Heated Seats : Comfortable Winters

Winter season is on and here is a useful automotive thing that makes your driving very comfortable in this cool weather...As many of you must have noticed that when there's chilling atmosphere outside and you enter your car, you find the seats very uncomfortable to sit as they are too cool to sit on..but the car manufacturers have this unique thing to make you happy....I am talking about Heated Seats...I'll discuss what is Heated Seats and how they work??

Heated Seats button in a car

Heated Seats:

Heated seats is the optional set of seats which are configured to heat up with a press of a button. These days it is common features of costly luxury cars. The seats are stuffed with electronic circuitry which develops heat and makes them hot enough to make your driving comfortable. The whole functioning is done with the help of a button present in the car. Many car owners opt for external heated configuration in the form of seat covers or customize their seats with some outside vendors. Now take a look on how it functions..

How Heated Seats Work ??

The functioning of Heated seats is done with the help of following materials:

• Relay
• Heating element
• Thermostat 
• Connecting Wires

Inside of a Heated seat (Wired Network is heating Element)

The basic logic behind the heating mechanism is very simple. If you remember anything about current and resistance in physics then it is very easy for you. A current is passed through the heating element and heating element generates heat to make the seats warm. When a person switches on the button, the relay allows the current to flow through the heating element(which can be a wire and acts as resistance). As the current passes through the heating element, it resists the current from flowing through it which in turn generates heat and that what we need. This heat makes the seats hot and comfortable for winters. But there has to be some limit for the temperature as it may burn the fabric, for this reason the whole setup is connected to a thermostat which reads the temperature of heating element and disconnect the current supply as soon it reaches a preset limit. After sometime when the temperature of the seat lowers, the thermostat allows the current to flow through the circuit and that how temperature is maintained.

Few systems have setting for different ranges of temperature to suit your needs.

Pros and Cons:

As this is boon for all the drivers who wish for cozy seats in this winter season but since it is electrical configuration that's why it's bit risky. Although the car manufacturers make sure the the systems are fault proof and reliable for longer runs.

Share your views and suggestions..Hope you liked it!! Happy Reading!!

Automobile Tuning : Why and How??

Today I am writing off after a week long gap because I was busy celebrating Diwali :)..I got a question from one of my friend about Automobile Tuning on my facebook page..So here I am with the information. I will tell about what this term means "Automobile Tuning" means. So lets start up with what is Automobile Tuning..

Automobile Engine tuning

What is Automobile Tuning:

Automobile tuning is nothing but a term given to the process of optimizing your automobile to give the best on road. It includes checking up the vital functioning of main components and changing up the ones worn out but the process doesn't end here. The whole tuning process is divided into three major sections as per the work involved in it. If you ever visited a car/bike workshop with an intention of getting it serviced, then you must be knowing that tuning is a part of your servicing. After servicing the workshop returns your vehicle with the performance it is made for. Now take a look at the types of Automobile Tuning.

Types of Tuning:

Well there are uncountable people living on earth and everyone may have a different perception about types of tuning but as far as I am concerned, I categorize them into three:

1. Engine Tuning
2. ECU Tuning
3. Performance Tuning

Now the engine and performance is known word but what's ECU?? Don't you worry I will take this up a bit later, first lets see what happens in Engine Tuning..

Engine Tuning:

Engine tuning involves the very basic things but important things to check primarily. I will tell them in bullet points with specifying why it's done, here are these:

• Replace Engine oil : As due to regular usage the viscosity of engine oil decreases which in turn will increase friction in engine.
• Replace Air Filter : The dust and other particles keeps settling on the filter part which needs to be replaced.
• Replace Oil Filter : The worn out tiny particles from the engine gets clogged into the oil filter and may block the flow of oil inside. 
• Replace Spark Plugs: This part of your vehicle is necessary for igniting the engine and needs to be checks for any fault.

Replacing Timing Belt

• Replace Belts: Belts are responsible for transferring power from engine to the axle and these need to be replaced periodically.
• Fill Up Coolant: It keeps flowing to keep the engine cool and thus gets evaporated by a certain amount and hence needs to be filled back periodically.
• Battery Check-Up: Adding distilled water into the battery and cleaning up the terminals.
• Re-Fastening the Bolts: Due to engine vibrations the bolts get loose so a check is necessary.

And many more...

ECU Tuning:

First let me tell you whats ECU..it is Engine Control unit which takes care of all the specific tasks in engine. Although ECU thing is not very new but old automobiles were ECU free as the controls were analog not digital. But now every automobile has it be it a Car or a Bike. 

ECU of a Car

ECU does so many tasks like Control of  Air/Fuel Mixture,  Ignition Timing, Variable Valve Timing and many more stuffs..These ECU's are coded by the companies with specific timings and settings to obtain a controlled output from the engine.

      Few automobiles have programmable ECU's which can be programmed for various settings to achieve different performances. The company which manufactures ECU's also provides workshop guys a device that they can use for programming ECU's. Although these tasks are done only by experts as a minor change in setting can result in a major change.

Performance Tuning:

This type is tuning is exclusive as it is done as per the specific tasks to be done by the automobiles. This tuning makes sure that your machine gives its best performance even better than the company specified it to give. Suppose a bike is used for Motorsports then its obvious that all the major components should be able to withstand extra heat that would be burdened over them during high performance or for example take case of rally sport where the suspension used needs to be replaced with better sustainability which would have not been used otherwise. Performance tuning is not a regular process for regular automobiles but its done only where it is needed. Beside changing up the component, the timing and ratios are of great importance.

That's all I have to tell about the Automobile Tuning...share your views or suggestions with me..

Happy Reading!! 

Engine Oil : Automobile's Drink

The topic for today is Engine Oil, Its the liquid that the engine drinks. I will tell you about the Engine Oil , What it is, It's properties and other things about Engine oil. Lets start with whats Engine Oil:

Engine Oil 

Engine Oil:

The basic requirement for any Engine to run is the oil which gives it the lubrication to perform the basic movement. Engine is made up of metallic parts which have a lot of friction and when the parts have to make any movement, the friction prevents the parts from doing so. The solution for this is a lubricant that decrease the friction and enhances the motion of the individual parts. The friction present between the parts convert the energy produced by engine into heat and Engine oil helps as an energy saver. Contact between moving surfaces also wears away those parts, which could lead to lower efficiency and degradation of the engine. Apart from lubricating the moving parts, the engine oil also serves as a protector from corrosion and also cleans the engine.
     

Engine Oil Working:

There are few engine parts involved in Oil Flow:

• Oil Pump
• Oil Filter
• Oil Supply Vents

Engine oil flows through whole engine and lubricate every part internally. All Engine oil is present at the bottom of the internal combustion engine. The function of oil pump is to pump the oil from the bottom of the engine and then transfer it to flow through the Oil Supply Vents which are present as small vents on the connecting rods(see How Engine Works). The oil then fills up in the cylinders where pistons are moving. The Engine oil basically creates a thin layer of lubricant over the moving parts which prevents the direct contact between them at the time of movement. This Indirect contact reduces the friction. Even with such low friction, while in motion few minute particles of metals wears out from the engine parts and flow away with the oil. These waste particles are passed trapped inside the oil filter which is present in the path of flow of oil. The extra oil reaches to the bottom of the engine from where it is again pumped up and the cycle goes on until the engine stops.
      Since the parts are covered up with this Engine oil the chances of parts getting corroded is highly reduced and the life of the parts increases.

It's Properties??

Most of the engine oils are made up of petroleum hydrocarbons derived from crude oil and few additives which makes these oils useful. A basic and important property of engine oil is viscosity. The viscosity of a liquid can be thought of as its "thickness" or a measure of its resistance to flow. The viscosity must be high enough to maintain a lubricating film, but low enough that the oil can flow around the engine parts under all conditions. The viscosity index is a measure of how much the oil's viscosity changes as temperature changes. A higher viscosity index indicates the viscosity changes less with temperature than a lower viscosity index.
  Another property of the Engine oil is Flash Point, It's the lowest temperature at which the oil starts burning. Since the temperature inside the engine is very very high, the oil should have high flash point  otherwise the engine will burn out :). That's why the companies performs a check for minute volatile particles in the oil made and removes them so as to increase the flash point.
  There are other properties which the manufacturers add on to improvise their product among the competition.

Range of Valvoline Engine Oils for Bikes, Cars And Trucks

This is it about the Engine Oils...Will come up with other interesting topics...
Happy Reading!!! :)