how do cars bring in warm air from the engine without flooding the cab with any carbon monoxide? It has got to be all so close together, right?
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Your car has a pump which circulates coolant (let’s just call it water for simplicity’s sake) through channels inside the walls of the engine. This water picks up heat from the engine and routes the (now hot) water through the radiator, where moving air cools the water so it can repeat its journey. This is a closed loop – no oil, fuel, outside air, or combustion byproducts should ever come in to contact with this water.
So now, your car’s engine also functions as a very effective water heater.
Well, at some point during this journey, the water circulates through a second small “radiator” which is usually located in a duct between your dash and engine, because this radiator has a fan which blows through it. This (now warm) air is what blows in to your cabin. This is also why most cars have to ‘warm up’ before the heater starts working – if the engine isn’t hot, it isn’t producing any hot water. This doesn’t apply to electric cars which use an entirely different system since there is no internal combustion engine generating heat as a byproduct.
The fresh air intake location for your AC/heater varies depending on model, but is usually located in an area where it is highly unlikely to suck exhaust from your own engine. I’ve seen them under the front passenger wheel well, for example. This doesn’t mean your car can’t suck in exhaust from other cars – this is possible. Typically there is a cabin air filter between you and the outside world, which helps in many cases. In any case, these incidental exhaust fumes aren’t as dangerous as they are annoying, which is why it’s often best to switch your climate control to “Recirculate” (those weird arrows) when you’re in dense traffic. In addition, your cabin will warm/cool faster in Recirculate Mode since it is processing already-conditioned air from inside the vehicle, rather than trying to heat/cool air at whatever temperature it is outside.
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