Thursday, October 10, 2013

Other than the starting and stopping an engine, what exactly makes the instrument panel lights go off?

luxury cars electric on Bugatti: luxury from cars to toasters - 411 Buy it Now
luxury cars electric image



Lester H


I am researching development of a Hybrid Electric Vehicle and I am trying to determine if power provided by an alternator from an electric motor to the battery or wiring harness will cause the dash lights to go off as it would normally when the engine is started. I want to turn the ignition to the on position and have the dash lights go off, instead of remaining on and hearing a chime. What is the actually electronic action that terminates the lamps and chime from working when a vehicle is started?


Answer
I'm having a little trouble figuring out what you want to do.

When the ignition key is set to ON various systems perform a self test. Part of the self test is to light the idiot lights on the dash make sure they are working and not burned out.

The oil pressure light comes on because the engine is not running causing no oil pressure. Once the engine is started the oil pressure comes up and when it reaches a set point the light goes off. If the pressure is below or falls below the set point the light will come on. The alternator light comes on because the alternator is not spinning generating electricity. The air bag light comes on during the self test and goes out if the test passes, the service engine light is the same way.

As for the chime it usually sounds because the seat belt isn't fastened. I've never owned a luxury car so I don't know about any other sounds that are made.

If you just want to listen to the radio you set the key to the ACCessory position. This leaves the engine and driving systems off conserving power.

What kind of new car technology means - hybrid, crossover, diesel, etc?




thomasthef


There are so many different cars out there now. I don''t plan to buy one soon but I'm having curiosity about things like hybrid, electric, hydrogen - as well as smart cars, crossovers - as well as diesel, unleaded, premium gasoline. What's with all these choices? Couldn't they agree on one! Thanks!!! Cheers!


Answer
Hybrid cars are cars that run on two sources of energy.
The first Hybrid was the Honda Insight in 2001 in America. It was a gas-electric hybrid. This means it used an electric motor when driving slow and a gas engine when driving fast. It got 60mpg city and 66mpg highway. The most popular Hybrid right now is the ugliest. The Toyota Prius.

Crossover is an SUV sitting on car chassis. The Honda CR-V is an AWD, higher, bigger Honda Civic. The Toyota Rav4 is sitting on Toyota Corolla chassis. The new Toyota Venza is a taller Toyota Camry, and so on.Crossovers hae been around for at least 2 years, but they are not getting more popular because of gas mileage.

Diesel is a different type of engine. This has been around for over 100 years. It is just starting to become popular in America, but just about every car sold in Europe has a Diesel engine option. Diesel engines work different than gas engines. They are much better on gas/petrol and they are used for towing heavy things. That is why Semi trucks and Lori's have Diesel engines. They are very reliable too. But they are slow cars and Diesel costs more than gas these days.

Electric cars are cars that run on just electricity. They use thousands of laptop computer batteries that would make the car last 40-200 miles before needing a recharge. Recharging is just plugging them into the wall and waiting 10-15 hours.

Hydrogen cars are cars that are powered by Hydrogen gas. This is highly compressed water. Right now, the only Hydrogen powered car in production is the Honda FCX Clarity. It is only sold in California because California is the only place with Hydrogen filling stations. Hydrogen cars make no pollution. All that comes out of the exhaust system is water that you could drink. They are very clean cars, but expensive to make. Hydrogen cars are also known as Fuel Cell cars.

Unleaded gas is gas that most cars use. When a car says to use unleaded fuel, they mean do NOT use Diesel. If you put Diesel in a gas car, you will break your car. There are many type if unleaded fuel. Regular(80-86 octane), Midgrade(88-89), Premium(90-93), Super(95-96) and Race(100+ octane). Cars with Turbochargers, superchargers, or powerful engines require premium fuel. All luxury cars like Acura's, Lexus, Infiniti, Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Lincoln, Mercedes, and others all require premium fuel. Honda Civic Si and VW GTI and Nissan 350z and almost all sports cars require premium fuel. Higher octane basically means beter quality. Putting Premium fuel in a car that just needs regular fuel does NOT make it more reliable or get better fuel economy. All it does is add about 5HP more to cars that recommend regular fuel.

Air powered cars are cars that run on compressed air. The compressed air is what moves the cylinders in the engine to make the car move. They could travel about 200 miles before needing more air. These cars are only sold in India so far. They have been around a few years.

Smart is a company made by Mercedes Benz. They make 3 cars. The Smart Fortwo, Smart Forfour, and Smart Roadster. In America, we only have the Smart Fortwo, which actually came out in 1998 in Europe. It is an old design. It is a regular gas powered car with a small 3 cylinder engine. It only has 70HP and is now the slowest new car in America. With its lightweight and small engine, you would expect it to be great on gas, but it is NOT. It gets 41 miles per gallon at best. A Honda Civic almost gets that. And the Smart Fortwo only seats 2 people. They are very unreliable and break down a lot. They use Premium gas. They are expensive to maintain. They are very bad cars. Old technology.




Powered by Yahoo! Answers

No comments:

Post a Comment