Things You'll Need:
- car odometer in good working order
- calculator
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Step 1
The next time you visit a gas station, fill your car's tank to capacity and note the mileage on your car at that point in time.
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Step 2
Drive as usual, until your tank is on empty or near that point.
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Step 3
Again, fill your tank to capacity, noting the number of gallons it took to do that and the mileage on your car at the time of this second fill-up.
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Step 4
Subtract the mileage at your second fill-up from the mileage of your first to determine the number of miles you drove on that tank of gas.
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Step 5
Divide the miles you drove by the number of gallons it took to fill up your tank the second time.
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Step 6
Congrats, you now know the number of miles per gallon you are getting with your car.












Comments
SharonJeanne said
on 1/8/2009 Great article! Very important and useful information.
sunshine11219 said
on 1/7/2009 good to know
ahoier said
on 12/21/2008 I usually just reset my trip meter every fill-up. I've also learned to keep a pen in my glove box, and I'll note my trip meter reader, and Odometer reading on the back of the receipt.
But yea, if you notice a drastic decrease in gas mileage, it's likely time for a tune-up, new tires/air/alighnment/rotation/balance (or all of the above), or perhaps you just got some bad gas (pick a different station next fill up).
When I'm around town, I've leaned towards only going to three different gas stations, so if I do get a problem down the road, I can figure out what station caused it :)
WickerWoman said
on 7/14/2008 Thanks for the refresher course, my dad also taught me this method of calculating gas mileage years ago. Those trip odometers really help.
heatherschulte said
on 7/9/2008 Exactly how my dad taught me to do it. Nice work.