Here’s an easy 3%: drive as straight as possible on all straight sections, change lanes seldom, cut all corners as much as you can and still stay on the pavement. I proved this back in the days when economy runs were popular…it doesn’t improve your MPG figure, but it uses less gas if you drive less miles. And from our “shortest-distance rallies”, we learned to take a dirt road if it means a shorter route; plan two stops near to each other, stop once and walk to the second one.
I’m not sure how much friction reduction in engine would translate into MPG increase, but 10-20% seems to be WAY TOO MUCH and sounds like a sales gimmick.
Watch for magicians’ hands closely: friction is reduced 10-20% directly translating into MPG increase… HOW MUCH INCREASE ?!?
Most of engine output is going not to fight the friction in the engine itself, but friction of the car against the air, road, “pumping losses” and all friction losses in transaxle and accessories.
So, even if somehow friction in the engine is reduced twice fold, unlikely it will give more than 1% MPG increase.
What is more troublesome in “friction reducers”, it is that many of them are actually accelerating the metal wear. I’ve read it in “The Motor Oil Bible” before, then followed long discussion threads where people knowing how the actual chemistry works explained how it is one or another: either you go for super-click or for longevity. Unless some “miracle” was developed, I would not use one for questionable result vs. likely harm
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Are you sure you don’t want to rethink that?
1mpg saved by a Suburban saves exactly the same amount of gas as 1mpg saved by a Prius. The percentage of improvement is different, but the gas quantity saved is exactly the same.
I do that so I can take corners faster and conserve my momentum.
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Nope. Let’s take say mpgs go from 16 to 17 or 49 to 50. For the Suburban in 1000 miles it’ll save 3.7 gallons. The Prius would save 0.4 gallons over the same 1000 miles. That’s why a few mpg difference in a high mpg car aren’t near the difference as they would be in a Suburban.
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You’re right. I have seen the error of my ways.
Mea Culpa. 
Just for future reference: There are a number of things that could be done tire-wise - BUT - they won’t work for this Suburban.
First is going up in tire size. There is a small percentage MPG improvement in a slightly larger tire - all other things being equal. The problem for this Suburban is the OE wheel isn’t wide enough to accommodate a larger tire. So unless the OP is considering changing wheels ($$!!), that isn’t an option.
Second is selecting a tire with low rolling resistance. Try an All Season tire and stay away from All Terrain tires (but towing a boat usually means you need A/T tires).
Look for tires labeled LRR or some version of ECO Friendly. Those will have lower rolling resistance than comparable non-LRR tires - BUT - LRR is a relative term and some tires will have lower RR but not have that label. Unfortunately, this Suburban has LT tires and there just aren’t a lot of LT tires with low RR.
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I prefer to crunch the numbers as gallons per 10,000 miles to demonstrate the principle:
-An improvement from 49 to 50 MPG saves 4.08 gallons per 10,000 miles.
-An improvement from 32 to 33 MPG saves 9.47 gallons per 10,000 miles.
-an improvement from 15 to 16 MPG saves 41.67 gallons per 10,000 miles.
At $2.65/gallon, the dollars saved from a 1 MPG improvement end up being $10.81, $25.09, and $110.42, respectively.
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I like that analysis, @Whitey It very clearly shows the yearly savings.
Either way, the savings is still not significant. If there truly is a low cost miracle to improve your mileage 1 mpg on the surburban, then that is great. Typically, people will spend huge money on tires/wheels, free flow exhaust, cold air intake, etc. Many of these options will take 40K miles to recoup the upfront cost to save that 1 MPG.
As you can imagine from my username, I did a DIY conversion to LPG. My conversion cost was about $600. I drove it for 150K miles on propane before the car was beyond economic repair at a total of 270K miles. Currently LPG is about $1/ gallon. In my commuter camry, my payback was only 10 weeks at the time (gas cost was about $3.25 and propane was $1.15). After that I was saving hundreds per week running on propane. After my proof of concept worked out, I started to buy my propane in bulk 2,500 gallons at a time (cheapest year recently was $0.69/gal) and store it in my 3,000 gallon tank (tank is 30’ long and about 5’ tall mounted on I beam skid) and fill from home. Nice thing is the conversion is dual fuel and will run on either propane or gasoline.
I searched for many alternatives to save, including CNG. I decided on LPG due to the huge range, lower conversion cost, no expensive home filling station (I use a $100 transfer hose for LPG). The tank I installed in my trunk gave me a 500 mile range on propane compared to 200 mile range on CNG. I would still run some gasoline but it was about a tank every 15,000 miles.
I don’t think we should decide on the OP’s behalf whether $110/year is significant. If his finances are super tight, $110 can go a long way towards helping with other expenses. (…and yes, I know that’s only $9.17/month.)
I agree that the savings maybe more significant to one person over another. But the point is that if there is a miracle MPG saver in a $5 can, then that would result in a significant savings. But if you have to buy new new rear end gear at the cost of $400, then the savings is not significant since it would take almost 4 years to recoup that investment. That might be worth it if the surburban has a 6+ years life left in it.
The simple way to realize more savings is to limit driving the suburban and try and drive about 55 MPG with hypermiling driving is the simple to savings in fuel.
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a couple of friends of mine- one with an 02 Suburban, and the other with a 10 Silverado- both recently added electric cooling fans to their vehicles and have touted MPG increases. I haven’t done any kind of research on this myself, and the one has had some a/c issues due to goofy wiring, but that is an option I suppose.
I’d say 16mpg with a Suburban full of passengers is pretty good. I personally wouldn’t tweak much.
andriy.fomenko Can you read? I did not state it reduces friction by 20%. The Company That Produces the product may be able to elaborate with proven ASTM tests they performed. I maintain my vehicles per the manufacturers specifications, and replace tires and parts per those specifications, and burn the specified fuel. I drive the vehicle the same way every time I drive. I have experienced a 2.5 mile per gallon increase in mileage over 6,200 miles since the addition of the oil additive, and fuel up at the same CITCO Station. The variable was the additive. I am a retired Mechanical Engineer and have always used data obtained to come to a conclusion. I performed the testing for my self and have come to a conclusion. The product “Stiction Eliminator” reduces friction by removing oil born contaminates as it was developed to do. That build up comes from years of combustion within the engine. By removing that, the engine performs as it did before all the contaminates built up within the engine. My Compression Ratio is still 22.7 to 1, meaning the engine can operate as it was designed and built to. The product is not as you have called it a common friction fluid reducer, such as a tinner of the oil viscosity. Read about the product and try it your self before you condemn it. It is your loss of benefit and not mine.
How did you eliminate all the other variables one would encounter outside a laboratory environment? How did you manage to drive the exact same way every time in spite of differences in traffic, weather, and other variables people encounter each day?
I’m no engineer, but your continued promotion of this miracle in a bottle, and your reaction to understandable skepticism, have me skeptical.
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If you’re getting over 0.2mpg improvement…it’s a Miracle additive.
EVERY SINGLE Oil additive on the market that claims better gas mileage says it’s a friction reducer.
I’m EXTREMELY skeptical. There have been DOZENS of these Friction reducers since the first oil embargo in the 70’s. Not one ever worked. Car manufacturers spend MILLIONS of dollars in research to squeeze every bit of MPG out of each and every vehicle. Then along comes this miracle additive that all you have to do is add it to the engine oil and a whopping 5% mpg increase. Tell the car manufacturers…they could save MILLIONS on R&D.
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We already have a friction reducer for engines, it is called motor oil. I also don’t want to read any tests performed by the company selling the tested product.
Remember Slick 50? Big claims, thoroughly debunked.
I might have a Fish carb someplace in my junk pile, hey , if you are going to dream, dream big.
All this nonsense comes from the barroom wisdom that the car manufacturers are in cahoots with the oil companies to prevent people from getting good gas mileage.
The truth is car companies would pay millions for anything that gave them a mpg advantage over their competition.
We can tell if I am wrong, if what you claim is true, this miracle formula will be in the crankcase of every car in the country by next year.
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If that were true, they would all be using computer controlled, solenoid actuated valves instead of timing belts/chains and camshafts.
No they wouldn’t. Car companies have experimented with that over the years…and not proven reliable enough. Great concept…but not ready for primetime.
They didn’t try hard enough.