noob question

[Lorax]

hey all, slowly getting into cars (particularly maintanence)... i find most of the terms used in the posts over my head. is there a good way to learn them, such as a class?

also wondering how some of you all got your experience... thanks

 

[NaOH]

Mostly mine was from forums, google, DIY experience and friends.

 

[ValValline]

It really depends on how you learn and how far you want to go. You can...

1. Take a class

2. Buy a Haynes, Chilton or shop manual for the car and start turning wrenches.

3. Hang out with friends that know how and learn as they help you do the work

Doing it yourself can be very rewarding and save you a lot of money. It can also be extremely frustrating and cost you a lot of money. It all boils down to how motivated you are and whether or not you have the knack for it.

 

[kami333]

Originally posted by: NaOH
Mostly mine was from forums, google, DIY experience and friends.

Same here. The biggest problem I've run into is different/wrong names for the same things.

I just recently learned that my county's high schools have evening adult education classes that offer auto maintenence and auto body work. You provide the car and consumables, they apparently have almost all the tools you need (including a spray booth) and it's only like $90 for 4months. I still need to check it out but it would be perfect since I don't have a garage to work on my car. Might be worthwhile to see if there's something similar where you live.

 

[nakedfrog]

I started learning the stuff when I got my Beetle. I knew pretty much squat about cars before that. Going over the auto stuff on howstuffworks.com is probably a decent starter.

 

[timxpx]

Originally posted by: ValValline

3. Hang out with friends that know how and learn as they help you do the work

Pros: you have good knowledgeable people holding your hand through a project

Cons: they probably get annoyed when you keep asking 'what's this do? what's that do? why do you need an oil catch can in a turbo engine?'

---

but yeah, it can't be said enough: read read read. then practice on a beater (with friends). this is how i'm currently learning... (though i still don't know the answer to the oil catch can question even though i got an answer last night. it's still all greek to me.)

 

[Demon-Xanth]

The best way I learned was to start by doing light maintenance and work your way up. Once you start getting the hang of where things are in your car you start piecing together how they interact.