Questions tagged [theory]
Use this tag when the question is **primarily** about the underlying ideas behind how something works. This tag should be used in conjunction with another tag for the area of interest, for example [electrical] or [suspension]. It should not be used "stand alone." Please use the [engine-theory] tag for those questions.
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Why do the brakes "freeze" the suspension?
Last week I was driving a motorcycle. When I stopped at a traffic light I noticed the rear suspension dropped a little when I released the rear brake. Later I noticed my car did the same thing. When ...
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Turbo equivalent on electric motors
Is there anything functionally equivalent to a turbo for electric motors?
Obviously, I am not asking for something that reuses exhaust gases to force in more air, because there are no exhaust gases ...
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Is it possible to have a manual transmission electric car?
Reading about the new supercar from VW, I distinctly noticed when the author specifically mentioned shifting to "drive". I know the car in article is an automatic, but it got me thinking. Is it ...
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Why do electric motors produce peak torque instantly vs gasoline engines
On a separate forum, someone had asked why electric cars do not have transmissions.
The simple answer was that electric cars produce peak torque at any RPM but the gasoline engine needs to rev up to ...
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What is torque steer?
I saw an old Top Gear episode, and I think it was Jeremy who said something along the lines of
The torque steer is terrible
What is torque steer though?
Is it a bad thing?
Why does it happen?
...
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Purpose of small forward-facing deflectors in front of rear wheels
On many new vehicles there are small, forward-facing deflectors in front of the rear wheels that look like small splash guards. What is the purpose of these? I assume they are for aerodynamic (fuel-...
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How to convert Amp Hours to CCA?
Is there a formula for converting a battery amp hour rating, which is used in much of Europe and Asia, to an Cold Cranking Amps (CCA) rating?
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Multiple Batteries Charging
I have multiple batteries off from motorcycles, and each of them has it's own charge level (12-13 Volt measured at rest).
Assuming I have only one 12 Volt charger, can I charge them in parallel until ...
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What is surface charge and how does it affect battery testing?
I've read in numerous places that "surface charge" can give false positives when testing a battery, and you need to remove the said surface charge to get an accurate result. I've also read various ...
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Why does brake pedal ever move
I don't think my question has any connection to vehicle maintenance or repair but I think this is the closest site to my question topic.
My question may be arising from misunderstanding. For that I'm ...
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How do electric car transmission systems work?
How do electric car transmission systems work? Does it have an auto or manual gear concept like gasoline vehicles? As an electric motor can run in any speed (slow), is it necessary to have a clutch?
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Why does the impeller of a torque converter sit behind the turbine?
i saw this picture of a Chrysler A-727 TorqueFlite and it shows that the impeller actually comes after the turbine. Why is it done like this? Doesn't it make more sense to put the impeller before the ...
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Does electric fuel pumps run at constant or variable speed?
In websites I have seen that fuel pumps have a pressure range of say 30-95 psi. Why do they give a range of pressure? I had read that these pressure values refer to the unobstructed flow pressure ...
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Work over time; humans versus automobiles
I've been doing some research lately on torque and horsepower to understand how they are connected to one another.
Take my car, a 2.0 TDI, outputs 390 Nm torque. 390 Nm alone without considering an ...
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What does the hybrid engine do with surplus energy?
This question is based on Toyota Hybrid flyers / experience but I suppose it's meant to be general for hybrids?
The concept is to use electric motor for braking (therefore often the power of electric ...
user29536
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Can a lightning strike cause your car to not run?
If lightning strikes a tree in your yard and your car is close by, can this cause your car to not work properly? I had an employee call in stating that lightning struck a tree beside their mobile ...
Jackie G
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Can a Battery Conductance Test tell the difference between damaged plates and sulfation?
I'm just going to lay out my assumptions, or what I think I know, so that there's a better context for the question.
I understand that there are basically four main situations in which a standard ...
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How would a car handle differently if it had independent brake controls, like a pedal bike?
Facts - Cars have one brake pedal. Bikes have two brake levers.
So a cyclist can brake fully with the front or the rear, or some combination of both, or alternate between the brakes.
If a car had ...
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How does a timing light detect the electricity in the plug wire?
I assume that a timing light functions by some kind of inductive pickup and the signal is amplified by power from the battery and turned into a flash at the bulb.
But I was wondering, is it picking ...
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Oxygen sensor "clean air source"?
('07 Cobalt, Ecotec 2.2L)
I came on the text below in the AllData (paywalled) service manual. It seems like they're saying that ambient air comes into the exhaust 'oxygen' sensor (pic below) ... ...
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Why does the wheel size affect the cars gearing?
Using online gearing top speed calculators I realized that the bigger the diameter of the wheels, the higher the theoretical gearing top speed is. Why is that? Why does bigger wheel act as increasing ...
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Triangular/Parallel four-link suspension system, how it works
I've been really interested at car suspensions lately and this particular system confuses me the most...
Are they simple hinges or do they also move other ways than that the angle they're placed ...
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How is fuel pressure maintained when the pump isn't running?
Pretty simple question, if liquids are incompressible then how is fuel pressure "stored" when the fuel pump isn't running, i.e. after turning to run and waiting a few seconds, but not turning to start?...
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Why do hybrids have the aesthetic wheel cover on the body?
I've noticed that the manufacturers tend to cover the rear and/or front wheels on the hybrid models more often than the regular vehicles. Are there practical or functional reasons for the covers? Is ...
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How is automatic gliding realized with an automatic transmission?
It is generally accepted wisdom that it is a bad idea to coast or glide a car equipped with a conventional hydraulic automatic transmission. Coasting (running with an idling engine that is ...
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How do automatic cars rev match so quickly when up shifting?
In a manual car, when you up shift, you need to wait for the engine RPM to drop to a certain value so that the engine speed matches with the speed of the gears you want to shift into. On my manual car,...
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To ground or not To ground
Sure most cars have neg earth chassis return .Boats have single point ground so there are no hull currents to cause electrolytic corrosion .My question is about busses .They have been known to have ...
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Why doesn't polarity matter for fuel injectors?
Why doesn't polarity matter for fuel injectors? If they are essentially a solenoid, then it seems it would matter; swapping polarity would change the direction the electromagnet pulls or pushes.
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Does a dual-clutch transmission require synchronizer cones?
When you shift in a traditional manual transmission, the clutch is disengaged and a sleeve is shifted from one gear to another. The teeth of the sleeve must align with the teeth of the target gear. ...
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Why does a car push start?
A lot of people've been there. I also have done this (unfortunately). But why does this happen?
Procedure is very simple: turn the ignition on, engage 2nd gear, push the clutch in, get up to speed, ...
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What are the benefits of lowering a vehicle for racing
Lowering a vehicle affects many aspects related to suspension geometry and aerodynamics. I am trying to understand these phenomena better. Note that although my question sounds like an opinion, it's ...
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Does increasing final drive ratio actually improve overall acceleration?
Hopefully, this is the correct forum to ask this. There's lots of stuff online about final drive ratios, but not much with respect to actual acceleration times, and usually it's just anecdotal, butt-...
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Theoretical AWD question
Don't know if this is a right place to ask this.
So I know there's a difference between 4WD and AWD, and the difference being AWD has equal power distribution between front and rear axles right while ...
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Can car alternator be used to save fuel by using it as a regenerative system at the same time?
Car alternators are 3 phase DC excited synchronous electric machines. They can be used as a motor by a proper 3 phase motor driver.
Let's think that we connected a 200Ah Lithium based (eg. LiFePO4) ...
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Why doesn't applying the brake auto-apply the clutch in a manual transmission car?
This is more out of curiosity than anything. I've driven both manual and automatic vehicles, and it seems to me, that the hardest part of driving a manual vehicle is starting on an incline. The rest ...
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Will solid state EV batteries be chargeable using current chargers?
It seems that solid state batteries in EVs may be only a few years off. Does anyone know whether current charging systems/plugs will be capable of charging these batteries?
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How can a DCT be so fast and smooth during hard acceleration and high rpm shifting?
I know how a DCT works and what parts it has, but I've always wondered how it manages to shift very fast and still be smooth, while having little torque drop during shifts.In a manual transmission, ...
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A sprocket, sprocket-wheel or chainwheel is a "profiled wheel" with teeth that mesh with a chain, track or other perforated or indented material
What does "profiled wheel" mean in "a sprocket, sprocket-wheel or chainwheel is a profiled wheel with teeth that mesh with a chain, track or other perforated or indented material"? ...
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Dual brake calipers with one brake line?
A comment at the end of this ChrisFix video (at about 14:42): https://youtu.be/gjqeFEyaUxc?t=882 raised my eyebrows a tiny bit.
Chris says that you can run two brake calipers (two calipers on each of ...
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Questions about the clutch pilot bearing
I understand how the clutch system works in a manual transmission, but I'm struggling to get a proper image of what the pilot bearing does into my head. Does the input shaft always rest inside it, ...
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Why do most cars have positive offset wheels from the factory?
Most cars come with stock wheels that have very high positive offset.
Why was this design choice taken? Does it improve fuel economy or make it cheaper to manufacture?
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How does double clutching work if gears spin at different rpms?
I watched this video regarding double clutching, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tescWzTlGQ0, and while I understood the general principle, I’m confused as to why the different gears would start to ...
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Dry motorcycle clutch vs Wet motorcycle clutch discs material
I was wondering if the wet clutch discs on a motorcycle would be made out of the same friction material to the dry clutch discs. I understand this is probably not true, but does anyone know the exact ...
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What are diamond cut alloy wheels?
I'm thinking of buying a new car, and one of the options it has is diamond cut alloy wheels.
What's the difference between normal and diamond cut alloys?
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Bolt torque estimation based on angle and material
Is there a valid generic formula to roughly estimate a bolt's tightening torque similar to the "tighten by hand until seated, tighten XXX degrees more with your wrench"?
I have used for many ...
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Does a diameter of a brake line affect braking pressure
I am currently building a brake system for a vehicle ground up and I know that the diameter of the master cylinder would affect the braking force proportionally to the area of the master cylinder. But ...
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Idling a cold engine before driving away: contradictory advice
With modern combustion engines it is common advice that idling before driving away for more than a few seconds (to build up oil pressure) does more harm than good, even in "arctic" winter conditions (...
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What are Wheel ticks and Wheel impulses?
I have some Odometry data taken from a Volkswagen Passat which gives the position. This is calculated using wheel ticks and in addition, I also have data which gives me the number of wheel impulses at ...
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Why did old cars have really long throw shifters?
What was the reason that old cars had very long throw shifters and that modern cars now have much shorter throw shifters? For example even old sports cars like the urmodell generation of 911 had very ...
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How does an epicyclic differential split torque?
How does an epicyclic differential split torque even when rotating as a single locked unit with no relative motion between its parts? Should it not have 50/50 torque split because its all rotating as ...
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