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Understanding How Your Car’s Ignition System Works

Your vehicle’s ignition system is responsible for generating the spark that ultimately turns your wheels. To understand how this occurs, it’s worth reviewing what happens in your engine.

Your engine has a number of cylinders (i.e. 4, 6, 8, etc.). Each cylinder has a combustion chamber to which air and fuel are sent. Once the air and fuel have entered the chamber, the intake and exhaust valves close, and the mixture is compressed and ignited. The resulting explosion pushes a piston within the chamber downward, which generates force on your car’s crankshaft. That force causes the crankshaft to turn. As it does, it turns your wheels.

A spark is needed in order to ignite the air-fuel mixture within the combustion chamber. That spark originates from your ignition coil.

Your Ignition Coil

Most people mistakenly believe their car’s battery generates sufficient voltage to produce a spark for each cylinder’s combustion chamber. In reality, it doesn’t. Instead, the ignition coil receives power from the battery and converts it into a powerful spark. It accomplishes this through coils known as windings.

A primary winding gathers the necessary power from the battery. A secondary winding transfers that power to your vehicle’s distributor.

Your Distributor

Your vehicle’s distributor is responsible for distributing the sparks sent from the ignition coil to each of your engine’s cylinders. It accomplishes this through a rotor. The rotor is connected the distributor’s shaft and spins, making contact with a number of terminal points in the distributor cap. The number of points within the cap reflects the number of cylinders in your engine.

As a connection is made with the contact point, the distributor sends the spark to the corresponding spark plug wire.

Creating The Explosion

Each plug wire is connected to a spark plug. The spark plug sits in the cylinder head at the top of a combustion chamber. When the plug wire receives a spark from the distributor, the spark travels through the spark plug and ignites the air-fuel mixture within the chamber.

The process described above occurs thousands of times each minute while you’re on the road. Precise timing in the delivery of the sparks is critical to your engine’s performance. This is usually controlled by your vehicle’s engine control unit (ECU).

If the distributor begins to fail, the timing of the sparks can become erratic. That will affect the efficiency of your car’s engine and lower your gas mileage. If the erratic timing persists while your engine is under heavy load, it can result in spark knock. That can lead to expensive engine damage.

Your car’s ignition system relies on a number of parts that suffer wear and tear with use. Plan to eventually replace the ignition coil, distributor, cap, rotor, spark plugs, and plug wires to maintain your engine’s performance.

Hybrid Cars

The 5-Minute Guide To Understanding Hybrid Vehicles

Cars that are environmentally friendly were once a novelty. If you observed one on the road, you’d instinctively look at the driver to see whether he or she matched the stereotypical hybrid owner (upscale, chic, and fashionable). Today, sales of this type of automobile are outpacing sales of gas-powered vehicles. Most people have realized that not only are hybrids more friendly to the environment, but they’re also more fuel-efficient.

In this article, we’ll explore how these cars work. We’ll take a close look at how the technology generates the necessary energy and torque for driving. I’ll also describe the two different ways in which carmakers are designing their powertrains.

A Blend Of Two Technologies

Hybrids generate energy and torque using a two-pronged approach. A motor that is powered by a battery (or dual batteries) sits alongside a conventional engine that is powered by gasoline. The batteries are charged by the gas-powered engine. That’s why this type of vehicle does not need to be plugged into an outlet like electric automobiles.

Your car’s computer controls the operation of both parts of the system based upon the output needed. For example, when you’re idling at a stop sign or traffic light, the computer will shut the gasoline engine off and let the battery take over. When you accelerate, the computer will automatically trigger the engine again to provide the needed boost. Then, once you reach a steady speed, it finds the most efficient balance between the two components. As a result, the energy output and torque are produced efficiently, which helps conserve fuel.

Toyota Vs. Honda: Different Types

Even though hybrids are popular, the technology is still maturing. Because the industry has yet to agree on one path toward delivering a seamless driving experience using hybrid technology, automakers are employing different approaches.

For example, Toyota Prius is a “pure” approach. If the computer determines that the gas-powered engine is unnecessary, it is turned off and the electric motor is allowed to operate the car exclusively. By contrast, Honda has designed some of their vehicles to employ both components in generating the required energy and torque. But, the electric motor is never allowed to run exclusively. Having said that, Honda seems to be switching gears with their latest Honda Civic models. Once you reach a steady speed, the electric motor takes over completely.

Maintenance And Repairs

When the technology first debuted, a common criticism was that repairs were expensive and many independent garages were unable to perform them. That has largely changed. Normal maintenance items, such as brake jobs, oil and filter changes, tire rotations, and servicing the shocks can be performed by any mechanic. But, some of the electronics will still need to be serviced by the auto technicians at your dealership.

Hybrids are here to stay. The technology offers too many advantages over the sole use of traditional gas engines. The good news is that their increasing popularity has motivated automakers to expand their inventories. That will eventually lower prices, allowing more drivers to get behind the hybrid wheel.

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Exploring The Fundamentals Of HEVs

When the internal combustion engine was first invented in the late 19th century, it proved to be the driving force behind a century of transportation advancement. However, today’s automobile has changed little from that original concept, save minor performance enhancements and efficiency upgrades. In the 1990s, that picture changed with the wide-ranging success of the hybrid electric vehicle, or HEV.

An HEV is a car that combines a traditional engine with a large electric motor, enabling the vehicle to save fuel, pollute less, and reduce roadway noise. These types of vehicles are offered by nearly all major auto manufacturers, and provide the average consumer with a means to help the environment.

Hybrid Drivetrain

HEVs can be divided into two distinct categories: series and parallel. The first vehicle type, series, means that the engine powers a generator that either drives an electric motor or charges the battery bank. From the motor, the power transfers to the transmission and on to the wheels.

At low speeds, approximately 20 MPH or less, the engine will switch off and run in all-electric mode until the battery runs out, at which point the engine will restart in order to compensate. In addition to charging the battery via the engine, series cars also use regenerative breaking. Regenerative breaking is a technology that draws on the energy traditionally lost during braking and uses it to recharge the battery.

The second hybrid design is known as a parallel layout. In parallel vehicles, the engine and motor both interface with the transmission, which then transfers power to the wheels. The batteries in this type are recharged largely by regenerative breaking, but can also be fueled by the engine as well. Because the motor in this design is meant to supplement the engine, these cars are rarely able to enter into all-electric mode.

Hybrid Types

Besides drivetrain differences, hybrids are generally classified in two other categories: full and power assist.

Full HEVs are able to run on the engine or just the battery. For example, the Toyota Prius operates in five modes: electric vehicle mode, cruise mode, battery charge mode, power boost mode, and negative split mode. Depending on road load conditions, the power distribution will vary in order to maintain maximum efficiency.

Power assist cars use the engine as the main power source, with a motor installed to provide an extra burst of power when needed. A subset of power assist vehicles, known as mild hybrids, use oversized starter motors to shutdown the engine when coasting and braking.

That’s a brief overview of HEVs. They have become increasingly popular for their fuel efficiency and lower emissions. In a future column, we’ll explore the motor in more detail.

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