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Used Smart Forfour Engine

All used Smart Forfour Engine listed on Breakeryard.com are tested, original (OEM) manufacturer parts and come with a 14 day money back guarantee. Breakeryard.com list cheap new OES or aftermarket car parts at discounted prices or used OEM car parts up to 80% cheaper than main dealer prices for Smart Forfour from premium breaker yards from across the UK.

About Engine

What is the engine/what does it do?

It goes without saying that the heart of a vehicle is the engine. Without it your vehicle will be going nowhere fast, so it’s important to keep it running smoothly and recognise any signs of engine trouble before they become catastrophic. There are two main types of engine, the diesel engine and the petrol, and both of these engine types use internal combustion (small explosions) to operate the engine.

Getting into the details of the engine

The engine has a series of pistons attached to a crankshaft below them and a camshaft above them via a connecting rod. The amount of pistons varies depending on the vehicle. Motorcycles for example, often have two cylinders, but a vehicle can have up to eight depending on the power of the engine. These cylinders can be positioned in an inline position, sideways, as in a VW Beetle (known as a flat four), or in a V position such as a V6 or V8 engine.

The job of the crankshaft is to carry power generated by the pistons to the rest of the vehicle, and eventually the wheels in order to move the vehicle. This crankshaft has counterweights to ensure that its movement is consistent. The crankshaft is attached at the side to the engine’s flywheel. The flywheel stores torque from the torque converter, and combined allows the engine to spin independently of the transmission.

The crankshaft, along with the camshaft are controlled by a timing belt to ensure that they both move in synchronicity. This is important as the correctly timed opening and closing movement of the engine’s valves are essential to prevent the pistons from striking the valves when moving.

When an engine is operating, it goes through what is commonly known as ‘four strokes.’ The first is intake stroke, which is where the piston is in the top position and moves down, allowing the engine to take in petrol and air.

The next is the compression stroke, which is where the valves close and the piston moves back up compressing the fuel and air mixture.

The third stroke differs between a diesel and petrol engine, but nonetheless is still called the power stroke. In a petrol vehicle a spark is given off by a spark plug which ignites the fuel and water mixture. In a diesel engine, the fuel is injected in to the compressed air. Because compressed air is hotter than non-compressed air the introduction of the diesel causes combustion when the two mix. In either case, the fuel mixture explodes, and drives the piston back in to the down position.

When the piston hits the bottom this opens the exhaust valve and the remaining spent fuel mixture leaves the exhaust.

What if something goes wrong with the engine?

There are many reasons in which a vehicle’s engine can fail and these are most often caused by damaged or worn engine parts. For example, a lack of compression in your engine could be caused by a problem with the cylinder, or damage to the piston or its surrounding ring. This could cause air to be leaked out of the engine.

Alternatively, a spark plug can fail. Firstly, try cleaning off a spark plug as this can sometimes sort the problem. If a spark plug has failed, it will need to be replaced as this provides the essential spark to the engine’s internal combustion. A lack of power could also be caused by the ignition timing being wrong, which will cause the spark at the wrong time. Alternatively, the battery could be flat, meaning the engine can’t be turned over.

Smart trivia

  • Smart cars are very light and can weigh as little as 1,940 pounds. That’s just 63.5 kilos!
  • You can fit a Smart car in a variety of strange places, and these have actually been tested! Some of the weirdest places that you can park a Smart car include the basket of the world’s largest hot air balloon, the narrowest street in London (Crawford Passage), and in the parking bay of a Predator 180 yacht!
  • You can fit a Smart ForTwo the wrong way in a parallel parking space, or you can fit two of them into a basic one-car parking space. That makes it ideal for busy cities, which is why the Smart range was designed in the first place.
  • To show off just how much room there is inside a Smart car, a promotion was held for its tenth anniversary that saw 13 gymnasts squeezing into a ForTwo.
  • Both the Smart ForTwo and the Smart ForFour have semi-automatic gears, so you still have to use the gear stick, but strangely, there isn’t a clutch pedal at all! It can take some getting used to, but it certainly makes driving a lot more relaxing.