Beginner’s guide: what is a four stroke engine and how does It work?
All cars and light trucks use four-stroke piston engines, whether burning gasoline or diesel. But what does that actually mean? Haynes explains.
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Beginner’s Guide: what is a throttle body and what does it do?
The throttle body controls how an engine breathes, and is critical for efficient combustion. Here's how it works with carburetors and fuel-injected engines, and how to fix it when it goes bad...
Beginner’s Guide: What Is a Car’s Heater Core (And What Does It Do)?
A heater core is very much just a smaller version of a radiator, but instead of being used to cool the coolant in the motor, it uses the heat from that coolant to warm the car’s interior. It works, in essence, by diverting coolant from the rest of the car’s cooling system. As the car’s engine warms...
Beginner's Guide: What Is an Electronic Parking Brake (and How Does It Work)?
An electronic handbrake, also known as an electronic parking brake, replaces a conventional manual handbrake or parking brake in a car, and is becoming more common on modern models.
Beginner’s Guide: What Is a Drive Axle (and What Does It Do)?
modern cars with independent rear suspension or front wheel drive have a much more complex axle with constant velocity (CV) joints on either end allowing them to steer and follow the contours of the road. This increased complexity means increased chance of something going wrong, but in return the...
Beginner’s Guide: What Is a Starter Motor (and What Does It Do)?
Once the engine in your car is started, as long as it receives air, fuel, and spark it will effectively run indefinitely without any assistance. This is why generators and irrigation pumps can be used in remote areas without an engineer tending them constantly. There has even been talk of using...
Beginner’s Guide: What Is Traction Control (and What Does It Do)?
A car’s traction control system uses a computer and the same sensors used for the anti-lock brakes to detect a difference in the speed of the wheels on the car. But instead of working to limit wheel lock-up when applying the brakes, traction control uses various methods to stop the wheels from...
Beginner’s Guide: What Is a Catalytic Converter (and What Does It Do)?
A vehicle’s catalytic converter changes carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC), and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) into less harmful pollutants like carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H20). Nearly all new cars in the US have used them since 1975. Almost every developed country in the 21st century requires...
Beginner's Guide: What Is a Timing Belt/Chain (and What Does It Do)?
The timing belt or chain in your car's engine keeps the opening of the valves properly timed with the motions of the pistons so they don't interfere with each other. To understand how it works and why, it may help to review how the typical four stroke engine works. All modern overhead cam...
Beginner's Guide: What Is a Rotary Engine (and How Does It Work)?
We have previously explained how four-stroke piston engines work, but that is not the only way to turn fuel and air into power. Perhaps the most unusual engine design to ever find its way into a production car, the Wankel Rotary Engine is elegant in its simplicity; it has about 75% less moving...