Does starting a car use a lot of gas?

Question

Sometimes when I frequently turn off my car and come back and turn it on the needle looks like it goes down a good bit. Not a lot or anything but more than I would think. Am I just being stupid, do I need new spark plugs or something, or does it really just use a bit of gas? Thanks.

Answer 1

What you're seeing on the fuel gage is a temporary impedance differential due to static discharge. When it settles down, you're probably getting a fairly accurate reading.



A car does use more gas to start than to run, but not so much you'd see it register on the gage.

Answer 2

You forget the needle is electrical. You use battery juice up to start the car(a couple hundred amps) and the alternator feeds it back at a rate of maybe 50 amps /hour. I always shut mine off because I want the car to be there when I leave the store. You always should change spark plugs once a year and the air cleaner every second year.

Answer 3

starting your car takes about as much gas as it would if you were to idle for 10 seconds



gas gauges are inaccurate



mine does it too, if if i go to start my car again after i just turned it off, the gas gauge will go down, but usually fixes itself after driving a little ways

Answer 4

This is not true, when your driving some car's gas gages the gage doesn't move accurately toward empty until you shut the car off.

Answer 5

the average for what it takes to start a vehicle is an ounce of fuel.This is an average, though.If you have a 4 cylinder, it probably takes less, if you have a v8 or v10 it probably takes more.I do agree with another posting, though about the starter wearing quicker.

Answer 6

on most cars exept the Mazda Miata,Mini Cooper, 3 Series BMW and Lamborghini gallardo those cars run on semen since theyre made for homosexuals

Answer 7

your not using that much more gas. it,s just that the needle is moving.

Answer 8

No you don't use more gas. You put excessive wear on the starter though.

Answer 9

just uses gas

Answer 10

no it uses gas while parked. it should have the same amount of fuel when you shut it off.

Answer 11

does not us much at all to start up the car.

Answer 12

Yes it does, so does small jouneys.

Answer 13

every stroke cycle the intake valve puts a very small spray of gas into the combustion chamber, so it uses the same no matter wat