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Under the Bonnet: How a Car Works

Pistons pump, gears mesh and brakes squeeze, all in the blink of an eye. Lift the bonnet and find out if you really know what happens when you press the pedal.

🏎️ Cars medium 20 questions ~7 min

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What this quiz asks

Of the three pedals in a car with a manual gearbox, which one is on the left?
Which engine part turns the up-and-down movement of the pistons into rotation?
Put the four strokes of a four-stroke engine in the order they happen, starting with the one that draws in air and fuel.
What does the clutch do when you press the pedal down?
Most car braking systems use a liquid to carry the force of your foot from the pedal to the wheels.
Which gear multiplies the engine's turning force the most, giving the strongest pull at the wheels?
What does a car's differential allow the driven wheels to do?
Traditional automatic gearboxes use gear sets in which small gears orbit a central 'sun' gear. What are these called?
In a disc brake, which part holds the brake pads and clamps them onto the spinning disc?
Select ALL of these that are parts of a car's suspension.
What is the main job of a car's shock absorbers?
In a drum brake, are the friction shoes pushed outwards against the inside of a spinning drum?
What does the thermostat in an engine's cooling system do when the engine is cold?
How many full turns does the crankshaft make during one complete four-stroke cycle?
In a front-engined, rear-wheel-drive car, power reaches the rear axle through a long propeller shaft running under the car.
Select ALL of these that are types of automatic or self-shifting transmission.
What is 'understeer'?
In what year did Nikolaus Otto build his first working four-stroke engine?
What lets a front-wheel-drive car's driveshafts keep turning the wheels smoothly while they are steered?
What does the synchromesh in a manual gearbox do?