I'm currently in a city college which doesn't offer any basic auto mechanics courses but I'd like to start learning it on the side. Are there any textbooks you'd recommend? To anyone who tinkers with cars as a hobby; how did you start?

 

reading any info i could find on cars or trucks. also used to take everything apart. dad didnt like that. lol.

 

A good start is picking up a factory service manual for your car.

Sites like these can help.
http://www.automotivetroubleshooting...o%20repair.htm

http://www.wannalearn.com/Home_and_G...d_Maintenance/

....and of course forums with experienced owners of cars like yours such as this one.

 

Like the previous post said, read, get some repair manuals, ask questions, talk with people who have been wrenching for awhile.

I started by just doing the routine maint. on my vehicles. Then I started doing more and more because I didn't like paying the prices for the repairs. Once I started adding tools to the screw driver and adjustable wrench I had, I realized why some of the prices are so high!

I was fortunate enough to get my hands on an old truck that was not a daily driver and I used the repair manual to just take it apart and put it back together replacing gaskets, brakes, universal joints, etc. I replaced the engine with a donor and then took the original engine apart to see what was inside it. Didn't mess with the tranny except for draining fluid and replacing filter.

I am still learning and adding to my tool box.

 

The best way to learn is experience...

Before I got my Camaro, all I knew was how to change the oil and antifreeze. My car had a lot of problems when I got it, mostly because the previous owner blew up the engine and replaced it (the heat had damaged a lot of other things under the hood, too). I got the Haynes Manual and figured things out one at a time, and now she runs like new at 289k miles!

I'd say a factory service manual is probably too advanced for a newby, but it really depends on how much you like tinkering with everything, not just cars. If you're always taking things apart to see how they work, building new things, and tweaking old things, and if you have a basic knowledge of physical science and how anything interacts with anything, you'll be a natural.

I've also found that the best way to find something out is to talk to someone who's done it before. That's why I joined this forum in the first place, LOL.

 

Ha!

 

A lot of it depends on what you want to learn about. I always say you do not need to know what all oil does to be able to change your own oil but a guy that know what all the oil does is a lot less likely to forget to put oil in the car.


Start with this
http://smartflix.com/store/video/504...ngine-Building