This is my site!<p>This was a pleasant surprise to find my own site on HN this morning! I wondered why it was getting a few more FB likes than usual today.<p>I'm happy to answer any questions.<p>I finished this redesign last week so any feedback is welcome.<p>The main task was to recreate labels and annotations on the illustrations in SVG format, and to reformat the articles in a way that flows nicely and is responsive, but without needing complex markup in the articles. I'll write about the process if there's interest.<p>I've previously written a little about this project:<p><a href="http://www.howacarworks.com/about/making" rel="nofollow">http://www.howacarworks.com/about/making</a><p><a href="http://www.howacarworks.com/a-year-on" rel="nofollow">http://www.howacarworks.com/a-year-on</a><p>Current traffic is 200k uniques a month and it's taken about two years of steady growth to reach that point.
I always feel so uncomfortable about my car considering how old it is, and I know nothing about it or how it works. Everyone around me just cracks open their hoods and fixes their car, swaps tires, etc. I can't just move stuff around without actually understanding what anything is. I honestly have been wanting to learn more about cars. It also helps keep up with mechanics when they tell me things I don't fully understand, I don't imagine they want to sit around all day answering my questions, they probably have other people to work for. I only vaguely understand the things that have gone wrong with my car and the symptoms.<p>Thanks for such a beautiful website, and for everyone else sharing some interesting links. Being computer savvy is not entirely helpful when it comes to the mysteries of cars (not entirely anyway).<p>Btw I would love for there to be an Android app if possible. :)
De Lorean Owner’s Handbook: <a href="http://www.howacarworks.com/manuals/doc/d3218-owner-s-manual" rel="nofollow">http://www.howacarworks.com/manuals/doc/d3218-owner-s-manual</a><p>Nice. It must have taken guts to build a car in Belfast during the height of the troubles. Not that it worked out that well in the end, but it is an iconic car.
This is great. As for the criticism that a lot of the content is old, most of the core concepts can be explained better with older tech as it's simpler. This allows you to focus on what is happening and leave the extra details about what technology a part or process has for a case by case basis. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYAw79386WI" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYAw79386WI</a> is a great example of this.<p>Saying that, an article on direct injection, common rail diesels, efficient turbo charging, variable valve timing, MAF VS MAP EFI would be worth considering.
Great site! I'm going to add it to my car fixing workflow. Ie, thing breaks -> read relevant article so I understand how the system works -> find a good tutorial -> source parts -> fix.<p>If you are looking for article suggestions:<p>- Article about different fluids and their properties. I'm betting that you've covered oil weights already, but how about coolants? Regular coolant has a lower freezing temp than water, but does it have a higher boiling point as well? Exactly how poisonous is it and what things will it damage when spilled? Same for trans fluid.<p>- Possibly out of scope, but an article about how to source parts for older cars. This has always been a tough problem for me! I go with something like: look up parts schematic from manufacturer's website -> search for part by part number -> try to find the cheapest generic part (though sometimes it's worth it to pay for quality) -> find that generic parts don't exist -> go on a merry hunt for used parts on ebay and at scrapyards.
A few pieces of feedback. In the suspension section, it would be worth explaining a few things about truck suspension, also. Like solid axle, front and rear suspension, both with Coil and Leaf springs. Also, dampers are incredibly important in large trucks/SUVs because if they fail, body roll has much higher likelihood of causing you to lose control. Finally, a "bounce test" really won't work with many SUVs or truck where there is simply no way to compress the suspension to any meaningful degree with your hands.<p>personally, with trucks, I like the "speed bump test" where you drive into a speed bump and if the truck/SUV continues to oscillate upon returning to the correct height, your dampers probably need work. Additionally, since most trucks/SUVs use similar oil volume dampers to cars, the life of their dampers is frequently lower than in cars. The ones in my TRD Tundra lasted about 40K miles.
Neat site. My father was a mechanic and thus I should know all of this stuff, but I wasted away my life behind the keyboard instead :D<p>I often find videos do a much better job at explaining some concepts. For example, the section on differentials:<p><a href="http://www.howacarworks.com/basics/how-the-transmission-works" rel="nofollow">http://www.howacarworks.com/basics/how-the-transmission-work...</a><p>After reading this I feel none the wiser. Whereas after watching this ancient Chevrolet training video from the 1930's I feel like I completely understand how diffs work:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4JhruinbWc" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4JhruinbWc</a>
Very nice illustrations, but you are missing important systems that are found on many/all cars from the past 20 years, like front wheel drive, CV joints, closed-loop emissions control, OBD-II and CAN bus, distributorless (electonic) ignition, electric power steering, CVTs and dual-clutch automatic transmissions, and TPMS.<p>Diagnosing a check engine light by reading OBD-II codes, for example, is something that every owner of a car produced after 1996 will eventually need to deal with.<p>You should rebuild your content around systems that are found on the majority of cars on the road today.
There are also some great animations on how a 4-stroke engine works from animagraffs.com;<p><a href="http://animagraffs.com/how-a-car-engine-works/" rel="nofollow">http://animagraffs.com/how-a-car-engine-works/</a>
I was disappointed to see that there is no guide on replacing brake pads for disc brakes. It seems like everyone in the world knows how to do this but me.
Previously discussed at <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4974055" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4974055</a>.<p>Edit: after a year or so, reposts are fine. This is just to point out to readers that the site had appeared before—indeed, was an old Show HN.