Eli5 Why do cars move at all when in drive without the accelerator being used. I’m not talking cruise control.
In: 42
I’ve only driven Manuel cars, but I think the principle is the same for Automatics too. When you start the engine in a car, the engine keeps running whether you’re moving or not. It’s whole job is to spin a rod that leads to the wheels and makes them spin too.
When the car isn’t in gear or is in park, the car doesn’t move because the engine isn’t connected to the wheels at that moment. The engine is still spinning, but it’s not attached to anything right now.
Once you put the car in gear (or drive) you’re connecting the already spinning engine to the wheels, causing them to spin and the car to move.
So if you put the car in drive and leave it like that, the car will crawl forward slowly until you stop it or it hits something.
What the accelerator does is make the engine spin faster, thus making the car go faster. The engine will spin at a base rate without having to touch the accelerator at all, which is just enough to make the car move, albeit very slowly.
Does that help?
Latest Answers