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1500 questions
33
votes
2 answers
Difference between OBDII and CAN
What is CAN (controller area network)?
What are the differences between an OBD-II protocol and a CAN setup?`
How do I use an OBD-II scanner on a vehicle with CAN?
Shobin P
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33
votes
12 answers
Can a vehicle be harmed with bad inputs via an OBD-2 port?
I bought a cheap (sub $10) ELM 327 Bluetooth clone OBD-2 diagnostic adapter on a local "ebay-style" market where the seller specializes in car diagnostics and has several thousand positive reviews (read: I guess this seller would not provide…
Kozuch
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33
votes
6 answers
What causes battery terminal corrosion?
I put a new battery in my car about 8 months ago. After a problem starting a couple days ago, I found that there was massive corrosion under the battery terminals, so I cleaned them out and reconnected.
I've never had this problem with this car…
Brian Knoblauch
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32
votes
11 answers
Spark plug broke off in engine - can I drive the car?
I own a 2004 Volvo XC90 T6 2.9L AWD with 6 cyl. (Twin turbo, with catalytic converter.)
While changing the spark plugs, one broke-off (all the ceramic below the threads and possibly the metal finger of the plug - I'm not sure) and fell through the…
VolvoXC90_T6
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32
votes
7 answers
What is the point of the exhaust?
I was thinking today, what is the actual point of an exhaust?
Why can't we just have a pipe going out the front of a car instead of taking all the gases to the back of the car?
I can only see disadvantages of the current design:
The expense of…
George
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31
votes
3 answers
what is difference between DOHC and SOHC?
I want to know the SOHC and DOHC configurations. On what factors an engine manufacturer decides to go with SOHC or with DOHC, what should I choose? DOHC or SOHC?
BraveNinja
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31
votes
8 answers
Is it necessary to have the wheels of a car aligned with the body when parked, due to weight on the axle?
My uncle says a driver advised him that whenever the car is parked, the wheels have to be aligned with the body of the car, or else there will be un-necessary weight on (I think) the axle or wheel, which reduces the life of the parts.
So is it…
Nav
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31
votes
2 answers
Why do two-stroke engine exhaust pipes look so strange?
Two stroke gasoline engine exhaust pipes are shaped strange. They expand into a wide diameter and then shrink down to a very small diameter where the exhaust gasses emerge into the environment.
- Why are they shaped in such a strange way?
- What is…
DucatiKiller
- 32,976
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30
votes
10 answers
Can I leave my car sitting outside for about 5 years?
I need to park my car for about 5 years. I have a 2006 Civic with 244k miles.. I'm going to cover it and start it every 2 weeks.. someone told me that after that many years it's going to fall apart and is better to just sell it, not really sure what…
Eugene G
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30
votes
4 answers
Why use snow tires on all 4 wheels on 2-wheel-drive cars?
In a car without four-wheel drive—if the car provides drive power on only two wheels—why put snow tires on all four wheels when the freeze sets in? Would it not be sufficient to change just the drive wheels? Is it just a question of use of the…
Calaf
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30
votes
1 answer
Why does the reverse gear in manual transmission cars sound different
When I got a manual transmission car (2003 Kia Rio) I noticed that it makes a winding sound in the reverse gear.
Here is an example video that I found that demonstrates the sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi2t_VT6YWg
Why do manual transmission…
James T
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30
votes
9 answers
Why is engine displacement frequently a few CCs below an exact number?
I've noticed that engines are rarely exactly 1.5 liters or exactly 4.0 liters, and I'm okay with that. It makes sense that engines would have some arbitrarily ideal size for specific applications, so I would expect exact engine displacement to be…
Trevor D
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30
votes
1 answer
5-Stroke Engines - What are these things?
What is a 5 stroke engine?
Why aren't they using them in vehicles right now?
Is this a new thing or has it been around for a while?
DucatiKiller
- 32,976
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30
votes
9 answers
What is the difference between normal, platinum, iridium plugs?
What is the difference (besides price) between normal, platinum, and iridium spark plugs?
krumpelstiltskin
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29
votes
3 answers
Static vs. Effective compression: Why does higher effective compression not require higher octane gas?
Background
I've been trying to do a lot of research on boost lately because I'm planning on running a moderate turbo setup on my daily/light-duty-autox car in the future. I'm trying to get into the physics of things so that when I do my build, I'm…
Annath
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