Basic Automobiles: Power Steering
Basic Automobiles: Power Steering
Basic Automobiles: Power Steering
Basic Automobiles
Introduction
This document attempts to describe everyday use of an automobile. The class of automobile considered is an average performance, front-wheel drive consumer vehicle.
Accelerator
The accelerator, also known as the gas pedal controls the engine output. Pressing the accelerator increases the revolutions of the engine, mainly by allowing more air to enter the combustion chambers, or the cylinders, per revolution. The revolutions for various stages in this section depend on the engine, and every engine has a unique set of values. The tachometer gives the value of engine speed at any time. However, an experienced driver is supposed to know the speed of the engine without taking eyes off the road. When the car is first started, the engine moves at a speed called the idle speed. Many consumer cars provide means of changing the idle speed of the engine. Say the idle speed of an engine is 1000 rpm (revolutions per minute). There is a minimum speed below which the engine will not fire, called the stall speed, and would be about 750 rpm for our engine. The other bounding value for the engine speed is called the red line. This is the maximum speed at which the engine can safely operate. For our engine, it is about 7000 rpm. Thus, it is the job of the driver to make sure that the engine speed stays between the stall speed and the red line.
Steering
Almost all the vehicles on the road today have some sort of steering wheel which is used to turn the tires. Typically, a rack and pinion mechanism is used which will turn the tires by a few degrees for several rotations of the steering wheel. Some vehicles have a dead zone at the center of the rack, so that you don't have to constantly adjust the steering while driving on the highway. In the normal position, both hands should be on the wheel in the 10-2 position. To make a turn in a vehicle, rotate the steering wheel at the start of the turn. To make a turn to the left while moving forward, move your left hand to the top of the wheel, and pull down to the left. At the same time, let the wheel run through your right hand. As you near the end of the turn, steady the vehicle by moving your right hand to the top of the wheel and pulling down and right. Do not allow the wheel to spin back on its own! Even though this is very tempting, if you do, you will very likely lose control of the vehicle. You should have the wheels straightened when the turn is complete, or the vehicle will travel in an S shape, which is bad form. Most consumer vehicles are understeered, as it is easier to handle for novices and unskilled drivers. Also, it is difficult to achieve neutral or oversteer in front wheel drive vehicles.
Power Steering
Most modern vehicles marketed towards the average consumer has some sort of power steering installed. This means that the actual task of turning the wheels is performed by indirect means. Power steering is not preferred in racing cars as they reduce road feedback. However, it is much appreciated by the general public, especially for low speed maneuvers. New technology has come up with a very good solution--the speed sensitive power steering. This kind of power steering gives effortless low speed maneuvers, but firms up at higher speeds so that you can judge the grip of the tires accurately. In general, there are two kinds of power steerings available--hydraulic power steering and electronic power steering. Electronic power steering is the more advanced of the two and is found in more advanced/modern vehicles. However, the feedback in hydraulic power steering is much better, so that driving is much more fun compared to a
Basic Automobiles
Drag Coefficient
The drag coefficient of a car gives an indication of how aerodynamic the car is. However, note that CD, the drag coefficient is defined as
where V is the air velocity of the car, and A is the frontal area. Thus, a small sports car will have much lower drag compared to a van for the same velocity. Modern automobiles quote a CD value of less than .35, but frontal area is what counts in this situation. As can be seen from the above equation, the drag force is proportional to the square of the air speed. Thus the horsepower required to overcome drag force is proportional to the third power of the speed of the vehicle. The rolling resistance is approximately independent of the speed of the vehicle, so that the horsepower required to overcome rolling resistance is proportional to the speed of the vehicle (i.e. it increases linearly). Thus, it is easy to see why it most sports vehicles have top speeds around 200 mph--to have a 20 mph increase in top speed a vehicle with 400 HP engine would need an additional 130 HP!
Preparation
Before driving the car, make sure that you are able to sit in a comfortable position. Adjust the rear view mirrors so that you have a good field of vision. Depress the various pedals to make sure that you are comfortable with the operations necessary for driving the vehicle.
Basic Automobiles Follow the same procedure, but with the reverse gear instead of the first gear for moving backwards from rest. Note however, that you will not be running with the clutch fully engaged in most cases since the speed will be too high for basic maneuvers. Starting on an Incline Many times, you may be forced to park on a hill or incline. In this case, it is important that you be able to start the vehicle without it going backward, and potentially hitting someone behind you. There is a good way and two bad ways to do this. The first bad way is to use the handbrake to hold the car while you put your foot on the accelerator and the clutch pedal. Now press the accelerator slightly and hold it there, so that the engine is at a speed somewhat higher than idle speed. Release the clutch till it reaches bite point, and as you feel the car starting to move forward, release the handbrake. This still requires considerable skill, as the engine will stall if you don't release the handbrake in time. Further, it will not work in cars which don't have a handbrake (many manual transmissions don't). The second bad way is to put the vehicle in first gear and engaging the clutch fast enough while depressing the accelerator. The vehicle might not even move back if you do it fast enough. This can be done in places where you don't have any vehicles right behind you, and even if the vehicle moves back a little, you don't cause any damage. The good way to start a vehicle on an incline is to hold the vehicle on the incline using the foot brake and slowly release the clutch. When you feel the clutch reach the bite point, remove the foot quickly from the brake and depress the accelerator slightly. Note that if you engage the clutch fully, or very close to that, the engine will stall as it tries to work against the slope and the foot brake. So the ideal point for releasing the brake is at a very small point before the bite point. Now, the engine is at its idle speed, and cannot pull the vehicle up the slope if the clutch is engaged. Even if you engage the clutch slowly at this point, the engine will stall. You will have to depress the accelerator so that the engine speed (and the torque) increases. Now release the clutch smoothly, while releasing the accelerator slightly. If you release the clutch and don't release the accelerator, the vehicle will move forward with a larger speed than you want. If you have done everything right, the vehicle will move forward, and this works in all situations. The usual mistake in this procedure comes from the inability to judge the bite point. On level ground, you can feel the vehicle start to move forward when the clutch starts to engage. However, on the slope, this effect is quite subtle and is easily missed, as the brake prevents the vehicle from moving. If you release the clutch too much, the engine will stall. In that case, depress the clutch, shift to neutral and start the engine again. However, if you don't release the clutch enough when you remove your foot from the brake, then you will be in a lot of trouble. If the clutch has made some contact, then you can depress the accelerator a lot to increase the torque, and move the vehicle forward. However, note that when you do this, you will have to release the accelerator fast as the clutch engages or the vehicle will shoot forward. Also, when you engage the clutch at such high speeds and torques, there is a lot of wear. If you release the accelerator too much, the engine will stall. The other possibility is that the clutch hasn't engaged at all when you remove your foot from the brake. This is the worst result possible, as the vehicle will now move backward, possibly colliding with the vehicle behind you. In driving tests, the vehicle moving back is instant failure. Note that it is a very bad idea to hold the vehicle on an incline using the clutch, as it can cause rapid clutch wear.
Stopping a Vehicle
Depress the brake slightly to slow the vehicle, and once a good amount of speed has been removed depress the clutch fully and apply brakes smoothly to stop the vehicle wherever you want. After the vehicle comes to a stop, put the vehicle in neutral without releasing the brake. Turn off the engine. Now depress the clutch and if it is a downhill slope put the vehicle in reverse. Otherwise, put it in first gear. Release the clutch, and only then release the brake. You can stop a vehicle from any gear, but remember not to run the vehicle with the clutch depressed for a long time as it can still cause clutch wear. If your vehicle has a handbrake, engage the hand brake now.
Basic Automobiles
Basic Automobiles
Basic Automobiles
Fuel Efficiency
The manual transmission is very efficient in terms of power transfer in that it doesn't have the fixed 5% loss in automatics. However, another reason many prefer manual transmissions is that it places a lot of control in the hands of the driver. While climbing a hill, you use a lower gear, since it will have larger torque available. However, once at the top, you can shift to neutral and turn off the engine, and roll down the hill. At the foot of the hill, depending on the speed you can shift to the appropriate gear. Note that the above may not be possible on many modern computer controlled cars, where shutting off the engine may lead to damage many of the running parts, and locking of the steering wheel.
Power Band
The power band is the range of engine rpm where it produces good power output and this is between the torque peak and the power peak. In fact, the whole purpose of the gear box is to make sure that the engine works inside the power band at all times. Consider a vehicle going up a hill--as it moves up from level ground, the slope will cause and increased load against which the wheels have to work. If the engine is already in the power band, the reduction in speed will increase the torque (as it is beyond the torque peak), and you won't have to shift down. On the other hand, if the engine is not in the power band, the uphill motion will cause the RPM and torque to fall, requiring a quick down shift. If you enter a slope with the engine already lugging (too slow (low rpm)for that gear), you may have to double de-clutch (modern cars have syncronisers in all gears for upshifts and downshifts except reverse) rapidly to a lower gear or a gear two positions lower. For instance, if you approach a hill at the lower limit of your fourth gear, shifting down to third may not help due to the loss of momentum due to the slope of the hill. You will need to double de-clutch into second gear and then accelerate into third.
Braking
When you encounter an obstacle in the road and want to slow down, you will do so by first removing your foot from the accelerator and allowing the vehicle to slow down before applying the brake. It is a good idea to give the driver behind you a warning in this occasion by blipping the brake. After the vehicle has slowed down a bit (engine braking), apply brakes slowly to reduce speed, and then depress clutch fully and slow down further by braking smoothly. Now you can switch to the appropriate lower gear and remove your foot from the brake. One place where need for braking is not so obvious is while coming down a speed breaker. If you don't break when the rear wheel moves down the speed breaker, the rear end of your car will strike the ground, especially if it has a large overhang at the rear. So the procedure should be--brake well before the obstacle to make sure that your front is clear of it as the nose dips due to braking, then move smoothly up, making sure you have enough momentum to carry you through (very bad idea to have to rev your engine on a slope), and then when the rear wheel comes off the obstacle reduce the speed even further by smooth braking. Should you use engine braking? Well, engine braking still acts through the wheels, so there is no great improvement in road handling. However, if you are travelling downhill, engine braking is recommended (and is the preferred method) as using the brake pedal will cause overheating and failure of the brake pads. Another use for engine braking is if you need to come to a stop rapidly. That is, if you have a vehicle suddenly stop before you, or you have a pedestrian jump in front, and you must absolutely stop the vehicle. Here you can switch to the lower gear rapidly (say from the 5th to the 2nd), and use the engine for braking along with the brake pads. Thus, if you have mastered rapid downshifting, you can bring the car to a stop using this method by using all the gears from 5th down to 2nd, instead of skipping gears. This will definitely cause engine damage, but is preferable to loss of life (either to you or the other people on the road). The usual method to use engine braking is to switch to a lower gear for this purpose. The stopping distance in braking is roughly proportional to the square of the speed of the vehicle. Thus, you will need twice the stopping distance at 40 mph compared to 30 mph. The stopping distance also depends on the road conditions (whether it is wet, the road is sealed) and the condition of the tires. It is very important that you maintain
Basic Automobiles adequate distance between your vehicle and the vehicles in front of you as well as the vehicles behind you. You should reduce speed and increase the distance in wet conditions, for instance.
Engine Damage
If you follow the safe and recommended practices while using your car, your engine will last a long time. Note that the engine should not be raced (high rpm at low loads) or loaded at low rpm. It is easy to get feedback on high rpm--the engine noise increases as speed increases. However, low rpm loading, where you open the throttle at high gear when the rpm is low, is not as easy to detect. If you find yourself depressing the accelerator pedal too much at high gear, shift down to a lower gear to bring the engine speed up. Always be aware of the speed of your vehicle as you drive, and as soon as it drops, shift the gear down, this might result in more gear shifts, and that is all the more reason to choose a vehicle with a good gear box. You don't usually have much choice in the kind of roads that you drive on, but try to use level roads as far as possible. Also, make sure that your driveway is flat and if it is at a higher level than the road, then make sure that the incline is closer to the road than the final parking position. Remember the warning about low rpms and high loads. A sure fire way to severe engine damage is an inclined driveway, which you drive up everyday at low speeds. If you look at the load on the bore due to the dynamics of the crank motion of the piston and crankshaft assembly you will find that force acts on one side of the cylinder. Now, a properly designed engine will have the combustion forces act in such a way as to cancel this effect.
Driving Test
You will need a license to drive a vehicle in any country in the world. The specifics of tests will differ, but the general idea is to demonstrate your ability to handle the class of vehicle for which you are applying for a license. A commercial license (to drive trucks, say) will have much more stringent requirements compared to a consumer license (such as for automobiles). There might be additional restrictions too--for instance, in many countries you cannot obtain a license to drive a manual transmission if you take the test on an automatic. The test consists of a written exam to test your knowledge of rules specific to the country/area as well as general rules, and a hands on test where you drive the vehicle in traffic as well as some specific maneuvers that you are required to perform. Also, you might be asked to negotiate some configurations (like the standard 8). The maneuvers might include, among other, parallel parking, and starting on an incline.
Basic Automobiles
Parallel Parking
Parallel parking is used to park a car on the side of a road, between two parked vehicles. Some of the newer cars (e.g. the Toyota Prius) have automatic parallel parking, where it is done by the onboard computer.
Links
Free driving test video tutorials, tips and information [1] Free Driving Theory Test Software [2]
References
[1] http:/ / www. driving-test-success. com/ index. html [2] http:/ / www. pass-test. co. uk
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License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported //creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/