What is a Throttle Position Sensor?

In order for your car to work properly everything must beworking in prime condition.  Fromsomething as big as a diesel turbo charger to something as small as a throttleposition sensor, if one thing is malfunctioning your car will feel theeffects.  We all know what car parts suchas an AC Compressor does, but a lot of us can get confused when we start totalk about all these sensors.  I thoughtI would help you out a little bit and explain what a one of these sensors does.

Present day vehicles have an assortment of diverse sensors. Whenit comes to these sensors the key is “knowledge is power.”  The sensors supply the knowledge to the computer so that the computer knows how much power needs to be out. One such sensoris the Throttle Position Sensor.  Thislittle guy is located on the intake butterfly on internal combustion engines.  The throttle position sensor is apotentiometer that reports to the computer in regards to how open the throttleis.  This valuable info combined withdata from different sensors is used by the ECU to determine the correct fuel amount,ignition timing, and other important tasks. In turbocharged vehicles, the throttle position sensor’s cherishedinformation assists the wastegate for better car performance.

A malfunctioning Throttle Position Sensor means that thecomputer is not getting the correct information it needs to work properly.  This means the computer, the brain of yourcar, has lost a lot of its brain cells. Your car may start to jerk, suddenly stall, and hesitate whileaccelerating, and the fuel economy will plummet.  So, make sure your brain is getting the rightinformation so you’re not blowing a bunch of cash at the gas station.  If your Throttle Position Sensor is brokenfix it immediately.

How Do Auto AC Systems Work

In the days of ole, the wind was the best way to keep a hot day from being too much to bear but the modern age calls for a modern solution. AC systems are designed to cool off air and keep the environment cool, well the indoor environment that is. Ever stood near the outside of an AC system, that heat has got to go somewhere. AC parts such as an A/C compressor and evaporator work together not to eliminate heat but to move heat to a different location.  The Idea of the ac system is simple, capture heat on a medium and use fluid to move said heat to another location. In the case of an auto ac system the heat is captured from the evaporator inside the car, usually under the dash. The captured heat is transferred to the condenser at the front of the vehicle and released. 

 A car, unlike a home relies more on moving air than fans to pull the heat off the condenser at the front of the vehicle. Auto AC is also a much more compact version of what a home ac system is…unless you feel like strapping a window unit into your car. When a car is in movement, air is blowing across the condenser which is basically a radiator that uses coolant and a cooling fan.  Just like the engine cooling system that keeps the car from over-heating the ac system keeps the passenger from overheating.

Components in the AC system play vital roles, each doing something that will specifically change the way the system works. The compressor being most important part, as it pushes the fluid through the system so that each of the other components can do their job. There is also a filter in the system that is often called a Accumulator/Drier which is designed to remove dirt and debris from the system. Then the fluid is passed through the condenser to be cool and yep you guessed it condensed. Once the Oil/Freon mix is cooled than it is passed through the expansion device where the fluid is allowed to expand into larger tubing. This process will further cool the fluid and then it is pushed into the evaporator which is a device where the fluid will be spread out even more onto what is like a radiator but works in reverse. Once the fluid travels across the evaporator a fan pushes air across it and the heat in the air is removed by the super-cooled liquid. Finally the heat soaked liquid is pulled back through the system and it all starts again. Ac systems are designed to make life more comfortable and cooler for all of us even if a failing system may make us a bit hot headed.