Skoda YETI - 11-2009 Owner's Manual page 177

176 Driving and the Environment
Avoiding full throttle
Driving more slowly means saving fuel.
Sensitive use of the accelerator will not only significantly reduce fuel consumption but
also positively influence environmental pollution and wear of your vehicle.
You should avoid exploiting the top speed of your vehicle wherever possible. Fuel
consumption, pollutant emissions and vehicle noises increase disproportionally at
high speeds.
⇒ fig. 160
The shows the ratio between the fuel consumption and the speed of your
vehicle. You will cut your fuel consumption by half if you only make use three-quarters
of the possible top speed of your vehicle.
Reducing idling
Idling also costs fuel.
It is worthwhile switching off the engine in a traffic jam or when waiting at a level
crossing or at traffic lights with a lengthy red phase. Even after just 30 - 40 seconds you
will have saved more fuel than that is needed when you start the engine up again.
If an engine is only idling it takes much longer for it to reach its normal operating
temperature. Wear-and-tear and pollutant emissions, though, are particularly high in
the warming-up phase. This is why you should drive off right after starting the engine.
Do avoid high engine revolutions at this time, however.
Fig. 160 Fuel consumption in litres/100
km. and speed in km/h.
Regular servicing
A poorly tuned engine consumes an unnecessarily high amount of fuel.
Having your vehicle serviced regularly at a specialist garge enables you to satisfy one
of the requirements for economical motoring even before you set off on your journey.
Keeping your vehicle properly serviced not only has a positive effect on the safety of
your vehicle and maintaining its value, but also saves on fuel.
A poorly tuned engine can result in a fuel consumption which is 10% higher than
normal.
The foreseen maintenance work should be undertaken exactly according to the
Service schedule by a specialist garage.
Also check the oil level after refueling. Oil consumption is dependent to a consider-
able extent on the load and speed of the engine. Oil consumption could be as high as
0.5 litres/1 000 km depending on your style of driving.
It is quite normal that a new engine has a higher oil consumption at first, and reaches
its lowest level only after a certain running in time. It is therefore not possible to
correctly assess the oil consumption of a new vehicle until after you have driven about
5 000 km.
For the sake of the environment
•
You can achieve additional improvements in your fuel economy by using high-
lubricity oils.
•
Check the ground below your vehicle at regular intervals to detect any leakages in
good time. Please have your vehicle inspected by a specialist garge if you find any
stains caused by oil or other fluids on the floor.