From Motorbooks, the leader in automotive publishing for over 4 decades, comes the most practical car care guide ever produced to help the average car owner maintain and repair his or her vehicle – How to Repair Your Car. In this easy-to-follow guide, author Paul Brand, a nationally known automotive expert, takes you through the steps of auto maintenance and repair—simple steps that could add years to a car’s life and save a driver thousands of dollars in repairs. This is also the only car maintenance and repair guide on the market to contain 50 do-it-yourself projects in full-color, step-by-step instructions that are easy to follow and understand.
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Focusing on post-1985 cars (with occasional explanations about earlier models), Brand introduces readers to the rudiments of automotive systems—from electrical, fuel, and cooling to drivetrain, suspension, tires, brakes, and exhaust—and discusses problems that arise in each system. The book includes practical advice for readers with only a passing knowledge of cars, as well as the basics of caring for a car’s exterior and interior.
How to Repair Your Car is a must-have for any car owner who wants to extend the life of his or her car, learn how to perform car maintenance or repair instead of paying a mechanic, diagnose simple noises and knocks, as well as learn tips for knowing exactly what they’re paying for when their car goes to the shop.
How to Repair Your Car is a must-have for any car owner who wants to extend the life of his or her car, learn how to perform car maintenance or repair instead of paying a mechanic, diagnose simple noises and knocks, as well as learn tips for knowing exactly what they’re paying for when their car goes to the shop.
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Because I am a novice mechanic, this book has really helped understand my old Buick.
I have only read a few parts of it, and while it tries to dumb it down, they need to dumb it a little more. I am not naturally good when it comes to cars, and if you’re like me this book is both informative and yet difficult. Its worth checking out for sure, but I’d suggest finding a friend with automotive skills to help you out on all but the easiest things you can do.
I think this book is pretty good for the ‘mechanic wannabe’ who’s just getting started (like me). All the 50 projects are illustrated with photos which is pretty neat. At the end of each chapter, there is a troubleshooting chart listing common problems associated with the specific components that are discussed in the chapter.
Now, after reading this book, I think some projects could have been a little more detailed, and some other a little less: The project on ‘how to fill coolant’ takes two pages front and back, but the one on ‘how to change thermostat’ only takes one…
Also, some projects explain how to replace such and such part, but it doesn’t explain why you would want to replace these parts if your car breaks down:
* “how to replace distributor cap and rotor”; sounds great, but how do I know that these are the parts I need to replace if my car breaks down? It doesn’t say anything about that in the electrical troubleshooting chart in this chapter.
* “How to replace the starter”; sounds great too, but where do I find it? there’s no diagram in this book that shows you where to look under the hood, beside a picture of a car, at the beginning of the chapter, with a front mounted engine (my car, like most front wheel drive nowdays, has an engine mounted sideway); and the car used as an example in this project is different than mine.
Anyway, the point is, a little more details would have been nice.
However, it is a decent book and it gave me a better comprehension of how things work under the hood. It also gave me more confidence to work on my car.
My advice is: buy this book to familiarize yourself with cars, and learn very basic car maintenance stuff such as changing your oil, checking your fluids, tires etc.
For bigger projects like ‘how to replace a water pump’ (project 29), this is probably not the book you need.
Over the recent years, I’ve been trying to take responsibility for my car. This book is full of step by step tutorials and images that make it very easy to follow.
This is an essential book for auto repairs. It helps get some of the basics down so you can repair your own car savings a lot of money! I recommend this book for anyone starting out doing your own repairs like oil changes, and the like.
This book is both informative and easy to read, but it has a few typos. I recommend it for anyone who knows little about how cars operate but want to learn.
it s pretty good book specially for a beginner gives a broad picture of basic maintenance to your auto from oil check to understanding your transmission has great illustrations and “projects” to do while learning.
This is a good book, well written with clear directions … or so it seems when I read it. I don’t have the tools they recommend you have and only recently got a garage where I could potentially use them. I may have to update this review when I get enough tools to actually use the book.
On the upside for me, it does discuss what to look for in a mechanic, which has been helpful. It’s also nice to have a basic understanding of what’s going on with my car when it acts up.
this product is exactly what i wanted. this book i a good source to know our vehicle much better and gives a lot of confidence in front of others too.
only for beginners.
We have an old 1985 motorhome diesel motor but most of the vehicle gear is standard diy stuff so this book is good for the understanding of diy servicing and standard repairs. Our 1996 top of the range 3.5ltr V6 Honda is abit more modern and not all things are covered in the book but still does a good job.