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About This Quiz
The world of automobiles has a specific lingo and jargon all its own. If you're really into car craft, you know what we're talking about. If not, every word "car people" use that you don't know is like a multi-pronged fork in the road. And you have no idea which road to take or where each will lead. Car jargon is part engineering, part cool, part muscle, part tech, but loads of fun (if you can get over feeling a little dense, at first).Â
For those of you who think you know the ins and outs of "car speak," this quiz will test how well developed your car linguist muscles are.
For those who feel a little obtuse when it comes to "car speak," why don't you try this quiz? You'll increase your auto IQ, and you'll also be able to speak intelligently to your mechanic the next time they start speaking in auto-babble.Â
Unlike an automobile engine, this quiz is not timed. However, if you're feeling a little Bobby Unser or Dale Earnhardt in your veins, by all means, pull out your smartphone, toggle to your best timer app, and time yourselves to the split second.
Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen ...
Start your engines!
Vehicle Internal Nomination
Vehicle Information Nomenclature
Vehicle Identification Number
The VIN, or Vehicle Identification Number, is a 17 character string that gives information on a vehicle's country of manufacture, manufacturing company, factory in which produced, etc.
A contracted slang form for "My cousin Vinnie's car"
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Clunker
Jalopy
Hooptie
All of the above.
A beater car (or truck) is a vehicle that has no redeeming value other than to get you from point A to point B. It is not pretty and probably needs lots of work (body and repairs). There are additional words to describe beater cars, but we can't use them here. Just sayin'.
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The position in a front bench seat between the driver and the outer passenger
A seat, now illegal, that was positioned in the bed of a pickup truck
A rear, outside seat on older vehicles where the trunk would be folded up when not in use.
A rumble seat was a seat located where the trunk is today. The reason for its name is pretty self-explanatory.
A seat in older taxi models that folded up from the floor to provide more passenger seating in the rear.
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A door in the relative shape of a gull's wing.
The rear doors of a Ford Thunderbird.
Doors that open along the vertical axis, rather than horizontally.
Gull wing doors are doors that open upward along the vertical axis. When open, they look like gull's wings.
The front doors of a Pontiac Firebird.
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Joule and ounce
Juke and flounce
Jolt and bounce
Jolt and bounce equal jounce. Engineers are a funny lot. Not much at concocting words, eh? Some would argue, however, that the word existed long before it was used to refer to vehicles.
Jump and pounce
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The belt that turns many of a vehicle's pulleys
The serpentine belt is a rubber belt that turns many pulleys such as the alternator pulley, power steering pump pulley, air conditioner compressor pulley, etc.
The molding that goes around the exterior of a car, truck, or SUV
A winding version of a seat belt
Another word for the timing belt
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When all the brakes touch their friction material to the metal drums or rotors at the same time
Where all an engine's cylinders are arranged in a line
Inline refers to the arrangement of cylinders in a straight line, as opposed to an engine like a V6 or V8 where the cylinders are arranged in a V shape.
Where an engine is mounted transversely to the front wheels
Where all the fuel lines run parallel to each other
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Another word for a suspension lift kit
A removable front-end cover to keep bugs and rocks from damaging the paint
A vehicle bra is an out of vogue accessory used to cover a car or truck's front end and grille to protect it from bugs, road debris and rocks.
The device used for covering the windshield from the inside to block the sun
A cover for the dashboard to block the sun's damaging UV rays
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The three types of engine mounts
The different valve timing adjustments
The alignment of your vehicle's front end
Caster, camber and toe are adjustments to a vehicle's front end. Toe is the difference in the distance between front tires, front to front and rear to rear. Camber is the tilt of a tire in relation to the ground. Caster is the angle of the steering mechanism of a vehicle offset from its vertical axis. Whew! All of these adjustments affect how your vehicle handles and how its tires wear.
The three ways to adjust your headlights
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Engine mounts
Suspension system
Jounce is associated with a vehicle's suspension system. Specifically, it refers to the motion that compresses a vehicle's spring, strut, or shock absorber. When you go over a speed bump, the first motion compresses the suspension components. That first motion is jounce.
Trunk hinge
Leather softener
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Redound
Refound
Remount
Rebound
Rebound is the opposite action of a car's spring, strut, or shock absorber. It is the springing back to the normal
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Limited-slip differential
Transmission
Gearbox is accepted slang for the transmission. It's a box full gears. Yes, sometimes things really are that simple.
Turbocharger
Transfer case
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The bonnet
Bonnet is another term used for a vehicle's hood. In simple clothing terms, a hood and bonnet are nearly the same thing. Hence their interchangeability when referring to the hood of a vehicle.
The deck lid
The front flap
The upper lift
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Inside a manual transmission
As part of the exhaust system
Beside a heat exchanger in the cooling system
In front of an automatic transmission
A torque converter would be found in front of an automatic transmission. It acts as a fluid coupler, transferring power from the engine to the transmission.
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The ringing sound a piston makes inside an engine
The cylinder that a piston moves in
A round piece of metal that keeps oil out of the combustion chamber and gases in the combustion chamber.
Piston rings are circular pieces of metal fitted to pistons within very low tolerances (tolerance affects the engine's performance). Piston rings keep oil out of the combustion chamber, while keeping gas and air in the chamber.
A gear that moves to let air into the piston's combustion chamber.
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Cooling system
A drain cock is associated with a vehicle's cooling system. Usually located near the bottom of a radiator, the drain cock allows you to drain the coolant from the radiator.
Suspension system
Transmission
Air-conditioning system
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The exhaust system
The catalytic converter is associated with a vehicle's exhaust system. It uses a catalyst, usually platinum or palladium, to convert harmful components of a vehicle's exhaust into harmless compounds.
The air-conditioning system
The powertrain
The air filtration system
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The storage area originally resembled an elephant's trunk.
The original word was truck but changed to trunk over the years.
It referred to the car's body, sometimes denoted as a trunk.
People fastened wooden trunks to the back of their cars.
Before vehicle storage became a consideration for car designers, people would fasten wooden trunks to the rear of their cars to carry their belongings on trips.
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A small metal disc that expands and contracts in a vehicle's air conditioning system to regulate freon pressure
A small round plug that acts as a safety "valve," popping out if the coolant in an engine freezes, preventing the engine block from cracking
Freeze plugs — also known as core plugs — are small metal plugs that are found in an engine block's channels that carry coolant. If the coolant somehow freezes, because it is too diluted or only water has been used, freeze plugs are supposed to "pop" out of their channel to allow the excess pressure of expanding frozen water to escape. In theory, this will prevent an engine block from cracking due to that excess pressure.
A metal valve found on the underside of a vehicle's body to allow ice and snow to escape, preventing rust and corrosion
A small aluminum plug found in the radiator for emptying frozen coolant
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Inside the engine
Inside the transmission
The automatic transmission owes much to the planetary gear system. It uses planetary gears to change gear ratios without having to shift different gears.
Inside the power window mechanism
At the center of the cooling system fan
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Under the doors
The rocker panels are located under doors. They span the distance between the front wheel well and the rear wheel well.
On the upper engine
Below the front grille
Supporting structure behind the rear bumper fascia
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An SUV manufactured in a different country than the one in which it is sold
An SUV designed and manufactured by two companies
A large SUV that rides like a compact car
Usually, it's a small SUV that uses a car platform, that features a car-like ride with an SUV high seating position and layout.
Crossover SUV refers to a typically small SUV that uses a car platform to give the vehicle its car-like ride and handling, while elevating the seating point of view and incorporating an SUV layout.
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There is no separate frame from the body
A vehicle with a unibody construction has no separate frame from the body. The metal structures are formed in a way that when welded will provide the necessary structural rigidity to the body and support to the vehicle's mechanical components, like the engine, transmission, axle structures, etc.
The body is cast from a single sheet of steel or aluminum
The fenders are welded to the body, rather than attached with screws, nuts and bolts
The front and rear bumpers are made of rolled steel or aluminum
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Theft deterrent system
Door locking system
Powertrain
Suspension system
The sway bar, or anti-roll bar, connects the wheels from the left side to the right side to keep them rolling at the same speed when hitting bumps and potholes in the road.
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One of the main metal shafts that connect the wheels to the power source, like a transmission or a transfer case, sometimes called an axle
The main metal shaft that connects the transmission to the rear axle to move the rear wheels
The main metal shaft that moves the intake and exhaust valves from open to closed, repeating this several times per second
The main metal shaft connected to the piston by a connecting rod that takes the piston motion and transforms it into a spinning motion to power a vehicle's motion.
The crankshaft runs the entire length of the engine, taking power input from the pistons and transforming it into a spinning motion. This is usually connected to a transmission and forms the motion that eventually is transmitted to the wheels to make a vehicle move.
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Nope, the camshaft is the main metal shaft that connects the transmission to the rear axle to move the rear wheels.
No way! The camshaft is one or more metal shaft(s) that moves the intake and exhaust valves from open to closed, repeating several times per second.
An engine may have one or more camshafts. These move the intake and exhaust valves open and closed to properly aerate the combustion chamber and allow exhaust gases to escape.
Yup! Just another word for the main metal shaft connected to the piston by a connecting rod that takes the piston motion and transforms it into a spinning motion to power a vehicle
One of the main metal shafts that connect the wheels to the power source, like a transmission or a transfer case, sometimes called an axle
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Inside the engine's combustion chamber
Between a metal spout and a hose that keeps liquid from spilling out
In a seat covering/upholstery
A hog ring is a round fastener that attaches seat upholstery to the main seat structure.
Inside the tire's tread
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Inside your front struts
Behind your front and rear bumpers
On either side of your steering column, under the hood
On either side of your windshield
The "A" pillars are on either side of your vehicle's windshield. They hold it in place.
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Between the rear of the front seat and the front of the rear seat
On either side of the vehicle's rear glass
The "C" pillars are on either side of your vehicle's rear glass and hold it in place.
There is no such thing as a "C" pillar, only "A" pillars and "B" pillars.
Inside the roof of the vehicle and run laterally for structural support
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A vehicle's seat cushions
A vehicle's exterior decoration
Cladding is associated with the vehicle's exterior decoration, usually excessive rubber or plastic, like the kind that came on the iconic Pontiac Aztek. Cladding is all about the "look" of a vehicle.
It's a measure of the thickness of a vehicle's metal.
In a vehicle's tire tread
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The cooling system
The air conditioning system
The rear air-conditioning system of large SUVs
The turbocharging system
An intercooler would be found as part of the turbocharging system. It cools the air fed by the turbo, increasing the density of the air, and therefore the amount of air fed to the engine.
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They mean an axle that is driven by a power source, usually output from a transmission or a transfer case.
A live axle is an axle that is being driven from a source of power, such as the output from a transmission or a transfer case. This is opposed to a dead axle, which is not being driven, but is free-wheeling.
They're talking about an axle that is not being driven by a power source, such as output from a transmission or a transfer case.
What they're really referring to is the center shaft of a turning pulley.
They're pointing out the main shaft that runs through the center of a transmission.
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The white line on the serpentine belt that enables a mechanic to approximate engine RPM by counting how many times the beltline is viewed in one minute.
The serrations on the underside of a serpentine belt that allow it to grip driven pulleys better.
The imaginary line that extends through the bottom edge of the doors' window openings.
The beltline of a car is an imaginary line that extends through the bottom edges of the doors' window openings at the midsection of the vehicle, somewhat like the beltline of a man or woman.
The line by which a seat belt cannot be extended any further.
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53.03 cubic inches.
75.34 cubic inches.
57.92 cubic inches.
61.02 cubic inches.
61.02 cubic inches equals one liter of displacement. But you won't need to know how that number is calculated to drive that cool vehicle of yours!
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The front end sheet metal of a vehicle
The front clip usually refers to all of the sheet metal in the front of a vehicle, from the fenders forward (including the fenders).
Any of a number of clips that hold plastic wheel wells in place
The connecting structure between the vehicle's body and front bumper
The type of clips that hold the front fascia to the vehicle
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