How do I learn how to fix cars?
I'm a cpsc major about to start a real job that I want to be able to drive to eventually. My dad was a mechanic back in Poland but never taught me anything other than changing my oil. I want to be able to repair my own car and know how it works.
TL;DR: What's a good book to read to start how to fix cars and how they work?
>>16920607
the repair manual?
just follow the wires and track the bugs, it's like a piece of software, except that you can actually touch it and don't have to stab in the dark the whole time.
>>16920616
I kind of want something more general though. Something to teach me how to work on any car, not just a specific one. Maybe some conceptual based stuff
>>16920807
best way is to take a car apart and put it back together. if you don't know something just google or join a forum.
a book's not gonna get you very far.
get a job as a lube tech at a growing dealership
there will be a head mechanic and if you suck his pecker just right, he'll show you some tricks and maybe let you take on bigger responsibility
>>16920607
Mechanic here. Fixing cars probably isn't a particularly useful skill to learn.
The first car I ever owned was a mk.II fiesta. You could open the bonnet, climb over the grill and stand between the radiator and the block to work on it. There are cars these days that you need an OBD2 connector just to get the bonnet open, and that's only going to get worse as time goes on. I work for Jaguar at the moment, and I spend more time with a keyboard in my hand than a spanner.
If you really want to go for it though, read up on how a car works, rather than how to fix it. They're fairly simple things, and all work in the same way. The skill lies in figuring out what it is that's broken, but you could do 80% of that with a flow chart and experience will give you the rest.
In terms of the actual repair, you either take the broken bit off or take of other bits until you can get to it, throw the broken bit away (nobody repairs anything these days, it's not cost effective), put a new one on and call it a day. The trick is to really, really pay attention when you're taking things apart - a 4 year old with a bag of spanners could take a car apart, but you need to know what you're doing to get it back together again in such a way as it still works.
>>16920881
>If you really want to go for it though, read up on how a car works, rather than how to fix it.
What's a good resource to do this?
>>16921241
Not him but I've been playing car mechanic simulator and I'm actually learning shit
There's information all over the Internet about working on cars and tips into getting into working on them once you learn how to work on one the next type wouldn't be as hard to learn on if you wanna get into working on I cars I suggest you go and buy like 40 cans of wd40 and like 20 rolls of duct tape xD
>>16920607
Many community colleges offer car maintainance classes.
