Easy Steps To Calculate Your Car's Average Fuel Efficiency

There would be no denying the fact fuel mileage is one of the most important factors for the Indian buyers when buying a car. That’s also the reason why carmakers are trying to optimize the fuel efficiency level and claim the brilliant mileage figures in their products’ brochures. The thing is, while these figures might look good on paper, they can’t indicate the real-world fuel consumption of a car which might be affected by the driving styles and road conditions. Therefore, to make sure you are aware of the exact fuel consumption of your beloved cars, here are some handy tips to help you calculate your car’s average mileage.

1. Fill The Tank To The Brim

Filling just a little amount of fuel into a completely dry tank is not a wise approach to check how much fuel the car can go. That’s to say, the only way to calculate the exact amount of fuel consumed by your car is to fill the tank up to the full. However, please note that the automatic cut-off sensors might not be accurate all the times. The fuel is often pumped into the tank at high speed and the air present can not escape out at times hence your tank couldn’t be filled to the brim with some air inside.

This even matters more in some modern fuel-injected vehicles which gets return lines of fuel when not used. It is advisable that you should wait for a little after the sensors cut the supply off and fill the tank again a few times until it is completely full.

2. Stick To Your Fuel Station

To calculate your car’s average fuel mileage figures, it is strongly recommended that you should stick to a single fuel pump to avoid the variations in accuracy among the stations. Also, there is a slight discrepancy among the brands of fuel since the additives, production process, quality, etc. are different among the manufacturers that can impact fuel economy.

Also Read - What Happens If You Use BS-6 Fuel In BS-4 Cars?

Therefore, it is better for you to stick to a manufacturer of fuel pumps or ones have good credit for their fuel’s quality, not only for a more accurate calculation of the fuel economy but also for a long lifespan of the engine.

3. Pay attention to the Odo and trip meters

Take a note on the odometer which read the number of kilometres that your car has done before you reach the fuel pump. If your car does feature a trip metre that allows you to record the distance you have travelled. Here are the specific steps to calculate the average fuel efficiency of your vehicle.

Step 1: Drive your car to the fuel pump

Step 2: Make a note on the kilometres read by your odometer (O1) and the fuel level shown on the fuel gauge.

Step 3: Fill the tank up completely

Step 4: Note down the fuel amount that you’ve filled into

Step 5: Now drive on a stretch of road until the gauge shows the reading you have just recorded earlier and note down the odometer reading that time (O2).

Step 6: Subtract the new odometer reading from the earlier one: O2 – O1

Step 7: Divide the result by the amount of fuel you had filled in your car previously. The result got is your average fuel mileage.

4. Have a look at the drive cycle

If you want to calculate your car’s average mileage figures, you need to try and use the same set of driving conditions as any change to the driving styles like traffic or vehicle’s weight can take a toll on the fuel efficiency. That said, the mileage figure might be changed to the way you drive.

Also Read - Best Mileage SUV cars in India - Hyundai Venue to Tata Nexon

Using the air-con also affect the mileage then. So to get the most precise average idea of your car’s fuel efficiency, try to standardize your driving speeds and manners at the same time.

5. Keep your car in check

Some other factors like tyre pressure can have a great influence on the fuel economy level of your vehicle. Certainly, driving on an under-inflated tyre could lead to lower fuel efficiency and ruin your effort to make a good calculation. Try to check your tyre pressure every time you made the alternate fuel fill. Besides, check the air filter, engine oil regularly for the same purpose.

6. Use applications, technology

In recent days, there are a lot of smartphone applications that can help you check your fuel consumption records and do the calculations needed to calculate your car average mileage. There are even apps that help figure out the fuel consumption against the GPS kilometre measurement but there might be satellite loss sometime that could influence the overall results.