January 8, 2012

Improve Survival MPG? Update Your Jeep PCM Now!


Cars and trucks have become much more complicated than in years past. One of the biggest differences is that most all vehicles will use a computer to control much of everything going on under the hood this is also called a Jeep PCM. Many years ago when cars were much simpler and only had a carburetor most of all the fuel consumption was based on mechanical actions like the throttle and how much suction the pistons caused during their draw phase of operation.

All that has changed in recent years and it's important to know that much of all the major operations pertaining to fuel usage, and the fuel and air mixture are carried out by computer. All major brands like a Jeep will use a powertrain control module or PCM to run most of the cars functions. Using a computer to control how much a car or truck uses fuel is necessary since just about every car on the road these days have fuel injection. Without a computer the injectors will not know how much fuel to spray into the intake.

The transmission also plays an important role in the modern car. Before, many transmissions were only three speeds and provided little help in terms of gas mileage. For experienced drivers, they know if they can shift exactly right every time then they can increase their gas mileage. This in return can help save a lot of money in fuel costs, especially with the rising cost of gas.

One way cars dealt with ensuring that a car shifted correctly was to provide drivers with an automatic transmission that would utilize a series of valves and valve stops along with hydraulic fluid to shift gears for the driver. This provided minimal help cause most manual transmissions were becoming to be four and five speed and most automatics just had three speeds. This meant that drivers using a manual transmission would have a more mechanical advantage to make better gas mileage.

As automatic transmission added more gear to aid in better gas mileage the manufactures also saw a need to aid in better gear switching. To ensure the transmissions were switching at the most optimal times for the current driving conditions manufacturers like Jeep added a powertrain control module so that shift points could fine tuned to save the most gas. This also helped make driving their cars and trucks much more pleasant. Since a computer or PCM could effectively calculate the absolute best time to change gears then the driver always the power then they needed and the fuel efficiency they demanded.

One of the best known advantages of having a power-train control module on a vehicle like a Jeep then you can also adjust different aspects of the computer to achieve different goals. Although fuel economy is one of the main concerns of car manufacturers it's not always the main concern of car owners. By adjusting the powertrain control module you can effectively change the things like torque to aid in towing large loads for many differences. A lot of Jeep owners also adjust their PCM's so they can get better performance when going off-road.
About the Author:
By Johan Parcellis


No comments:

Post a Comment