One topic that hits the news in Tallahassee on a regular basis is the price of gas. The answer for some people in Tallahassee is to buy a more fuel efficient vehicle. For the rest of use, we need to improve our fuel economy anyway we can.
Following recommended service intervals by coming into Auto Super-Service Center is one of the best ways to keep your car running efficiently. That means better fuel economy. When you give it some thought, it only makes sense. Dirty oil or transmission fluid can’t lubricate or clean. That means more drag which reduces fuel economy.
Dirty engine air filters are another efficiency pirate. They rob your engine of enough air to effectively burn the fuel, so you need more gas to get the job done. Replacing a dirty air filter can pay for itself in fuel savings before the next oil change.
You can imagine what dirty fuel injectors can do to your all passenger cars & light trucks as you drive around Tallahassee. If your owner’s manual recommends a fuel system cleaning, come into Auto Super-Service Center and ask us to get it done for you.
A simple, but very effective way to save gas is to keep your tires properly inflated. Low tires can cost you up to a mile per gallon. Check your tire pressure when you gas up – or at least once a month.
If you’re a quart low in your all passenger cars & light trucks, there isn’t enough motor oil to lubricate your engine properly. The extra friction causes drag that reduces fuel economy while you’re driving around the Tallahassee area.
The same goes for dirty oil; it doesn’t reduce friction properly. The result is you get to watch those numbers at your local Tallahassee gas pump rolling higher and higher.
The transmission also needs the proper amount of clean fluid to do its work. When it’s in need of service, the transmission drags your fuel economy down.
So keep it clean and give yourself a fighting chance.
In very simple terms, a fuel injector is a valve that squirts fuel into your all passenger cars & light trucks engine. Your engine control computer tells the fuel injector how much fuel to deliver as well as the precise time it should be delivered. Of course this happens thousands of times a minute in every single fuel-injected car driving down Havana, Quincy, and Cawfordville roads.
Most fuel injectors for gas engines are known in the Tallahassee auto industry as port fuel injectors because they deliver the fuel to a port just outside the cylinder. The fuel pump provides pressure needed to squirt the right amount of fuel into the engine.
A few auto makers have recently introduced gas direct injection systems on some engines. They are now available at some Tallahassee dealerships. These systems inject the gas directly into the cylinders under very high pressure – many times the pressure of port injection systems.
Although more complicated, direct injection technology promises greater power with improved fuel economy for gas-poor Havana, Quincy, and Cawfordville commuters. Florida motorists can expect to see more of it in the future. High temperatures under your all passenger cars & light trucks hood and variations in Tallahassee gas quality cause fuel injectors to be fouled with wax, dirt, water, additives and carbon. Injectors can become partially clogged, preventing them from delivering the proper amount of fuel at the correct pressure.
When injectors are dirty, the fuel doesn’t burn as efficiently resulting in poor fuel economy and loss of power. So it’s important for Tallahassee drivers keep their fuel injectors clean.
Your Tallahassee Auto Super-Service Center service center can perform a fuel system service for you in which the fuel injectors are cleaned so that they operate properly and deliver the right amount of fuel at the right time.
Proper maintenance of your all passenger cars & light trucks fuel system means that you will spend less on gas, enjoy strong performance and prevent costly Tallahassee repair bills down the road.
There’s not much we can do about the price of gas in Tallahassee Florida, but we do quite a bit about how much we use as we’re driving on our Tallahassee streets.
Our driving habits can dramatically affect our fuel economy.
The first thing we can do is watch the ‘go-pedal’. Hard acceleration just sucks the gas. Gently leave stop lights and plan lane changes so you don’t need to floor it. That can save you hundreds of dollars a year.
Go a little slower on the freeway to Tallahassee. Once you’re going more than sixty-five miles an hour your fuel economy starts to drop dramatically. Leave early so you don’t need to rush to be on time. And cruise control is your friend – steady speed uses less gas.
Plan errands ahead. Make fewer trips by combining errands.
Hey at current gas prices, a lead-foot might as well be a gold foot.
A question for our Tallahassee Florida motorists: How long have you been enjoying the romantic glow of your check engine light?
Hey, it’s not there to create ambiance; it’s a warning that something’s wrong. When your check engine light comes on get it checked at a capable Tallahassee Florida service station.
Many conditions that cause the check engine light to come on affect fuel economy. Some very dramatically.
Always make sure you tighten your gas cap until it clicks. A loose gas cap can cause a false sensor reading that’ll make the check engine light come on.
If your date’s eyes are smoldering in the reflected glow of the check engine light, try to think of all the gas money you’ll save by getting it fixed. Give us a call when you are ready: 850-562-4608
At Auto Super-Service Center we hear from a lot of people who are excited about the new diesel engines that will soon be available in passenger cars and SUV’s. But our Florida friends are often curious about the preventive maintenance requirements. People may not know that diesel engines have long been used extensively in Europe and Asia. In fact, in some markets, there’re nearly as many diesel powered passenger cars as there are gasoline.
Here’s who’s announced or is expected to announce new diesels for North America: BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Volkswagen, Nissan, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai and Subaru. Of course, the US auto makers will be expanding their diesel offerings as well. Diesels will become a very big deal here in Florida.
You may ask, why has it taken so long getting to Florida and North America? There are a bunch of reasons like fuel tax policies and such, but the biggest hurtle was that Florida diesel fuel had a high sulfur content – too high for the latest generation of highly refined diesel engines. Recent government mandates to remove sulfur now opens up Florida to the engines the rest of the world’s been enjoying for a long time.
Why are diesels so popular worldwide? Well, for starters, diesels get up to 30% better fuel economy than gas engines. And they last a lot longer. And modern diesel engines are refined, quiet and powerful – and there’s none of that black smoke we used to see.
Some people may think that diesels create more pollution. But, you need to rethink diesels. Environmental pollution standards for diesel cars and light trucks are scheduled to be as strict as they are for gasoline vehicles. A modern diesel engine is as clean as a gas engine.
You may also have heard a lot in the news about bio-diesel. The exciting thing about diesels is that they’re not limited to fossil fuels. They can run on fuel made from vegetable oil. There are refineries that make diesel fuel from cellulosic waste like woodchips from lumber mills. There’s even this cool new process where a special strain of algae is used to convert carbon dioxide, water and sunshine into bio-diesel. That’s still a ways off, but you can see that diesel can become a sustainable source of fuel.
And, there are not a lot of trade off’s with diesel in terms of performance. A modern passenger car diesel is very smooth, quiet and quick. Most folks wouldn’t notice any difference. For those who tow trailers and haul heavy loads, diesels will be an improvement.
Now diesel engines are heavy duty, so they cost more than gas engines. But they get better fuel economy – so the break-even point is largely dependent on the difference between Florida gas and diesel prices at the pump and how many miles you drive. And diesels have a higher resale value.
Now, let’s get back to diesel maintenance. You have to keep in mind that most of the new diesels are just coming in, or will be over the next couple of years, so we don’t have the maintenance schedules to make direct comparisons yet.
But going off what we already have in Florida, we can expect fluid drain intervals to be similar to gasoline engines. Diesels do require very clean fuel, air and oil, so their filters are much higher capacity than gasoline filters and cost more. The engine air filter needs to be changed more frequently as well.
Repair costs are similar. As with gasoline engines, proper maintenance is the key to long engine life and to avoiding repairs. So pretty much what we have come to expect with gas vehicles; coolant system service, transmission service, power brakes, power steering, differential, filters, fuel system, and so on. And the payoff for you, if you’re the kind that likes to keep your vehicles for a long time, is that a properly maintained diesel engine can last for hundreds of thousands of miles.
The function of the fuel filter is pretty self-explanatory. It filters your fuel. The fuel filter is in the fuel line somewhere in between the fuel tank and the engine. Both gas and diesel vehicles around Tallahassee Florida use fuel filters.
For more information about your fuel filter, visit Auto Super-Service Center or come by our shop located at 3781 N. Monroe St. in Tallahassee, Florida 32303. Please call 850-562-4608 to make an appointment.
Generally speaking there’s not a lot of dirt in our Tallahassee Florida auto fuel supply, but there is enough that you want to screen it out. The problem actually gets worse the older your vehicle becomes. That’s because dirt, rust and other contaminants will settle out of the fuel and onto the bottom of the fuel tank. After your all passenger cars & light trucks is five years or older, it can actually have a fair amount of sediment built up.
That just means that the fuel filter has to work harder as your all passenger cars & light trucks ages. It’ll get clogged sooner and need to be replaced more often.
A symptom of a clogged fuel filter is that the engine sputters at highway speeds or under hard acceleration. That’s because enough fuel is getting through around town, but when you need more fuel for speed, enough just can’t get through the filter. Obviously, that could be dangerous if your car or truck can’t get enough power to get you out of harm’s way.
For just that reason, fuel filters have a bypass valve. When the filter is severely clogged, some fuel can bypass the filter all together. Of course that means that dirty, unfiltered fuel is getting through to be burned in the engine.
This dirt can then clog and damage your fuel injectors. Now injectors are not cheap to replace, so you don’t want to cause them damage just because you didn’t spend a few bucks to replace a fuel filter.
You know, in a way, the fuel filter can be the poster child for preventive maintenance. It’s a little part, it’s simple and it’s cheap to take care of. But if it’s neglected, it could lead to thousands of dollars of repair bills.
Those auto service schedules in your owner’s manual are there for a reason. If ever you don’t understand a recommended service, just ask your Tallahassee service advisor at Auto Super-Service Center. We’ll be happy to explain.
This fuel saving tip is so simple, no one from here to Quincy will believe it. It has to do with your gas cap.
The first thing is to make sure it’s screwed on tight. If it’s loose, gas vapor will be constantly leaking out; wasted gas.
And air will get in and that can cause your oxygen sensor to read incorrectly and the oxygen sensor will tell the engine management computer to adjust the fuel-air mix and, well, you get the picture; you’ll be burning more gas around Quincy than you need to.
This could cause the check engine light to come on as well.
A worn gas cap can have the same effect. If you constantly smell gas when you walk by your tank, you might need a new gas cap.
So, twist your cap until it clicks three times – that means it’s on tight. Have your Quincy area service advisor at Auto Super-Service Center inspect the cap to see if it needs to be replaced.
See, I told you it was simple.
Don’t forget to call Auto Super-Service Center at 850-562-4608 for an appointment to optimize your all passenger cars & light trucks for better fuel economy. Ask us about preventive maintenance.
Let’s start at the tank. The gas tank gathers dirt, rust and sediment over the years. That’s why there’s a fuel filter to clean the fuel after it leaves the tank. A dirty filter will rob the engine of the clean gas it needs to run efficiently.
The fuel intake components get coated with gum and varnish over time. This results in fuel being delivered inefficiently and some of that gunk getting into the engine. A fuel system service at Auto Super-Service Center will leave your intake as clean as a whistle.
The big fuel thief is dirty fuel injectors. They deliver fuel to the engine at a specified pressure and in a particular spray pattern. When they’re clogged, the fuel doesn’t get atomized the way it’s supposed to and doesn’t get burned as efficiently.
See your owner’s manual or ask your Quincy service advisor at Auto Super-Service Center when a fuel system cleaning is recommended.
Have you ever gone to Tallahassee to listen to an orchestra? The musicians take the stage early and tune their instruments. Each individual instrument must be in tune, but the critical thing is for the entire orchestra to be in tune with each other. That’s why they tune up together.
Now this is no surprise; I’m going to relate the orchestra to your car. Your engine has many component systems that each need to be working properly. And the components need to be working in sync, all timed up together in order for the engine to work efficiently.
We call this, (ta-da) a tune-up. When an orchestra’s out of tune you get a bad concert. When your vehicle’s out of tune you get bad performance and bad fuel economy.
So check your owner’s manual for recommended tune-up intervals. Or ask your Tallahassee service advisor at Auto Super-Service Center what he thinks.
…Just be careful not to say you want to make beautiful music together – that kinda makes us uncomfortable.
