2002 Ford Escort - Will radio waste fuel

Maintenance/Repairs
1

Will a cassette in a radio adapter for aux waste a lot of fuel?

2

OK , I don’t know who told you that but the answer is No. It won’t even make the alternator work harder .

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3

Not enough for you to measure it. It could not come close to a hundredth of a mile a gallon.

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4

that depends. What is a ‘cassette’???

:smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

5

Well, the energy has to come from somewhere. The alternator performs that function. To your point, the amount is minuscule to the point of being a non-issue.

Besides, to the OP, one could argue about what constitutes a “waste of fuel” in the first place. The entire car is a waste of energy because for most, it isn’t actually essential but rather a convenience. If you’re so concerned, you could walk


6

Yes, probably on the order 3 drops per 10,000 miles.

7

  1. In theory the car will use a very, very, very minute amount of extra fuel the alternator will have to work harder (again by a very, very, very small amount) in order to provide the extra watt or two of power than the adapter will need to function. The extra amount of fuel it will use will be so small that it’s practically impossible to measure accurately. What you had for breakfast will have a greater effect on fuel economy that this will.

  2. What do you mean by “waste alot of fuel”? As long as your car is not leaking fuel and is running properly it’s not “wasting” fuel. It’s “using” fuel. Some cars use more fuel than others, and some driving habits can use more fuel than others in exchange what the driver is trying to accomplish. For example if someone’s goal was to peel away from a traffic light in a cloud of tire smoke, that’s going to use for more fuel than pulling away from a light in a far more conservative manner, but if the driver’s goal was to in fact leave strips of melted rubber on the road, then the fuel wasn’t “wasted” because that’s what the driver’s intention was in the first place. Likewise if for some reason your adapter actually did make a measurable difference in fuel economy (and it was designed and expected to do so), then by using you wouldn’t be “wasting” fuel, you’d just be “using” fuel. Sorry for the mini-rant, I just find the general misuse of some terms to be annoying.

8

Because you’re using the cassette tape adapter, and the tape player has moving parts, the answer is yes, you’ll use more gas than if you played the radio. However, it’s such a small amount of gas I wouldn’t worry about it.

9

If you leave your motor running while rewinding the cassette using a pencil or extracting the chewed up tape from your player
yes.

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10

And while walking they could use a ‘Walkman’.

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11

My grandpa used to have all these odd habits to save electricity and fuel. He went through life worrying about every little thing that cost money but had plenty of money and didn’t need to do this. They could have been enjoying retirement by traveling to Florida or some other warm place in the winter. Instead they were just sitting at home with the heat at the lowest setting which basically kept the pipes from breaking but were shivering under blankets. He seemed to find the lowest wattage lights somewhere and you could barely see when you turned on the lights. They didn’t need to be doing this as money wasn’t an issue.

You can instead not worry about about the MINUSCULE amount of extra gas used to run that cassette player and enjoy this vintage technology as much as you want. OR you can upgrade to a modern digital setup with no moving parts, greater reliability, and better sound. Of course that will cost money!

12

As long as we are off topic, remembering grandmothers sister, she grew up with gas lamps, had every electric socket with something in it or electricity would run out all over the floor