Increasing Your Vehicle’s Fuel Economy With The Right Vehicle Maintenance

For effective maintenance, a few things must be taken into consideration; the type of vehicle, the operating conditions of the vehicle and the load which the vehicle carries. The frequency of maintenance varies based on these factors due to the accumulation of the normal wear and tear of your vehicle.

Scheduled Maintenance

When maintenance is undertaken at the recommended service intervals, this will help in reducing the downtime of your vehicle and improve on fuel efficiency. During maintenance, technicians check the fluid levels such as the engine oil and transmission fluid. These fluids need to be changed in time and the correct oil grade should be used for your vehicle. It is recommended that you use oil which has friction-reducing additives, in order to increase the overall vehicle fuel efficiency.

Replace Your Air Cleaner

A clogged air cleaner causes your vehicle’s engine to work much harder than it has to, thus reducing torque. The harder your engine has to work, the more fuel it consumes, resulting in poor fuel economy. Replacing a clogged air filter will help improve both fuel economy and acceleration.

Check Your Tyre Pressure

Checking and adjusting your tyre pressure can greatly increase your fuel efficiency. Correctly inflated tyres offer less rolling resistance on the road, improved fuel economy, offer greater stability, and reduce the risk of accidents. Underinflated tyres result in higher rolling resistance resulting in more fuel consumption to aid in moving.

Select The Right Tyres

When choosing tyres there are several parameters to consider. The most important to customers is the price, however for those companies that integrate the Fleet Management solutions, they will notice that fuel economy and tyre wear should be the most important factors. These two factors directly affect the operational economy of a vehicle. The correct tyres should give the best balance between low roll resistance and low tyre wear because together with air resistance, roll resistance is the highest energy consumer. Rolling resistance exists because of the tyres or the road the vehicle is travelling on. Ensure to select the correct tyre type in accordance with the road and the load which the vehicle carries to save on your vehicle’s fuel consumption.

Wheel Alignment

When your vehicle’s wheels are not aligned, it causes uneven tyre wear which will have to be replaced regularly. Ensure that you check on the alignment of your wheels to improve stability, handling, and to reduce the roll resistance due to misaligned wheels and axles of your vehicle. This is especially important for vehicles which transport heavy loads, because the heavy loads exact a lot of pressure on the tyres. Additionally, when the wheels are not correctly aligned, one side of the vehicle’s wheels wears out faster than the other side. This also increases the roll resistance causing the vehicle to consume more energy, hence high fuel consumption.

Purchase Genuine Scania Parts

Fitting counterfeit parts in your vehicle is always a high-risk factor because counterfeit parts wear out faster, requiring replacement more frequently, and they often cause damages to other parts of the vehicle.

Scania’s genuine parts have been engineered for the ultimate performance, endurance, fuel economy and safety. Our parts have been designed with your vehicle in mind to give your vehicle a long service life and to maximize on uptime.

Counterfeit parts not only compromise on the performance of your vehicle, but they also increase fuel consumption and emissions. Counterfeit fuel injectors, for instance, lead to reduced efficiency caused by poor combustion, increasing the fuel consumption of your vehicle. Fitting counterfeit parts also nullifies the warranty on your vehicle and reduces its resale value.