The Basics Of The Ignition System

A Word of Wisdom: Maintaining your vehicle is to your benefit. Tune up, oil change, brake inspection, drive belt inspection, inspection of fluid levels and conditions and for any appearance of contamination. Typically this is performed by a good repair shops at the time of your vehicles Tune up. Always look at your invoice for recommended service. Remember the phrase of show and tell. Have the mechanic show you. Get a quote of the cost. A good and honest shop wants your business so they want to keep you happy and informed of any upcoming repair that the vehicle may need. They also don't wont the blame if the vehicle breaks down at a later date.

The purpose of the ignition system is to ignite, or fire, the spark plugs in order to generate power to run the engine.

The BATTERY sends current to the IGNITION COIL high voltage goes on to the SPARK PLUGS through a DISTRIBUTOR. Some newer vehicles are Distributor less, but have the some similar concept.

The distributor less system has an electronic coil module that does the same thing.

• The ignition coil transforms the relatively small amount of electrical voltage that it receives from the battery into a big enough jolt of voltage to jump the spark plug gap.
• The spark plug wires carries the high voltage to each spark plug.
• The spark plug deliver the spark of voltage to the combustion chamber.
• The current enters distributor cap and leaves the distributor via the coil and spark plug wires.
• As the distributor shaft turns, the rotor rotates with it and points toward the terminal at the base of each spark plug wire so that each plug can fire in the correct order.
• The ignition module transistorized component that triggers the ignition coil to fire high voltage. This device replaces the old style (points).
• The ECM electronic control module (the computer, or brain) of modern cars. This system tells the engine when to give fuel and air, Also gives and receives signals from the sensors. When a signal is stored from sensors, or a circuit malfunctioning the check engine light on the dashboard comes on.

Learn more about the systems...

The Starter System

The Coolant System

The Brake System