Air Systems & Accessories

Automobile accessory power can be produced by several different means. However, it is always ultimately derived from the automobile's internal combustion engine. more...

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An engine has one or more devices for converting energy it produces into a usable form, electricity connection through the alternator, hydraulic connections from a pump or engine system, compressed air, and engine vacuum; or the engine may be directly tapped through a mechanical connection. Modern vehicles run most accessories on electrical power.

Mechanical

Some automobile accessories are connected directly to the engine through gears or belts. These usually require large amounts of power. The air conditioning compressor is a familiar example.

Electrical

Early automobiles used a magneto and for ignition which provides no accessory power.

The first electrical accessory connection was supplied by a DC generator. Voltage varied with engine speed and because of technological limitations, complicated mechanical devices were used to regulate it. Even so, voltage at idle was too low to be useful. A lead-acid battery was used to provide proper voltage when the generator could not, and was recharged at higher engine speed or lower electrical load. The automobile self starter was an early engine system to use this.

Lighting, which had previously been through kerosene lamps or gas lamps was one of the first common electrical accessories.

Early systems were six-volt, but twelve-volt became the standard because it provided greater power with less current. The DC generator was replaced by an alternator with a voltage regulator. Due to mechanical and electrical properties, it is more efficient to convert the alternating current to direct current, and a stable voltage can be produced over a wider range of engine speeds. Higher voltage wiring up to forty-two volts has not been adopted for civilian cars, but military vehicles, such as the Jeep commonly use 24 volts.

Most modern systems, such as power windows, power seats, and power door locks, are electrically powered. Electrically driven power steering systems have been developed and are used in models such as the Chevrolet Cobalt.

Hydraulic

The engine generally has a hydraulic pump directly from the engine, but there may also be electrically driven pumps.

In passenger cars, the most common use of hydraulic power is the steering system. Convertible tops may be raised and lowered using hydraulics. Windshield wipers were sometimes hydraulically driven, although this use mostly ceased after the late 1960s. On vehicles with little or no engine vacuum, Hydraulic systems are generally adapted in place of vacuum systems.

Read more at Wikipedia.org