Front Wheel Drive - FWD - Explained

How does front wheel drive (FWD) work in a car? I explain how a front wheel drive car puts its power on the ground, and its advantages and disadvantages over rear wheel drive.

NOTE: There should be CV joints at each tire, I oversimplified the diagram in this video.

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[EngineeringExplained]

Thank you! People have been exceptionally nice tonight! Glad you enjoy the videos my friend!

[thunderwolf]

you have come a long way in 5 years. good job!

[javiermerida]

in a course of two days I've gone from not knowing anything, to having a deep understanding of how my car works! thanks!

[mattlevine]

9 years later and you are a huge help. I literally had no idea how it worked and you made it super easy to understand

[Immapsycho]

Love seeing how your channel has always been 100% quality, you deserve your place at the top

[cassi]

one of the best car channels on youtube, hands down!

[EngineeringExplained]

@Aexotica Great call, what I failed to include was the joints at each wheel. There are more universal joints at each tire, I just over-simplified it with this image. With a universal joint at the tire, it can turn with the axle rods changing angle.

[EngineeringExplained]

@PolishJoe1000 You're welcome, glad you like the videos! I wish I had your luck with the oil and coolant. Did you buy your car new? I bought mine as the third owner, with 84k back in 2007. I've had to replace the radiator (though 10 years isn't bad for a radiator) and many seals as it leaked quite bad. Doesn't leak too much now, but still have to top it off every 1000 miles or so. Transmission is impeccable, and I wish other cars had such good steering feel.

[Bad_handle]

very cool to see how well you are doing man! keep up the good work. i appreciate the help from all of your videos. seeing how old this is makes me stoked

[EngineeringExplained]

@PolishJoe1000 As for the oversteer, I've had my one experience as well. Took an off-ramp too fast in the rain, let off the gas and lightly pressed the brake pedal, and was rolling backwards after a little over compensation. The area was pretty open though so no damage to my car, thankfully.

[EngineeringExplained]

This has been requested quite a bit. I have already made videos on both, I just need to do some minor editing and get to the junkyard to show some actual examples. But within the coming weeks, they will be up!

[EngineeringExplained]

@KillerZero259 No, power is not necessary equal between the two, and unequal shaft lengths is a big reason for torque steer (the consequence of unequal torque). Many newer fwd cars address this problem with equal length shafts. As far as the gears, I just threw them in there fairly thoughtlessly. Mainly just wanted to show the layout.

[sarahedgar]

Your videos are fantastic! I have just started with my Universities Formula Student team in the UK and the videos are helping me and other new teammates so much! Many thanks

[EngineeringExplained]

I surely will eventually, differentials are a topic I have avoided for a while, but will need to get into sometime.

[marshallallensmith]

I always like the rickety low budget style videos before people get budgets and go "fancy".

[nickolascunningham]

You have come a long way in 8 years!!!

[EngineeringExplained]

There are many ways of turning vertical motion into horizontal motion. I'm not sure of how specifically it's done (probably numerous ways) but any sort of pivoting lever would basically work.

[EngineeringExplained]

@m00d79 It won't differ anything other than the direction of torque steer, which I will hopefully get into in a future video. Torque and acceleration will be the same. The lengths of the arms going to the wheels will be swapped, with the shorter arm going to the wheel closest to the transmission.

[EngineeringExplained]

@Degr8n8 FWD cars can have differentials, yes. But I'm not sure about the torque steer, something I'm still working on figuring out. But one thing is the differing arm lengths (driving shafts) have a major impact.

[Synthwave]

I like how mellow you were in your older videos. Nothing against your newer ones, I'm just a mellow fellow and appreciate the same.