Auto Repair For Dummies

Fantastic Manual for car incompetents as myself!
I love this book because I am incompetent with vehicles.I know how to fill up my gas tank. I know how to pop my hood. I know the check engine light coming on is bad. Literally, that is the extent to my car knowledge.I don’t know how to change a tire. I struggled to pop hoods. I have no clue what a radiator looks like, or even what it does. My father worked on vehicles when he was younger but never taught his children about vehicles; he did all the work for us. I always took my car to the local quick change to get my oil change. I have relied on everyone else to take care of my vehicle for me, and I have to trust their judgment and what they ask to fix my vehicles.I am an analyzer. I analyze numbers and trends. I have great business skills, am technologically advanced and can type 117 words a minute. I have two Master Degrees and am working toward my PhD. I am confident in what I know. And what I know, is I don’t know a blasted thing about vehicles in any form, and that aggravates the snot out of me.I was having problems with the battery in my truck a few weeks ago; it was just not getting enough juice to start. I would did everything I knew to do (see aforementioned) and had people come examine it to no avail. Some days it would start and other days it wouldn’t. I was on my lunch break when my truck died, again. I couldn’t get back to work. I called my supervisor and she sent one of my co-workers (very capable with auto-mechanics) to come take a look. He opened my hood looked at the battery and said “your clamp is loose, that’s why your not getting any power.” I looked at him dumbfounded. What’s a clamp? He then took a screwdriver, unscrewed something, and pushed a little on this thingymajig called a clamp.The truck started.I decided that was the last straw.Something so simple made me late and affected my job performance. If I knew the basics about vehicles I could have gotten my truck started. I didn’t and I didn’t.I went to work in a foul mood, determined to learn auto-mechanics. I searched amazon, found this book, and knew it was for me.Since that time:I can change my oil. I take care of all the fluids. I can change all tires, check the gauges, coolants, anything basic. I have decided I am going to take an auto-mechanic class at the local community college. I also want to build a little garage some day, and start small repairs on my own vehicles. I would genuinely like to take a clunker and fix it with the time I don’t have.You can be like this too! I knew absolutely nothing about vehicles! This manual will teach you how to pop open your hood and fill up your gas tank. We laugh at this, but some people genuinely don’t know how to do this. My wife didn’t when we wed. Fear not; we all have to start somewhere! The manual gives detailed descriptions and accurate, simple pictures of everything you can do without seeing a mechanic for a serious problem. And the book will even elaborate when you may be doing something out of your league. Time to pony up and call the mechanic!Your car should be your best friend. It takes you wherever you need to go and you pray it starts up every morning. Why not take care of it? Not to mention, if you do your own small maintenance repairs starting now until the rest of your life, you could very well save a lot of money. Plus, it’s satisfying to look at your vehicle, knowing you have accomplished.If you have basic skills (typing, can change a lightbulb, count to 100, know how to breathe) but don’t know the first thing about a vehicle, this book is for you. I believe the book should spark interest and give a desire to learn about vehicles, teaching how to take care of them while saving the reader money.I believe the investment is worth it. And hey, perhaps the cost of the book will be far less than the mechanics hourly rate of fixing your car. I am inclined to think such is probably true in most circumstances. But I could be wrong. After all, I couldn’t change a tire until someone showed me how.

Very, very helpful guide for the non-mechanic
I really enjoyed this book. It’s easy to find guidance on what to fix or replace on your car so as to keep it in shape. It also tells you when to let a pro do it. There are many easy things to do yourself and you save so much money that way. Plus you build up confidence learning a new skills. So far I replaced my spark plugs and pcv valve (which I didn’t even know existed.).I think I have come across a few instances of the index needing to be updated to match this new edition. I’ll edit this later if that is indeed the problem; I can’t remember specific incidences off the top of my head but do believe I found some. Another qualm I have is this book and all dummies books continually say in paragraphs “(refer to chapter three for more info, etc.).” That really gets annoying while you are reading over the topic and I wish for dummies as a whole would stop doing this. It’s not helpful and it disrupts the flow of reading.

I was interested into how a car works and in that it supplies enough information.However, if you want to learn general auto repair like if your handles are not working, or you car door lock is getting stuck, or how to install an autoradio, it will not provide in these simple steps. You cannot however not say the book only handles complex reparation as it even explains how to tank gasoline.

I found this very helpful, maybe defunked for those with electric cars, but still an interesting book to read.

I had practically zero knowledge about cars and was tired of not understanding what my car was doing what it kept on doing. Now I have a decent understanding about how they work and am able to do some beginner level maintenance. Tinkering with my car is my new hobby now, and its a lot of fun!