CAR MAINTENANCE DIY

GETTING CAR SMART

Whether you want to do all of your own car care work or not, you need to learn some basic car maintenance DIY. Otherwise you will be at the mercy of every sleazy operator around.

While there are a lot of reliable, honest mechanics, there are also scammers who take full advantage of the ignorance of their customers, or victims.

Learning some car maintenance DIY helps empower you against the scammers. It also helps you to better understand reliable mechanics when they explain a legitimate repair need.

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You don’t have to be a NASCAR Technical School graduate to understand today’s cars. Start with simple basics and expand your knowledge as much as you want. Think in terms of learning a little each day and you’ll be surprised at how much and how fast your insights grow. You will soon develop a BS (Bad Service) radar good enough to at least get a second opinion when you doubt an unknown mechanic.

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Here are some excellent resources for those new to car maintenance DIY:

Auto Repair for Dummies is written by a do-it-yourselfer. It has some information that is a bit dated but it’s very well written and easy to understand.

How Cars Work is written mainly for teens with little or no automotive knowledge.

The Popular Mechanics Complete Care Manual has tons of good graphics that make the explanations easy to follow.

And the Road and Track Illustrated Automotive Dictionary is NOT a repair manual. But it is a great, well-illustrated reference and companion book to any repair manual.

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When you’re ready for something more advanced with more detail about specific cars, two of the most well respected names in the auto repair manual business are:

Chilton’s Online has detailed books on virtually any car on the road. They also have complete automotive repair manuals on cd.

Haynes Online also carries a complete selection of highly detailed auto repair manuals and more.

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And if you’re a real ‘gear head’ and want the absolute latest info with timely updates about your car, and much more, then these online auto repair manuals are tough to beat:

eAutoRepair

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If you're looking for free car repair advice online 2Carpros.com is a great resource. It has a library of free car maintenance videos, a huge maintenance library, an answer page, and a lot more.

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Finally, your local auto parts stores are a wealth of information. Many of the guys and gals working the counter are car maintenance DIY types and can help with a lot of questions you might have including what should go into a basic tool box. Use care, though, the folks working the counter, while often knowledgeable, are not trained mechanics.

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