different versions of hybrid cars. The one that was just described is called a parallel hybrid, because there are two different energy sources connected in parallel to the transmission. The other type of hybrid car is called a series hybrid because the gasoline engine works in series with the electric motor to power the car. This is accomplished by having the gasoline engine either charge the car’s batteries, or power the electric motor. The gasoline engine doesn’t actually turn the car’s wheels at all. The parallel hybrid operates off of the electric motor when the car is being driven below a certain speed, and the gasoline engine kicks in when that speed is exceeded, or when sensors in the car indicate that the driver has accelerated suddenly as if to pass or to avoid an emergency situation. Of course, the gasoline engine is always running even when the electric motor is powering the car, so some gasoline is always being used. The series hybrid is always running off of the electric motor, which restricts the top speed of the car, and the gasoline engine only kicks in when the batteries need to be charged. Like all automotive claims, your mileage may vary. Even so, if you’re looking to spend less money at the gas station, and avoid much of the effect of rising gas prices, you might want to park a hybrid car in your garage. Diane Nassy is the founder of <a href="http://www.save-on-gas-prices.com">http://www.save-on-gas-prices.com</a> . Visit her website for great tips on ways to save on rising gas prices. Email : <a href="mailto:httpdeeljeabiz@gmail.com">deeljeabiz@gmail.com</a>
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