Car Parts

Understanding Car Parts

The basic idea of a car is pretty simple — turn wheels to pull you down the road. But, as illustrated by the hundreds of individual parts for sale at your local Halfords, Kwik Fit, or autosave, it actually takes a lot of mechanisation to make cars work.
If you're trying to figure out what all parts in your car do, Here's a collection of our key part articles.
Car Engine System
How Car Engines actually Work
It's the reason you can put the pedal to the metal and go from zero to 50 in about 7 seconds. The car engine is a piece of engineering excellence and one of the most amazing machines we use every day. Learn how the four-stroke internal engine works.

How Diesel Engines actually Work
Ever wonder what the difference is between a petrol engine and a diesel engine? Diesels are more efficient and cheaper to run than petrol. Instead of using carburetion or port fuel injection, diesel engines use a direct fuel injection system.

How do Rotary Engines Work
A rotary engine is an internal combustion engine, but it's not like the usual V shaped engine in most cars. Also called a Wankel engine, this type of engine performs intake, compression, combustion and exhaust in a different part of the system.

How Radial Engines Work
Radial engines reached their zenith during WW2. Today they are not common. One place where you can still see the radial engine's influence is in the two-cylinder engine of a Harley Davidson motorbike. This remarkable engine can be thought of, in a way, as two pistons from a radial engine.

How Camshafts actually Work
The camshaft has a huge effect on engine output. It helps let the air & fuel mixture into the engine and get the exhaust gas out..

How Superchargers actually Work
Since the invention of the combustion engine, vehicle engineers, speed junkies and race car designers have been searching for ways to always boost its power. One way is by installing a supercharger, which forces a lot more air into the combustion chamber. Allowing the spark to ignite in a bigger way due to the increased burnable oxygen being forced into the engine cylinder.

How Turbochargers actually Work
When people talk about race cars, or high performance sports cars, the topic of turbo’s usually comes up. Turbos use some very cool technology to make an engine more powerful, but the concept is really quite simple. Like the supercharger, it forces more air in allowing a bigger more powerful spark from the engine.

How Fuel Injection Systems actually Work
The last carburettor car came off the assembly line around 1990. Since then fuel injectors have been the means of getting petrol into the engine cylinder so it can combust and you can drive.

Power Train
How Manual Gearboxs actually Work
If you drive a manaual car, then you may have a few questions floating around in your head. Have you ever wondered, "What would happen if I were to shift into reverse while I am speeding down the motorway? Would the entire gearbox explode?".

How Car Gearboxes Work
Automatic gearboxs take the work out of fear chhanges. A truly amazing mechanical system, the automatic gearbox in a car accomplishes everything a manual gearbox does, but it does it with a single set of gears.

How Clutches actually Work
You probably know that any car with a manual gearbox has a clutch -- it connects and disconnects the engine and gearbox. But did you know that automatic have clutches, too?

How Differentials actually Work
Without a differential, the driven wheels would have to be locked together, forced to spin at the same speed rendering the car virtually impossible to steer.

Braking System

How Brakes actually Work
A car's brakes are amongst the most critical system on the car -- if they go out, you have a big problem. Thanks to leverage, hydraulics and friction, braking systems provide incredible stopping power.

How Disc Brakes actually Work
Disc brakes are the most common brakes found on a car's front wheels nowadays, and they're often on all four wheels. This is the part of the brake system that does the actual work of stopping the car. Many cars dashboards can tell the driver when to replace the brake pads.

How Anti-lock Brakes actually Work
Stopping a car in a hurry on a wet road can be challenging at best. Anti-lock braking systems (ABS) help alleviate the danger.

How Power Brakes actually Work
Power brakes are ingenious systems -- they let you stop a car with a simple twitch of your toe. The concept at the heart of the power braking system is force multiplication -- a whole lot of force multiplied.

How Master Cylinders and Combination Valves actually Work
We all know that pushing down on the brake pedal stops a car. We depend on that every day we drive. But how does this happen? The master cylinder provides the actual pressure that engages your car brakes..

Steering, Suspension and Tires
How Steering actually Works
When it comes to crucial systems, steering is right up there with the engine and the brakes. Power steering systems make the job easier, and the internal workings are very cool.

How Car Suspensions actually Work
All of the power generated by your car engine is useless if the driver can't control it. The job of a car suspension is big: maximize the friction between the tires and the road surface, provide steering stability and ensure the comfort of the passengers.

How Tires actually Work
In the market for new set of tires? All of the different tire specifications and confusing talk the tyre sales clerks or "experts" are shouting at you making your head feel like a tire spinning out of control?

How Self inflating Tires Work
Self-inflating tires perform two crucial functions: They automatically maintain tire pressure for safety and performance in standard conditions, and they allow the driver to alter psi on the fly to adjust to changing terrain.

How Sequential Gearboxes actually Work
Combine the ease of an automatic gearbox with the driver control of a manual, and what you've got is a sequential manual gearbox box. Instead of having to navigate an H pattern, a simple forward push advances the gear. It's the gearbox used by race cars and an increasing number of high-performance street cars.

How Torque Converters actually Work
Cars with an automatic gearbox have no clutch that disconnects the gearbox from the engine. Instead, they use an amazing device called a torque converter. Advertisement

Electrical System
How Wires, Fuses and Connectors actually Work
Wires, fuses and connectors - they may sound like mundane parts on your car, but they are vital. Yeah, they help keep the tunes going for a long journey, and they make reading that map at night a lot easier. But, they're also necessary for things like a cooling fan in the engine and your anti-lock brakes.

How Ignition Systems actually Work
A car's ignition system is a key component that helps the engine produce maximum power and minimum pollution.
How Car Computers actually Work
Cars seem to get more complicated. Today's cars might have as many as 50 microprocessors on them. Essentially, you're driving around in a giant computer.

How Windscreen Wipers actually Work
Without windscreen wipers, a rain storm would make cars pretty much useless. What began as a hand-cranked system is now automatic, and only getting more so: There are now some windscreen wipers that can actually sense rain.

Exhaust System
How Catalytic Converters actually Work
A catalytic converter is one of the most important parts of a car's emissions controls. It treats the exhaust gas before it leaves the car and removes pollution.

How Mufflers actually Work
Every car out there has a muffler, it performs the main job of turning thousands of explosions per minute into a quiet sound. Mufflers use some pretty neat technology to dim the roar of an engine.

Other Car Parts
How Odometers actually Work
Mechanical odometers have been counting the miles for years. Although they are a dying out, they are incredibly cool inside. Most systems are digital and they simply count the number of miles the vehicle has travelled.
How Cooling Systems actually Work
A car engine produces a lot of heat that there is an entire system in your car designed to cool the engine to the ideal temperature. In fact, the cooling system on a car driving down the motorway dissipates enough heat to heat two average-sized houses.

Our garages at Book my MOT and service use the highest quality parts and can repair almost aunty fault or repair required on your car, including but not limited to:-

Air conditioning regas, Alternator, alternator-replacement, Battery replacement, Brake discs and pads replacement, Brake pads and discs, Brake pad, brake-discs-pads-front, brake-discs-pads-rear, brake-pads-front, brake-pads-rear, Brakes, Car diagnostic, Car service, Clutch gearbox, Clutch replacement, Compressor replacement, Condenser replacement, Diagnose a Problem, EGR Valve Replacement, electrics,charging, Engine, Exhaust replacement, Spark plugs and glow plugs replacement, spark-plugs-replacement, Starter Motor, Suspension & Steering, Timing belt and Water pump replacement, timing-belt-replacement, Tyres and Wheel, water-pump-replacement, Turbo, cylinder head gasket, window failure, mirror replacement, radiator, windscreen, and of course MOT and service.