Tire Care & Miles Per Gallon: Green Driving Tips

Video Transcript

Your tires are important, because if they're not properly aired up, you hear roaring resistance which means you're getting less fuel efficiency. This is an easy one. Once a week, check your tire pressure. Use a gauge like this. It tells how many pounds per square inch are in the tires. If it's low, and you'll know when you reference your owner's manual, then fill it up. That's all you have to do and you're ready to roll. You can also use fancier gauges. Here's a digital one. And, in fact, you can get ones that talk to you in English or Spanish. However you do it, keeping track of tire pressure is important. Now, there are fancy ways to do this. A lot of cars have an option. A carbon monitoring system where the tires actually use sensors that are intimate to gauges in the car that tell you what your pressure is. It's really kind of a passive system. You'll know about it if the light goes off and it will warn you that it's low. If your car does not pick it up, you can buy an after market one. Here's one by Hella. You can order that now, or you can get it at car auto parts stores. Not a problem. It's one of those things where you are really serious about fuel efficiency, and you're serious about pressure, you might want to look into it. Best tip; check your air pressure weekly. Remember, it's best to do it when your tires are cold. Now we all know you fill your tires with air. But do you really? Some people fill them with nitrogen. It's an interesting thing. It's used in racing. It's used in large earth movers, and there's studies that show in some instances, that that can save on fuel efficiency. One of the interesting things, too is that nitrogen doesn't change pressure like air does with heat and cold. It's pretty constant. Stays at one pressure. You won't have as much of an issue with keeping it at a certain tire pressure with maximum fuel economy. Now, if you're gonna be replacing your tires, you might want to be thinking about the new generation of low growing resistance tires that have a compound that rolls along with much less resistance on the road, while still giving you the traction you need. Less resistance means less energy is needed to move forward. That means better fuel economy. And a warning, don't over inflate your tires. Check your owner's manual. It's a safety issue. It's not good if your tires are overinflated.

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