For someone who knows nothing about cars
That depends. For what purpose?
You just want to learn to fix your own car? You're in school going into the auto tech field to design engines?
my first auto book was a Haynes repair manual for my car. I just started following the step-by-step instructions and learned everything hands on.
Just curious…
1) How many years since you acquired your first Haynes Manual and began working on your own car?
2) What percentage of your current knowledge came from that first manual and it’s related applications, and what percentage came from reading subsequent material and the additional years of hands-on experience?
@avalon04
1) I guess over 20 years.
2) It's hard to put a number on it. That's like asking how much influence primary school readers and dr seuss books had on your English development. It forms a foundation for everything that comes after. But I think the main point is that they're great for beginners. When you know nothing, it's something to get you going , enables you to accomplish a task, and you learn stuff along the way.
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Of course there's no replacement for hands-on-experience, but having some guidance and learning some theory can save a lot of time and trial&error. As you gain experience, you no longer rely on all the steps and pictures as much, but the book is still useful as a reference for things like torque specs, schematics, and special procedures. I'm not a mechanic using the skills every day so often the knowledge is used once and then falls out of my head 😆 Being here on the forum helps keep it fresh though.
What is a good book for learning auto tech?For someone who knows nothing about cars
That's a very tall order especially for modern cars. Aside from books you might want to search out freely-available youtube videos that cover the basics. For example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yeb7zft_79k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQvfHyfgBtA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPjOWekzeGI
I’m not a mechanic. Just a DIYer.
Most of my learning came from real life experience trying to understand a problem I had with my car or curiosity about how the things work, from websites, forums and/or YouTube.
YouTube: Scotty Kilmer, CarWizard, EngineeringExplained, ChrisFix, EricTheCarGuy, The Car Care Nut, and more.
But for an actual book, the one that I learned the most from was the official repair manual for my 1999 Honda Accord. If you can get your hands on the official manual for any car you own, it’s fascinating to look through and see how everything is put together.
