DEAR CAR TALK: Why do automobile makers as of late appear obsessive about push-to-start ignitions? With keyed ignitions, it is attainable to get into “accent” mode with out beginning the engine, so you can hearken to the radio and use different powered equipment.
I assume we have misplaced that function now? To place air into my tires with a 12-volt air compressor, now I must run the engine? Thanks — I take pleasure in your column. — Joe
DEAR READER: As my late brother ceaselessly mentioned to me, Joe: Au contraire, piston puss!
Automobiles with push-to-start ignition methods do have accent modes, and I am going to let you know precisely the best way to get your automobile into accent mode.
First, sit within the driver’s seat, as you usually would. Then, together with your proper hand, attain over and open the glove field on the passenger facet.
Subsequent, take away the fats factor that claims “proprietor’s handbook” on it, and verify the index for “accent mode.” Really, you could even have the ability to skip that step, Joe. Just about each new automobile I drive now has push-to-start ignition, they usually all work like this:
If you wish to begin the engine, you step on the brake pedal and push the beginning button. If you wish to go into accent mode, you do not step on the brake pedal and push the beginning button. That is all there’s to it.
Some automobiles have two accent modes: one which operates low-power objects just like the radio and a second one which permits you to use higher-powered objects just like the window motors and the fan. In that case, you push the beginning button as soon as for the primary mode and twice for the second mode, each with out touching the brake pedal.
Attempt it subsequent time you are within the automobile, Joe. And, if that does not get you into accent mode, verify your proprietor’s handbook, as a result of I am not conscious of any newer automobile with out an adjunct mode. Glad tire filling.
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DEAR CAR TALK: What makes hot-rodders’ automobiles so loud and raspy? Again within the day, gearheads had loud sizzling rods that they clearly modified, however it looks as if some on a regular basis automobiles at the moment are actually loud.
Some Mustangs and Dodges appear particularly annoying. Their drivers have made an artwork of frequently accelerating and backing off to make the best attainable noise. — Joe
DEAR READER: If you happen to’ve ever listened to a automobile that does not have an exhaust system in any respect, you recognize that engines are actually loud. A automobile with out an exhaust system seems like a Gatling gun. In spite of everything, a gasoline engine works by making explosions, proper?
That is the place the muffler is available in. It has baffles inside it, which create a “maze” that the exhaust has to cross by. And because the exhaust bounces round in that maze, it loses vitality, together with sound vitality, and comes out the tailpipe quieter.
If the exhaust avoids these baffles, its noise comes out louder and extra obnoxious. Or, as your mates with Dodges name it, “cool!”
As a result of exhaust that avoids the muffler can also be “unrestricted,” it improves the airflow within the engine and makes the automobile a bit quicker, too. So, it is doubly interesting to hot-rodders.
Within the outdated days, children who needed all that noise and energy would set up a mechanical bypass. They’d a lever that pulled a cable to make the exhaust bypass the muffler and are available out immediately, by totally different pipes, typically below the rocker panels.
At this time, like every thing else, expertise has made issues simpler. You will discover that sure sportier automobiles now have selectable settings for exhaust noise. So, you may select how loud you need your automobile to be.
There’s the “tick off my neighbor after I go away for work at 7 a.m.” mode. There’s “remind everybody I peaked in highschool.” After which there’s “I am sneaking residence late at night time after shedding the hire cash on the monitor and please, for the love of every thing holy, do not let this rattling automobile get up my spouse.”
My guess is that the majority trendy automobiles with selectable exhaust use electronically managed gate valves that redirect not less than a number of the exhaust across the baffles to make it louder.
In spite of everything, should you spend $75,000 on a Dodge Challenger Hellcat, you need to be sure that all people turns their head whenever you drive by. Even when it is simply to say “Wow, that is obnoxious.”
Ray Magliozzi dispenses recommendation about automobiles in Automotive Discuss each Saturday. E-mail him by visiting cartalk.com