There were no repair shops during the early days of the automobile; families would just drive their cars until they fell apart and then they would either start a new city among the car's remains or turn into skeletons. Revive your ride with this Groupon.
Choose Between Two Options
- $39.99 for a BMW software update (a $185 value)
- $29.99 for a State of the Art engine and systems diagnostic service (an $85 value)
Software updates keep your German-bred vehicle running at peak efficiency, optimizing and expanding its electronic functionality with the newest available engine software from Bavaria. The State of the Art car-care probes the virtual workings of your car's computer to get a reading on the performance of your auto's many systems, potentially uncovering festering engine codes that can cause trouble in the future.
Regular maintenance keeps all the parts of your engine moving smoothly. Peek under the hood with us to see how those parts produce road-razing power.
Internal-Combustion Engines: The Muscle in a Muscle Car
Beneath the guttural rumble of a car engine is an incredible amount of force. As soon as you step on the gas, fuel vapor mixed with air begins exploding, driving metal pistons in and out of chambers where temperatures regularly hit 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. This enclosed system of pistons propelled by direct contact with burning gas defines an internal-combustion engine. (There is such a thing as an external-combustion engine, in which the heat is produced from outside the cylinder—as in the old-fashioned steam engines that people in the past used to make trains look extra friendly, for instance.)
The internal-combustion engine under the hood of the typical car completes its cycle in four stages, or strokes. First, fuel and air fill the cylinder as the piston drops. As the piston returns to the top of the cylinder, it (2) compresses the fuel mixture before (3) a spark from the spark plug ignites the mixture, the force of the explosion pressing the piston back down. Finally, the cylinder rises once more to push out the exhaust. As the crankshaft at the base of the pistons is kept turning by this constant cycle, it drives the rotation of the transmission, which applies all that power in a controlled fashion to the axles and, finally, sends you speeding down the road.
