A light gas pedal will reduce fuel consumption
Build up speed smoothly, shifting to a higher gear as soon as possible.
Once the desired speed has been reached, try to let the car move in the highest possible gear with a small gas input. Raise the engine speed only when overtaking or changing lanes in the flow of cars on the road. In addition, you should definitely turn off the engine at short stops, for example in front of a railway barrier, in front of a traffic light at construction sites or in a traffic jam: after 5-7 seconds this becomes beneficial, including for the environment.
Fuel handling
The most important rule when handling fuel is to exercise extreme caution. Therefore, do not take maintenance and repair work on fuel system components lightly. You must be especially careful when draining fuel from the fuel tank. Observe the following safety precautions:
Disconnect the negative cable from the battery and securely insulate the battery terminals.
Only drain the fuel from the fuel tank in the open air. To do this, you need a fuel-resistant hand pump (e.g. a pump with a bellows hose). Never try to drain the fuel through the upper opening of the fuel tank (the flange of the fuel level indicator) or suck it out through the hose with your mouth - there is a risk of poisoning from extremely toxic additives in the fuel!
A class B carbon dioxide or foam fire extinguisher must always be available in the immediate vicinity.
Never drain fuel over an inspection pit: the gases evaporating from it are heavier than air and after a few hours form a highly explosive mixture in the pit. Consequence: immediate danger of explosion and harm to health as a result of its inhalation.
Make sure that there are no electrical appliances, open flames, heat sources or sparks in the room while working with fuel.
Fuel may only be poured into sealed, clearly labeled containers. For this purpose, there are special containers with flame protection and pressure equalization closures.
An empty fuel tank will accumulate residual gases. Therefore, extra caution is required - there is a risk of explosion.
Fuel - concepts and standards
Regular Gasoline/Super Gasoline: almost identical in purity, evaporation characteristics (important for flammability) and energy balance (heat of combustion per kg of fuel). The decisive difference: super gasoline has higher knock resistance than regular gasoline (with an octane number of at least 91 according to the research method).
Diesel fuel: a fuel that makes excellent use of the physical properties of a diesel engine. Due to the high flammability of this fuel and the extremely high compression ratio in diesel engines, combustion occurs under control within fractions of a second. For gasoline engines, diesel fuel would be pure poison - the spark plugs would lose their ability to produce a spark in the shortest possible time.
Summer/winter diesel fuel: summer diesel fuel according to DIN 51 601 is supplied to petrol stations from spring to autumn without flow improvers. Summer diesel fuel would already start to wax and clog the fuel lines and filter at minimum negative temperatures. Therefore, in our country, even during the transition period, fuel with a small share of flow improvers enters the market. It retains the ability to pass through the filter down to approximately -10°C. According to DIN, winter fuel retains its flowability down to -12°C, in practice, winter diesel fuel can withstand negative temperatures down to approximately -22°C.
Knock resistance: the higher the compression ratio, the higher the thermal efficiency of the engine. But if the fuel in petrol engines is prone to spontaneous combustion, uncontrolled combustion occurs - the engine "rings". Super petrol withstands higher combustion pressures than regular petrol and is therefore less prone to spontaneous combustion. If you accidentally fill your Focus with regular petrol, your mistake will be paid for by a loud ringing sound when accelerating at full speed from low revs. Therefore, in order to avoid serious damage, the Zetec-SE engines in the Focus are equipped with knock sensors. As soon as the sensors register unusual vibration of the engine block, they gradually adapt the ignition timing to the poorer quality fuel. In this case, be more sensitive with the gas pedal and demand only medium revs from the engine. Improve the fuel as soon as possible by adding a few liters of super-plus petrol.
Octane number: denotes the detonation resistance of the fuel. At the petrol station, as a rule, you will come across the designation ROZ (research octane number), less often the specification MOZ (engine octane number). Octane values for the minimum requirements for unleaded petrol were previously recorded in Germany by the German Institute for Standardization (DIN) in the DIN 51 607 standard. Today, the European standard EN 228 is in effect.
The full article is on the online resource FordBook