Know your Vehicle (Basics)

How it all fits together?

The automobile has been around for more than a hundred years. It has evolved from gas buggies built in the late 1800s by Daimler and Benz in Germany and by Henry Ford, Ransom Olds, and others in the United States to our present day automobiles composed of more than 15,000 individual parts.

The early era cars were, at their time, complex machines that could only be enjoyed by the wealthy and repaired by dedicated and trained personnel known as mechanics. The traditional mechanic no longer exists today and has been replaced by highly trained personnel known as technicians.

Technicians often specialize in a specific area of the automobile such as driveability/ diagnostics, electrical / electronic systems, drivetrain, transmission, suspension/ steering / brakes, and body systems.

This specialisation has been made necessary by the many complex electronic and computer systems found in today’s cars. The relatively recent advent of electronic systems on the modern car has transformed it into a self-diagnosing and, to an extent, self-adjusting machine.

When you look under the hood of today’s automobile, the maze of tubes, wires, hoses, belts, and other parts may seem intimidating. Don’t let this first view alarm you. You can become more comfortable with what you’re looking at by becoming familiar with your vehicle.

• The chassis is the underlying structure (comprised of the passenger compartment, engine compartment, doors, fenders) on which all other parts are mounted, including the steering, suspension, and brake systems.
  
• The engine is an internal combustion device that takes in air and fuel and converts the expansive force of the burning air and fuel into rotary motion used to supply power to the automobile.
  
• The drivetrain consists of the transmission and other parts that transfer the power produced by the engine to propel the car.
  

Note: The engine and drivetrain together comprise the powertrain. Sometimes the terms drivetrain and powertrain are used for one another, but they refer to different things.