Obey the Engine Light to Save Fuel

When it is time for a tune-up, take your car in as soon as possible. Modern vehicles are designed to run up to 160,000 km without a major tune-up. When it is time it’s worth investing in since you'll save fuel and a potentially costly breakdown.

Fixing a car that is noticeably out of tune or has failed an emission test can improve its gas mileage by an average of 4%, and if it is a serious problem, like a faulty oxygen sensor, efficiency can be improved by 40%! Following our same estimations of price and kpg, that comes out to a savings of up to $215/year, and 2400 pounds of CO2!

Filtering The Air = Fuel Efficiency

Though we don’t hear much about air filters, replacing one when needed can improve your fuel economy by 10%, which is significant. Air flows through filters to mix with gasoline, from which a spark ignites, and the wheels move forward. Poor filtration can result in debris and additional matter mixing with the air and gasoline, creating more work for the engine, and thus a higher expenditure of gasoline, lower KPG, and higher CO2 emissions.

It is recommended to change your air filter every 15,000 to 20,000 km, and certain driving conditions like dusty roads can make even more frequent changes necessary. An easy rule of thumb for knowing whether it’s time to replace a filter is to check whether you can see light when looking through it. If so, you’re in the clear. You can also consult your manual for recommended mileage between replacements.

Do You Really Need To Idle?

NRCAN recommends that if you are idling for any more than 60 seconds, fuel efficiency would be lower, and emissions would be greater left idling than by turning off and restarting your vehicle. What's more, by burning 1 litre of gasoline, 2.3kg of CO2 is produced. Idling for 10 minutes will produce 1.15kg of CO2. If we assume that a driver in January drives to work 5 days a week and chooses to warm up/idle their vehicle each of those days during the month (20 days), 10 minutes of idling will produce 23kg of CO2 and 5 minutes of idling will produce 11.5kg of CO2 - all in one month!

For someone driving to work every day, 10 minutes of idling will produce 92kg of CO2 emissions during the winter months and 276kg of CO2 emissions for a whole year. Not to mention the savings of about $70/year on gas.

Although vehicle idling is a common practice in the winter months, it is unnecessary and results in reduced fuel efficiency and increased GHG emissions. Precisely, vehicle idling warms only the engine and not other parts of the car. The best way to warm up the rest is by driving it. Today, multigrade oils can work at very cold and warm temperatures. Therefore, idling your car might not benefit you in any way.

For example, if Canadians avoided idling for 3 minutes every day, CO2 could be reduced by 1.4 million tonnes annually. This would be saving about 630 million litres of fuel.

Oil Up That Eco-Friendly Car

When aiming for fuel efficiency, low viscosity engine oils are significant contributors to achieving that goal. Viscosity is a fluid’s resistance to flow. Lower viscosity oil reduces friction, improves efficiency, and thus increases fuel economy. By purchasing the right kind of motor oil, you can improve gas mileage by 1-2%, which is a sweet deal for something you must buy anyway! To give some real-world examples, a 1% increase in fuel economy for a car with an estimated 60 kpg, low viscosity oil achieves a savings of about $8/year. In terms of global warming, you are keeping 60lbs of CO2 out of the atmosphere.

To make the best purchase you can, check for the phrase “Energy Conserving” on the label, which is your guarantee of friction-reducing additives that keep things running smoothly.

Your car’s engine prefers a certain kind of oil to run at its best, so get it what it wants.

Check your owner’s manual to see what quality and viscosity are best for your vehicle and be sure to change your oil at the regularly recommended intervals to preserve optimal fuel economy. Newer engines have better finishes that prevent engine wear from occurring because of lower viscosity oils. However, an older engine without as tight a tolerance or as high a surface finish is more susceptible to wear and therefore is best used with the recommended conventional oil. Engines that will be exposed to extreme temperatures are also better off with standard oil viscosity.

Why are gas prices rising? Why are gas prices falling? These are questions we hear on a regular basis. Gas prices are affected by many factors. Here’s a breakdown of some of them.

Crude Oil

Crude oil is a globally traded commodity and is the base product used to refine gasoline and diesel fuel. As Canadian producers, we have no influence over world crude oil prices because our domestic crude oil production is a small fraction of the total global production.

Crude oil prices are influenced by changes in global supply and demand, current inventory levels, and geopolitical events.

Wholesale Gasoline

Like crude oil, wholesale gasoline is bought and sold on commodity markets. And because gasoline is a commodity that flows freely between Canada and the US, Canadian wholesale prices (the prices retailers pay) are tied closely to US commodity prices.

Because of this close tie to the US commodity prices, any significant disruption in supply in the US, a market 10 times the size of our Canadian market, can impact wholesale prices in Canada as well.

Refining And Marketing Costs

This portion of the price covers all the operation costs, like the refining cost (refining crude oil into gasoline), the transportation and distribution charges, and all marketing and operational expenses at the station.