Useful Car Facts

Common engines have up to eight pistons that slide up and down in cylinders. The combustion chamber is where fuel and air mix before they are ignited. A crankcase beside them is full of oil, keeping the engine lubricated. Generally, pistons have rings which keep the fuel components separated.

When pistons move up and down in cylinders, the crankshaft rotates, turning the piston motion into rotary motion.

This lets air and fuel in and out of the engine at the right times. It is composed of valves, rocker arms, pushrods, lifters, and the cam shaft.

This is where your fuel is stored.

These pump fuel to the engine, using a number of different processes.

Filters clean the fuel so that it does not clog the fuel injectors in the engine.

The fuel injector is a device that pushes fuel into the cylinder so it can be ignited.

This mixes air and fuel into and explosive combination.

A complex device to measure the amount of air in the exhaust, it balances the amount of fuel and air getting into the engine.

A converter reduces harmful emissions from the car, and cleans exhaust fumes.

These reduce the level of sound produced by an engine.

The exhaust pipe carries fumes out through the tail pipe of the car.

A water cooled engine contains the engine's water jacket, a thermostat, a water pump, a radiator and radiator cap, a cooling fan (electric or belt-driven), hoses, the heater core, and an overflow tank.

Manual cars have "Gearboxes" that usually have four or five speeds, and often have an overdrive, which means that the output shaft can turn faster than the input shaft for fuel economy on the road.

Automatic cars commonly use three forward gears to blend speed and pushing power.

The first part of the electrical system is the battery. The next part is the starter motor, which is used to start the engine. The third component is a charging device powered by the engine, known as the alternator. It powers the electrical system when the car is running, and restores the charge within the battery.

In most braking systems, the brake pedal is connected to a master cylinder by a push rod. The master cylinder is connected to the brake cylinders (slave cylinders) at each wheel by brake lines and rubber hoses. The entire hydraulic system is filled with brake fluid, which is forced through the system by the movement of the master cylinder pistons.

The body shell is a complex assortment of large steel sections. These sections have been stamped into shapes which make up the body of your car. These parts are designed to do many jobs at once; protect the occupants from the elements and in collisions, provide solid mounts for all other systems, and to slice through the air with minimal resistance.

Suspension refers to the use of front and rear springs to suspend a vehicle's weight. The springs used on today's cars and trucks are constructed in a variety of types. These include leaf springs, coil springs, air springs, and torsion bars. These are used in sets of four for each vehicle, or they may be paired off in various combinations and are attached by several different mounting techniques.

The suspension system has two main functions, to keep the car's wheels in firm contact with the road and to provide a comfortable ride for the passengers. A lot of the system's work is done by the springs. Under normal conditions, the springs support the body of the car evenly by compressing and rebounding with every up-and-down movement. This up-and-down movement, however, causes bouncing and swaying after each bump and is very uncomfortable to the passenger. These undesirable effects are reduced by the shock absorbers.