Drivetrain & Powertrain – Know the Differences

Drivetrain vs Powertrain

You may not know off the top of your head what the advantages are of comparing a drivetrain vs. powertrain yet when you understand the differences between both, it will certainly give you the edge when vehicle shopping, going to the mechanic, or when Alex Trebek asks you a Jeopardy question concerning vehicle components that make vehicles move.

Simply put, powertrains and drivetrains basically do the exact same thing. They produce kinetic energy to make your car ‘go’. Now, chances are that you’ve never really considered how crucial these moving parts are. They’re the unsung heroes that get you from point A to point B and they each operate in their very own distinct way.

What are the Drivetrain Parts?

Many times the terms ‘drivetrain’ and ‘powertrain’ are utilized interchangeably but, contrary to popular belief, they are not the exact same. So just what is the difference between powertrain components and drivetrain components? The biggest distinction is the way power is produced and distributed to the vehicle.

A drivetrain is not actually a solitary part of your vehicle – it’s a group of drivetrain parts that work together with the engine to move the wheels and various parts of the car to move it into motion. These components often consist of the transmission, differential, driveshaft, axles, CV joints, and the wheels.

Drivetrain: How Does it work?

This is the order in which power is generated and delivered by a drivetrain:

• The engine will produce power to power a flywheel
• That flywheel works with the transmission to manage the quantity of power distributed to other elements of the drivetrain
• The driveshaft spins to generate power to a differential
• After that the differential provides power from all those driveshaft elements and boom … your wheels are in motion

Powertrain: What is in it?

If you understood the drivetrain fundamentals, the powertrain basics should be a simple concept to comprehend, because of the fact that there is only one specifying variable that sets them apart. That variable is the engine. In a powertrain, the engine belongs of the many moving parts. If you remember from the paragraph above, the drivetrain collaborates with the engine.

The powertrain incorporates every moving component that is important to the automobile’s success. Its sole objective is converting kinetic energy into propulsion motion. If one of these parts fail your automobile might experience some uncommon rattling, or shaking.