Everybody here is a engineer. Help me.

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I was thinking before I went to bed.. what could be a really efficient car that uses less amount of oil/fluids etc.. and easier to maintain? Heres my ideas.


1. 3 quart oil sump/Engine and Manual transmission uses the oil in the same sump/ 2 different filters.. one for the engine , one for transmission. So your getting double filtered oil...

2. Clutch/Brake or anything else Hydraulic uses the same Master Cylinder and uses very little fluid

3. alternator, Water pump, power steering, ac compressor etc.. are all electrically operated .. no belts. Ok.. well.. there will be a emergency belts,, just incase some electronically goes wrong.

4. Magnetically controlled Brake system.. no brake pads.

5. Air Filter every 100,000 miles.. through it in the washing machine.. run another 100,000 miles.

6. No Spark plugs or wires. Each cylinder has has some sort of Coils.

7. Blinkers that don't require fluid...........

anybody have any ideas?
 
Hydrogen
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Cyprs
 
2. Clutch/Brake or anything else Hydraulic uses the same Master Cylinder and uses very little fluid


If you mean resevour, I've seen them ..but it was a long time ago. I do believe that some ancient rolling hardware used the same master cylinder for both. Half application did the clutch ..further application did the brakes.
 
how would you have an electronically driven alternator? what would generate the electricity to run it?

they could make the alternator/starter one unit like a portable welder/generator does, and they could incorporate it into the flywheel/felxplate/torque converter.

all accessories could be driven off of the timing chain. less maintenance for sure. build the parts with high enough quality and they won't need to worked on.

all accessories could be mounted at the flywheel end of the engine and hydralically driven with pressure from the automatic transmission.
the clutch and brakes could be operated with "boosted" hydralic pressure from the trans also.


german cars had shared brake and clutch fluid resivors for a while.
 
I'd rather have a direct connection to my brakes, no "drive by wire", thanks.

Buy a bargain basement econobox without power steering or AC and it's a lot simpler.
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I think my sister's Accent has a 3 quart and change sump.

Coil-on-plug technology is coming along slowly. Ironically for the waste spark in some apps one still needs a short wire.

Making the seals to share oil between then engine and transaxle is more trouble than it's worth. The transaxle oil will last longer if it doesn't have to deal with combustion byproducts, and a manual tranny will happily live on splash lube when the engine needs pressure.
 
I believe what we drive now is the result of good engineering and a maximization of present technologies. For every problem (or issue) that is in front of us, which you may want to resolve with a design change probably has a drawback.

You have to be careful that any cure to a problem doesn't present any new problems. I see this way too often specifically in engineering, more broadly in life.

A little off-topic here, but:

I once got a kick of of discussing some issue with a non-engineer over beers.... I think it was about garbage and what to do with it. She made the comment, "That's the engineers' problem, it's up to them to come up with an solution." This floored me. It's not incumbent on the engineer to fix a problem. The engineer only offers a series of solutions. It's up to society to pick and choose which solution is the most desireable for them. We did this in Detroit over 100 years ago when people in the city expected to be knee-deep in horse manure. Society hailed to invention of the automobile as the answer to their pollution problems.

I mention this to people who blame the engineer for all of our present-day problems with automobiles. I tell them nobody put a gun to their heads and forced them to buy a car.... they can always ride a horse if they need to get around. Engineers gave them a choice - Society chose the automobile.

In answer to your question on topic, I say the market has decided what technologies are incorporated into the modern vehicle and its configuration.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Korean_redneck:
7. Blinkers that don't require fluid..

Is this that gag about buying 'synthetic' halogen fluids to top-off my headlights?
 
Originally posted by tom slick:
[QB] how would you have an electronically driven alternator? what would generate the electricity to run it?

That's the first thing that came to mind also. Then I thought of a nuclear powered alternator. Better yet make the whole **** thing Nuclear.
 
I'd like to see steering wheels and foot pedals gone.

They are, IMHO, the weak link right now in the overall car-human interface, especially in terms of safety and reaction times. Replace them with sidesticks.

The upsides would be, of course, easier maintenance, better energy efficiency, better safety during a crash, among other things.
 
1. 3 quart oil sump/Engine and Manual transmission uses the oil in the same sump/ 2 different filters.. one for the engine , one for transmission. So your getting double filtered oil...

Um, already exists, check every motorcycle ever made. Most have one filter though. But as noted, reduces trans oil life significantly, more trouble than it is worth.

2. Clutch/Brake or anything else Hydraulic uses the same Master Cylinder and uses very little fluid

But you just argued for magnetic brakes?

3. alternator, Water pump, power steering, ac compressor etc.. are all electrically operated .. no belts. Ok.. well.. there will be a emergency belts,, just incase some electronically goes wrong.

Already happening (except alternator of course.) BMW 3 has electric water pump, Lexus IS has all-electric steering, Honda Insight has electric AC, etc. Big problem is enough electrical capacity, if every accessory is electric you need to go more that 12v or have super thick wires.

4. Magnetically controlled Brake system.. no brake pads.

Exists on some trains, expensive and more trouble than it's worth, conventional brakes can last 75k miles at a cost of $150 what more do you want?

5. Air Filter every 100,000 miles.. through it in the washing machine.. run another 100,000 miles.

Already exisits, have you heard of K&N?

6. No Spark plugs or wires. Each cylinder has has some sort of Coils.

Coil on conventional plug has been out for a long time, as far as no plug at all again you have to have the electrical capacity to generate a spark, plugs are actually small and quite efficient, they can now last 100k miles for $4 apice, again what more do you want?

7. Blinkers that don't require fluid...........

How about ones that don't require filiments? Already out, LED taillights...
 
quote:

Originally posted by Gary Allan:
If you mean resevour, I've seen them ..but it was a long time ago. I do believe that some ancient rolling hardware used the same master cylinder for both. Half application did the clutch ..further application did the brakes.

I've seen that too. On all Saab 900 through at least 1990 and 9000 through at least 1995. Also, 1976 - 1980 Saab 99.
 
quote:

Originally posted by kreigle:

quote:

Originally posted by Gary Allan:
If you mean resevour, I've seen them ..but it was a long time ago. I do believe that some ancient rolling hardware used the same master cylinder for both. Half application did the clutch ..further application did the brakes.

I've seen that too. On all Saab 900 through at least 1990 and 9000 through at least 1995. Also, 1976 - 1980 Saab 99. The Brake master cylinder reservoir has a separate nipple about 1/2" above the bottom of the resorvoir that feeds teh clutch reservoir. If the clutch springs a leak, the location of the feed nipple ensures that enough fluid stays in the reservoir to feed the brakes.


 
quote:

Originally posted by Gary Allan:
If you mean resevour, I've seen them ..but it was a long time ago.

The Contour and Escort share the reservior for the brakes and the clutch. The Mustang doesn't...but it has a cable clutch.
 
quote:

Originally posted by pitzel:
I'd like to see steering wheels and foot pedals gone....

Our company has such a concept car out there called the NOVANTA.

http://www.skf.com/portal/skf/home/solutions?contentId=0.000336.000737.001359.001378&lang=en
http://info.detnews.com/autosdb/index.cfm?action=details&picture_id=338

It has no brake pedal or gas pedal. All action is from the steering wheel... throttle-by-wire, brake-by-wire, steering-by-wire. The steering wheel car be used on the left side, or flipped over to the right side if you drive in Britain.
 
"... if every accessory is electric you need to go more that 12v or have super thick wires."

42 volts is coming. The GM hybrid trucks and maybe some others already have it. The fewer mechanical, hydraulic and vacuum systems on the car, the lighter it can be, with less space devoted to those systems. This is how the new Boeing 787 is being designed to save 20 percent on fuel, all-electric systems.
 
Which do you want? Efficiency or ease of maintenance or fewer fluids (or performance and comfort)? Or overall cost? It's all a balancing game.
Converting energy from heat of combustion to motion is inherently not energy efficient. Neither is converting this motion into electricity and then back into motion (water pump, power steering, AC, etc.) Gears, belts, and especially chains are very energy conserving (low losses), maybe at the expense of packaging. Internal combustion/electric hybrid drivetrains can reduce engine size to some degree. Regenerative brakes cost money and add weight and complexity, even though they recoup lost energy. What's it worth to you?
For overall lowest cost to yourself (and lowest impact on the environment through new production), how could you beat an old Rabbit diesel? (In Europe, small diesels are the norm.) But you want comfort and performance, too, right?
 
quote:

7. Blinkers that don't require fluid...........

How about ones that don't require filiments? Already out, LED taillights...

LED headlights. I've seen LED turn signals, taillights for trailers. An LED headlight would be the missing piece. Although getting it bright enough and ensuring proper aim would be challenging. LED's come very bright when they are many. We have made 24 LED spotlight that seems to be just as bright as a car's headlight and seems possible to design into a headlight assembly, it just doesn't shine out as when you have your high beams on. Seems to be a great idea for low-beams however.
 
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