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So how did you all learn so much about cars?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Q
  • Start date Start date
Q

Q

Lifer
I want to learn a little more about cars. It wasn't until recently (past year or two) that I've become more and more interested in cars, how they work, etc. Honestly, sounds nerdy, but I started becoming more interested after playing a lot of car video games (Test Drive Unlimited, Forza 2, etc).

I learned a lot about PCs / computers years back from just reading forums, but I doubt it's that easy for cars.

So what did you all do? Thanks
 
Grew up near Detroit in a GM technical family...it's rather difficult to avoid it. 😛 Just so turns out that my life worked out with the auto industry in a different way - for now.
 
An excess of spare time and no instinctive tendency to save money by buying practical and reliable cars. 😛

ZV
 
Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
An excess of spare time and no instinctive tendency to save money by buying practical and reliable cars. 😛

ZV
Click to expand...

Ha! that's a great answer
 
Buy the factory service manual for the car you have right now. Read it, figure out the terms you don't understand. Take things apart and put them back together just for the pleasure of learning how it comes apart and goes back together.

You can read about it all you want, but you have to do it to really understand.

I think it's something you're born with. A natural curiosity of how things work.
 
My buddy in high school got me into cars and I learned a good bit working on cars w/him.

The rest was lots of reading. If something interests me, I research the hell out of it. I ask questions on it. I find the answer and because I'm so interested in cars, I just tend to remember it.

But book smarts only get you so far. Once you've done some reading, go out in the real world and act on it. Luckily I've got some friends who are more knowledgeable than me AND have good places to work on cars, so I've gotten a fair amount of experience to date.

One of my friends, who is an experienced mechanic and amateur road racing driver (modded 05 Evo IX), has a blog where he has addressed a lot of different automotive topics:
http://jimsgarage.wordpress.com

How Stuff Works also has a good automotive section to get solid on all the basic mechanical concepts.

If your make/model car has a discussion forum dedicated to it, start reading there too.
 
Father was a mechanic, then went to school for it, ended up buying and selling cars to make ends meet on the side, fixed them all myself, and learned more on my own doing so. I have owned over 300 cars since the age of 15. Im on my 4th this year. Had I not gotten hurt and messed up I would be on my 20th or more by now, I just love cars and owning as many as I can. If I ever won a large sum of money, say lottery, Id be screwed because then I be buying them and not trading them off for something else.
 
Combination of reading about it and more importantly actually working on the car. They go hand in hand, and one is not more important than the other. Read the manuals, then just do it.
 
Dad owned body shop and service dept, been in car business all my life, lots of drag racing, and community college degree in automotive repair. Lots of factory courses and certs, ASE (equals useless, but people like to see the certificate).
 
Started working on motorcycles at about 6 or 7. Then built my car from boxes when I was 14. Haven't stopped buying or building project vehicles/motorcycles.
 
Forums can be a good place to learn. If you find a good forum that caters to your make model, people there usually post how-to threads with details and pictures, what tools you need and step by step instructions. Plus when you get stuck you can pop on there and post your problem. 90% of the time someone has seen it or done it before and will help you out. Haynes manuals are also pretty good for the simple stuff too since they've got much the same thing. The last part of learning is actually trying to do the work yourself. Nothing beats hands on experience for fixing cars.
 
My father bought me the world's ugliest '72 chevelle for my first car when I was 16. Maintenance and modifications were my responsibility. If I didn't keep it running I had to ride the bus to school.
 
My best friend's dad. Could fix anything. Had every tool. Was always in motion. I think he shit money. Used his skills to buy stuff and have fun.

He'd teach you anything in exchange for your free labor. Everybody hung out at his house.



 
UNOH... although I didn't pursue a career in the automotive field so my practical knowledge is lacking, but I know concepts and stuff from text books.
 


1) Buy an old "project car" that is relatively popular and will have a healthy online community. And old VW or old Jeep would be good...Jeep would be a lot cheaper.

2) Get online and participate with other people interested in the car and start working on your new toy.
 
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