Learning about basic car maintenance, repairs, history, etc.

[Gigantopithecus]

This forum was invaluable years ago when I first started learning about computers, & my knowledge of computers is now valuable to me as well as my friends & family. So, I thought I'd solicit the resident car enthusiasts for advice on good books, websites, etc. about cars that are newbie-friendly. I'd like to learn how a car works, which parts do what, a bit of history so I have an idea of what to expect from cars of different eras, & so on. To give you an idea of my current knowledge, I can do the following things: check & adjust tire pressure, check coolant, oil, & windshield wiper fluids, check & change an air filter, change out a flat tire. I do not even know how to change the oil in a car, so I have very, very limited knowledge.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Vette73]

IMO buy a haynes manual. It has everything from changing a air filter to pulling the engine.

Start small like oil changes and such.

I use to be an auto tech and in the end ran my own shop. My start was with a haynes manual and rebuilding my Alt. I could not chnage my oil but I could remove a strip a Si Alt down to each part and put it back together and work 100%.

 

[thedarkwolf]

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/
Has pretty good info

 

[Bignate603]

The internet is your friend, many models have their own forums and if not there are forums dedicated to fans of different brands. If they have a decent technical forum they'll give you some great insight in how to do different jobs on your car.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Haynes manuals and dedicated forums (eg. j-body.org, lincolnvscadillac.com, etc.)

 

[punjabiplaya]

yeah, a lot of the dedicated forums will even have access to the shop manuals so you can know how to specifically do something