I want to be able to work on my car and do anything, diagnose my own problems, install any kind of upgrades, ect. But I find it hard to piece everything together from this forum about all of the different parts to the cars. I understand a little about the basics, like parts of the engine, exhaust system, cooling system, suspension system, and transmission. But I would like a nice book or guide to study so I understand everything about a car. I really havent found what I am looking for so far, only guides on how to do engine swaps. I would like to understand everything before I do an engine swap or turbo or new suspension or tranny ect. I hope you understand my position as I have no real experience with working on cars aside from changing my oil.

 

It really doesn't get any better than a forum. I bought my first Honda when I was 18 and joined Honda-tech; I knew absolutely nothing about anything

Then, by the time I was 20 (after 2 years of heavily browsing this forum), I was building my own motors and rebuilding my own transmissions.

I learned absolutely everything from this forum. It really just comes down to how smart you are. You adapt to the forum to the point where you'll know how to do perfect queries to find what you want, and you'll know right away what information is fact and what's b.s.

 

Actually, thinking back - I bought a book called <U>Auto Fundamentals</U> which was an amazing book. It gets pretty intense though. It covers the engineering aspects of nearly every major car company, including outdated technologies.

It seems like what you're looking for, but I found it to be a knowledge overload. I'm really only concerned with Hondas


Here it is: http://cgi.ebay.com/Auto-Funda...wItem

 

thx russell

 

I agree; Auto Fundamentals is a great book. There is no better book for basic automotive theory and the workings of just about every automotive system, shop and repair procedure, diagnosing, tools, etc.

If you want to get extremely technical you'll also want this book called "The Motor Vehicle" by T.K. Garrett. This book might not be available any more so you can pick it up used for cheap from either Amazon or Barnes and Noble. This book discusses actual automotive physics for just about every system. I'm not going to lie: a little knowledge about basic "mechanics" (physics) and algebra will do you good here. ISBN 07506 4449 4

For automotive electrical systems, try "Understanding Automotive Electronics." This gets into a lot of useful information about sensors, electrical systems and electronic engine control. Again, rather technical. Mine was printed in 1998 so you can probably get this rather cheap used. Greatly paired with previously mentioned books. ISBN 0-7506-7008-8

Get yourself some algebra and basic physics books.

 

Anybody got any suggestions for a worthwhile transmission book?