Does running the AC in your car use additional fuel?
Yes it does. (That’s your short answer, I love cars and engineering so the following is a nice long answer)A vehicles air conditioning system removes heat from air through a phase change. The entire system is sealed under vacuum, and in these conditions, the liquid coolant in the AC system will boil at a very low temperature. When the liquid boils it expands rapidly and pulls heat from the system.Experiment: place your hand in front of your mouth, open your mouth really wide and breath a heavy lung full of air into your hand. Notice how hot the air feels? Now make a very tight “o” with your lips and blow onto your hand, almost like you’re whistling. Try to breathe out at rate where the gust of air coming from your mouth is moving about the same speed as it was in the first part of the experiment so you can rule out velocity. Notice this is cool? The air is coming from your lungs both times so why does it behave in this way? The science is that when you leave your mouth open and puff the air out, it travels as one big mass carrying the heat of your body. When you make a small opening, the air comes out into the atmosphere and starts to spread out dissipating heat.Now back to your car. The AC uses an evaporator, a condenser, and a compressor. The evaporator is inside the cabin of the car, and it is where the liquid refrigerant becomes a gas before a fan inside your car blows the hot air through and removes heat making you feel cold air. The gas moves back through the system where it is brought back to a liquid phase in the condenser. In order to condense more easily, the gas is compressed by the compressor. Compressing this gas requires quite a bit of energy and this energy comes from a belt running off of an accessory pulley on your engine. When you turn in the AC, a compressor clutch engages the compressor to he engine and put an extra load on the engine. The engine must burn more gas to overcome this load and it is being less efficient. It also takes in slightly more load from the alternator to pull the current to run the blower fan motor in the dash board that the AC uses, but this loss is negligible in comparison to what the compressor needs.
What do the letters in the Mercedes-Benz car model names signify? What is the significance of the different naming schemes? What does a 2 letter model name indicate?
Until 1994, Mercedes-Benz used an alphanumeric system for categorizing their vehicles, consisting of a number sequence approximately equal to the engine's displacement in liters multiplied by 100, followed by an arrangement of alphabetical suffixes indicating body style and engine type."C"indicates a coupe or cabriolet body style."D"indicates the vehicle is equipped with a diesel engine."E"(for "Einspritzung") indicates the vehicle's engine is equipped with petrol fuel injection."G"indicates the “Geländewagen” off-road vehicle. "K"was used in the 1930s, indicating a supercharger ("Kompressor") equipped engine. One exception is the SSK, where K indicates "Kurz" (short-wheelbase)."L"indicates "Leicht" (lightweight) for sporting models, and "Lang" (long-wheelbase) for sedan models."R"indicates "Rennen" (racing), used for racing cars (for example, the 300SLR). "S"Sonderklasse "Special class" for flagship models. "T"indicates "Touring" and an estate (or station wagon) body style. Some models carry further designations indicating special features:"4MATIC" indicates the vehicle is equipped with all-wheel-drive."BlueTEC" indicates a diesel engine with selective catalytic reduction exhaust after treatment.BlueEFFICIENCY" indicates special fuel economy features (direct injection, start-stop system, aerodynamic modifications, etc.)"CGI" (Charged Gasoline Injection) indicates direct gasoline injection."CDI" (Common-rail Direct Injection) indicates a common-rail diesel engine."Hybrid" indicates a gasoline- or diesel-electric hybrid."NGT" indicates a natural gas-fueled engine."Kompressor" indicates a supercharged engine."Turbo" indicates a turbocharged engine, only used on A-, B-,E- and GLK-Class models.You can relate them to the model names now:A-Class – HatchbackB-Class – Multi Purpose Vehicle (MPV)C-Class – Saloon, Estate & CoupéCL-Class – Luxury CoupéCLA-Class – 4 Door CoupéCLS-Class – 4 Door Coupé and EstateE-Class – Saloon, Estate, Coupé and CabrioletG-Class – Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV)GL-Class – Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV)GLA-Class – Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV)GLK-Class – Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV)M-Class – Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV)R-Class – Multi Purpose Vehicle (MPV)S-Class – Luxury SedanSL-Class – RoadsterSLK-Class – RoadsterSLS AMG – Coupé and Roadster.Thanks :)
What happens if you drive your car with no power steering fluid?
Contrary to the other answers, steering a car with failed power steering is quite possible. It is difficult at low speed, and extremely difficult when stopped, but it can be done. You'll build your arm and chest muscles doing it for any extended period of time.My '87 Mercury leaked power steering fluid like a seive, and I was still able to drive it - even pulling a trailer - without the hydraulic boost.But the other answers are correct that doing so can and eventually will cause the power steering pump to fail. That in and of itself is bad, but it's not the worst thing, especially if you are far from home when it happens.Most modern cars use what's called a serpentine belt to run the engine accessories: the air conditioning compressor, alternator, power steering pump, and radiator fan are all run by the same belt. If one of these fails, the belt can snap, leaving you with an engine that will quickly fail due to either overheating or lack of electrical power.In short, keep at least enough fluid in the pump to keep the shaft lubricated, even if it's not enough to make the system work.
Will a car run with a bad alternator?
Yes. But it will be only running for a short time as it is running strictly off of the energy stored in the battery. Depending on what you are driving is how long it will run like that. Older vehicles will run for quite a while, if you don’t use your brakes much (because the brake lights use power), and keep the headlights off, as well as any other accys that use power. Newer vehicles will not run as long because the computer (ECU) and all of the other things that take power to monitor and regulate your engine.This isn’t recommended in any case because running a vehicle on diminishing electrical power can cause many components necessary for it to run to fail. Even in an older vehicle the coil, or condenser can be ruined. However, sometimes we have to do what we have to do in order to get out of a situation. If there is any possible way to not operate your vehicle when the alternator is bad, go that route.Good luck.
What could be the cause of a car’s temperature gauge to fluctuate?
There are several possibilities.1) faulty teperature gauge. In this case the gauage will have to be replaced. This is relarively simple and inexpensive depinding on the make and model of the car.2) Issue with the radiator, coolant of the car. This could be caused due to insufficient coolant, leakage of coolant, damage to the radiator of the car. This will require extensive repair. In this case, it is advised to get the issue diagnosed and fixed at the earliest to avoid engine damage due to over heating.Hope this helps. :)