Whether you are a keen driver or not, it’s useful to have a good understanding of the fuel that your vehicle uses. The fuel is one of the most important features of your vehicle and of driving in general, and understanding more about it is always going to bring about huge improvements in your experience of driving generally. In this post, we’ll take a look at a few of the most essential things you need to know about fuel – so you can make the most of it, improve your driving experience and generally feel more clued up about it.
It’s Not Oil
One of the mistakes that people sometimes make is thinking that fuel and oil are one and the same, or that they do sort of the same thing. But this just isn’t true. In fact, they have completely distinct functions within the motor vehicle. Oil helps to lubricate the engine and keeps it working fluidly, whereas fuel is what the car actually uses to function. If you were to put oil in the fuel tank or vice versa, you could end up in a serious situation indeed – and quite an expensive one to fix as well!
Petrol Versus Diesel
You might have wondered why it is that some cars take petrol and others take diesel. The difference is to do with the kind of engine that your vehicle has – with a diesel engine only being able to take diesel, and a petrol one only working on petrol. If you put the wrong fuel in your car, you can end up in an extremely dangerous situation – possibly even causing an explosion – so it is clearly very important to make sure you are using the right fuel. This is the kind of mistake you don’t want to make ever.
Storing Fuel
If you want to store extra fuel, perhaps so that you can more easily recover should you run out while on the road, then you will need to ensure you do so safely and properly. Again, you might cause yourself a lot of trouble if you don’t do this right, so it’s something that you are going to want to think about. The simple solution is to store spare fuel in specially-made fuel tanks – these are going to help protect against fire and other disasters, so it’s really vital that you are doing that.
Fuel Economy
Finally, let’s look briefly at fuel economy. Essentially this refers to how much fuel your vehicle is using in comparison to how far it gets you, and you obviously want it to be as affordable as possible. There are many ways to improve fuel economy. You can buy a car that is newer – this will always use fuel more efficiently. Or you can change how you drive, limiting your braking and not accelerating too fast, and changing gears at the right moments too. All of that will ensure you use less fuel, and keep you from spending too much on it too.
