Author : Everette Jamison
The purpose of your car’s ignition system is to time a spark that ignites gas at the precise moment needed to power your engine Several different parts work together to make this happen Your car’s engine is basically a huge pump Air and gas are pumped in, producing energy that turns the tires and moves the vehicle That’s an oversimplification, but sufficient for learning how the components of the system work Below, I’ll briefly describe the parts involved and take you through the process of igniting the gas and powering your engine
Parts And Their Jobs
Your ignition system is comprised of spark plugs, a distributor (and cap), rotor, and coil The coil is what transforms an electrical current from your car battery into a spark When the coil successfully creates a spark (and it needs to be potent enough to actually ignite the fuel), the spark is transferred to your car’s distributor The reason it’s called a distributor is because it spins and allocates the sparks from the coil to multiple spark plugs It does that through the rotor
The rotor spins with the distributor and contacts the cylinders of the engine When it does this, it transfers the sparks to the spark plug wires At this point, the spark has nearly traveled to where it needs to be Each of the spark plug wires is attached to the distributor cap through its own contact point Those wires send the spark directly to the spark plugs which are mounted in your car’s cylinder head When the gases from the fuel flow into the cylinder, the spark ignites them, causing combustion
The process I’ve just described happens over and over, tens of thousands of times while your car is in operation
A Seamless System
Your ignition system is most effective when the sparks are precisely timed In the past, this was done by employing a points-and-condenser module to tell the distributor when to allocate the sparks to the spark plugs Today, most cars are equipped with computers (called ignition modules) that control the timing They do so by notifying your car’s engine control unit about the placement of the pistons If an ignition module fails, it’s usually necessary to replace it
Over the past few years, manufacturers have begun experimenting with distributorless ignition systems Rather than a single coil creating the sparks needed to ignite the fuel, each spark plug has its own coil That effectively eliminates the need for the distributor It’s still considered a young technology, but holds significant promise
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