What causes a car to lose power while driving?
In modern cars with engine management systems, it is the system itself that reduces power if it detects a problem with the engine. A warning light will come and and the engine will go into 'limp home' mode, where speed it usually limited to 80km/h or lower. Any number of things can cause this, but usually it relates to loss of something important, like a coolant leak, or low oil pressure. Sometimes it can also be a false positive due to a fault in the management system itself.All internal combustion engines require three things to work; compression, fuel and ignition. Degradation of any one of theses will result in lower engine performance.Loss of compression can result from engine wear, common in engines with several hundred thousand kilometers on the clock. Engine efficiency is lost because gasses can escape past the piston rings. Mechanical failure such as a blown head gasket can cause a similar loss.Blockages or degradation of the fuel supply, such as a worn fuel pump will cause loss of power for obvious reasons.Ignition faults stem from things such as a cracked distributor head, worn spark plugs, worn ignition coil or faulty spark plug leads. They generally result in some cylinders not igniting the fuel/air mix, thus reducing the power.Loss of lubricant or coolant will cause the engine to overheat and then seize. In this case, loss of power is 100%.Worn bearings in the engine will usually not reduce power much, they will keep working, making more and more noise, and then fail catastrophically, causing the engine to seize.It is also possible for timing chains to slip, adjustment screws to loosen in the carburetor, exhaust manifolds to develop leaks , and other minor mechanical faults to occur that will reduce engine power. This can happen suddenly or gradually over time.
How do you open the hood of a locked car with a dead battery?
I find it interesting that the answers all say to stick the key in the door and unlock it. It's not that easy. The Volvo V40, and most, if not all post 2000 Volvo autos, as well as most current vw auto group cars, Mercedes, BMW, and several Japanese autos lock and unlock the doors electronically, meaning that they use the power lock solenoid, not linkages to the lock mechanisms. In order to unlock the doors to release the hood latch, one must raise the vehicle and connect a battery charger or jumper cable to the starter + terminal and to the vehicle chassis to activate the electrical system or charge the battery. One must be very careful not to short the positive lead to ground as this may cause damage, and one must also take care to assure that, when the vehicle is raised, it is safely ad properly supported with safety stands and wheel chocks to assure his/her personal safety. It may just be easier/safer to contact a towing company or roadside assistance (if offered through your auto insurance, this is definitely the best way to go) and have them perform the tasks necessary to assist you in releasing the locks to provide you access to the vehicle. Good luck.
What happens when car battery cables are wrongly connected?
Let's say the red cable from the jumper cables is the positive terminal, and the black cable is the negative terminal.The battery with the red cable on the positive terminal will be a +12 V battery, and the battery with a red cable on the negative terminal will be a -12 V battery. When they are connected together, then what you were doing is putting -12 V battery in parallel with a +12 V battery.If you do this, then the positive 12 V battery tries very hard to make the -12 V battery positive, and vice versa. Because a battery is a voltage source, each battery will flow as much current as possible into the other battery trying to equalize their voltage levels.The only resistance to this flow of current is the battery’s internal resistance and the jumper cable resistance. Together, this resistance might only be 0.1 Ohms.Car batteries can easily supply 500 Amps if the load resistance is small enough. So with 24 volts of difference between the 2 batteries, and 0.1 Ohms of resistance, 240 Amps will be flowing between the batteries. The formula for calculating power from current and resistance is P=I^2*R => P=240^2*0.1=5760 Watts of power. Because there is no work being performed, all of that power gets turned into heat.All of that power dissipating as heat will melt the insulators on your jumper cables, and it will melt the plastics of the battery, and it will cause the battery acid in the battery to start boiling.
How do you use a car cigarette lighter as a charger?
Most modern vehicles have the cigarette lighter socket only live when the ignition is on. It is very simple to change this to a constant fused feed, but make sure that no children could put a cigarette lighter in the socket and start a fire or burn themselves, as this was the primary reason that cigarette lighters in cars were changed to the accessory circuit quite a few years ago. A lot of cars have a ‘power’ socket which is compatible with the same plugs and these are often live all the time as they are great for inspection lamps, vacuum cleaners etc. . To use this method to charge the car battery is simply a matter of wiring your battery charger of whatever type to a cigarette lighter plug, but if your charging source is a high capacity (high current) source such as another car battery or high capacity charger it is essential that you have a fuse in the circuit of no more than 10 amps.Bear in mind that the tip of the plug on your charging lead is now at 12v+ and you would short your charging circuit if you grounded it anywhere, including to the outer part of the socket - so only activate the charging side AFTER the plug is connected.You can’t use this method for an immediate ‘jump start’, but 20 minutes of charge from a good source should enable enough charge to start a car if the battery was low. If you simply want a method of connecting a trickle charger, either mains or solar, there are OBD2 charging connectors available which go into the diagnostic port and in which case you don’t need to modify any wiring.
What is wrong when the coolant tank starts bubbling after driving your vehicle for a while?
I assume you mean that the coolant is boiling up into and out of the overflow bottle.(picture is of a fancy stainless steel bottle … I have never owned a car with anything other than a plastic one, but they look pretty much like that … and who knew finding a decent photo would be so difficult)So why is your coolant boiling over? Could be:Cooling fan is not running - because:motor brokerelay brokefuse is brokebelt is slipping (if you happen to have a mechanical fan instead of an eletrical one)Water pump is not working - because:motor brokerelay brokefuse is broke (if you happen to have an electrical water pump).belt is slippingRadiator is gacked / corroded and no longer flowingInsufficient coolant - so you don’t have enough material to exchange enough heat … and what you do have is getting boiled … so where did the coolant go? You have a leak somewhere?water pumpradiatorhoseoverflow bottleBad coolant mix (either way too much anti-freeze or none) - this seems unlikely as a sudden onset thing (the chemistry in your cooling system doesn’t just change overnight and many cars will run plenty cool on just water).Cracked head gasket - although you should see coolant / water in the oil and probably be getting smoke out out of the tailpipe (you can usually smell it too) - depends on how bad the crack is I supposeThermostat is broken - this is the thermostat that is inside the engine, and used to either pass collant through the engine block or shunt it from the block (this doesn’t usually present as a boil-over but it could - and it is usually cheap to check and relatively easy fix).All of these things can cause a coolant over-temp … and hence the boil-over into the overflow bottle.
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. :)
My car won't start after metal touching positive post and it smoked. Could it just be the battery or something else?
First check all your fuse’s , yes every last one of them , most cars have a large fuse panel under the hood as well as in the passenger compartment, An then you also have what's called a “ Fusible Link “ , These are normally located going to High Amp Circuits , in your car , i.e. The starter , the alt , the fuse panels , Modern Cars have dozens of these Fusible Links , An they have different ratings that depends on the wire size going to that Component ( I think there are about 6 different gauges / sizes ). What happens when in your case a Direct Short , occurs it protects the wiring An various other electric components in your car ,, they melt down when large amounts of current pass thru them , most are covered in a Fire Resistance shrink tubing type material, An they are soldered on to the wiring of the various components , So grab your self a VOM Tester , or a Test Light use one for Computer Circuits - The VOM Meter would be a better choice , An starting looking for where there is no power where there should be power going , There's a old joke We Mechanics have - wires carry smoke thru them An when you let the smoke out there no good anymore, Good Luck , An hey don't let anymore smoke outta them wires , oh An if you find out it is a fusible link - don't let the Clown at the parts store try An sell you a 25 foot roll of it , tell them you only need like a foot ( 12 inches ) of it OK , An if they tell you otherwise go to another parts store as they are idiots ,