9 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Audi's Gas Mileage
Making too many trips to the gas station? Check out these tips to help increase the gas mileage on your Audi!
1. Keep Up the Maintenance
Make sure to keep everything running in pristine condition. Check the fuel and air filters, and make sure to change them when needed. While air filters are not generally neglected, fuel filters are and can end up causing issues with the constant flow of clean gasoline. A good rule of thumb is to change the fuel filter every 40,000 miles. Air filters, on the other hand, do require replacement more regularly at around 20,000 miles or approximately once a year. Also, make sure to perform routine oil changes, and any services specified at their correct mileage intervals according to your owners manual.
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2. Check your EGR
As a driver with a bad EGR, I cannot recommend this enough! EGRs, are responsible for recalculating unburned fuel back into the engine. This process does two things, it keeps the environment cleaner and helps you utilize all the fuel in an engine. EGRs that are stuck open generally cause a loss of up to 4 mpg, or in my case, a lost of 72 miles per tank!
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3. Check Air Flow and Exhaust sensors
Airflow sensors record the amount of air flowing through an engine, which sends signals to the ECU and thus regulates the amount of gas that is allowed into the combustion chambers. A bad sensor can either cause an engine to run too lean or rich, depending on the signal it's sending. Oxygen sensors are infamous for their effects on gas mileage. One that malfunctions will fail to send the proper voltage levels back to the ECU and result in terrible gas mileage. Checking a sensor is a fairly simple process, as seen here.
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4. Tire Pressure
While tires may or may not make a noticeable gain in fuel economy, keeping them properly inflated and balanced help keep the rotational geometry of each wheel in constant. In theory, you’ll be using less power to turn the wheels, and thus saving MPGs. Unless your tires a terrible, you shouldn’t see more than a 1-2 mpg increase. Still, it all adds up in the end!
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5. Improve Your Driving Habits
Bad gas mileage doesn't necessarily mean there's something wrong with the engine, it could also be based on driver error. Flooring to every street light, braking at unnecessary times and avoiding cruise control are some prime examples of people causing a negative impact on fuel consumption.
The following are some basic driving techniques you can do to improve your fuel consumption.
- Cruise Control.
- Using a lighter foot.
- Avoiding the manual shift feature on automatic transmissions.
- Shifting low in manual transmissions.
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6. Cruise Control
Cruise control and Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) aren't just convenience features. When you adjust your vehicle to a certain speed limit, the car has to keep it at the speed marked. This requires the ECU to regulate itself, by either speeding up, coasting, or stopping on highways (ACC). Your Audi will have a specified sweet spot, for the best speed to cruise at, often between 55 - 70 mph. Keeping it there, with the RPMs low, will provide you with optimal fuel economy.
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7. Use a Lighter Foot
The idea of saving time is something everyone always strives for. While the idea looks good on paper, it's not always ideal nor worth the risk of a speeding ticket, especially when it's also increasing your fuel consumption. According to this LifeHack, speeding only saves time during larger, more time-consuming trips. With the addition of traffic, street lights and other possible obstacles, the time saved is more psychological than anything else. Driving with a lighter foot will still get you where you need to go at approximately the same time driving with a heavy foot would, while helping decrease the overall fuel consumption.
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8. Tiptronic Sport Mode
I love having the ability to switch into a manual style driving on a whim. While it is pretty cool to shoot by with less delay than just flooring it, it just isn't as efficient. The preprogrammed gearing is set to shift at the lowest optimal fuel efficient setting without hindering performance. So if you're looking to improve mileage, stay away from using the manual mode.
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9. Shift Low
With manual transmissions, you have all the control you’d need. All you have to do is make sure shifts are kept under 3k. Also be sure to constantly coast when you can, such as slowing down when approaching a stop light.
For maintenance and repair guides for your Audi, browse our technical how-to articles at Audiworld.com.