I just cant hack it

>>12335749
I know that feel, I just want to swap my winter wheels out for the summer ones, but my driveway is a hill, and the 'flat' part at the top might as well by a martial landscape because my roommate's stupid 2+ tonne truck has sunk huge pits into the payment after being parked for months at a time when he's off doing military shit and he doesn't leave the keys

>>12335749

Do you also live in an apartment complex? It fucking sucks.

Eh, if you care, you will spend the money on tools. I used to be intimidated by the stuff I read on all the forums and ect... Then I just sucked it up and did. Now I'm all of my "friend's" mechanic and tech support.

But I was eventually able to rebuild my engine an turbo it by myself. And as rough as the car is to drive now, it is unbelievably satisfying to pass people and then tell them, yes,l I built it.

>know nothing about motorbikes
>rent garage near my house(no power but its cheap so IDGAF)
>purchase motorbike having never ridden one
>teach myself (to much dismay) how to ride outside the guys house
>drive home
>something breaks
>google problem
>find how to on youtube
>buy tools needed
>fix

You can teach yourself anything, there is no excuse

I took my car to a mechanic once to do a simple job, the guy could barley speak a sentence without mumbling and clearly had no education. He charged me for 3 hours labour on a job that youtube showed could be done 'at home in 40-60 minutes'

If a retard can be called a mechanic, you can figure it out too

>>12335872
This post was actually life changing

>>12335872
youtube + forums is the magic gateway that allows you to maintain almost any car yourself for very cheap.
it turns bmws from money pits into fun runabouts you get the satisfaction of fixing up

>>12335749
If you have the desire you can. I live in an apartment and drive a truck. I keepy tools in there and use my spare room as a garage to rebuild a 13b

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>>12335749
>no mechanic father to train me to wrench from child
Fuck that, I tried to learn from muh dad but he gets too salty while working on cars for me to learn. I gave up trying to help him(in the process learning) work on his shitboxes years ago. Have to take car to the dealer to do most basic things, oil changes included, but don't give a fuck cause I'm white middle class.

>>12336034
you can't go on living like that anon

>>12335749
dont trip man just go at it then you realize its like legos but label shit so you dont loose track of where it goes in bags

and yeah tools can be a bitch
my dad never let me do shit on my own so i had to learn my self

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>>12336034
How does it feel to be a cake-eating lounge lizard?
Man up and get some tools.

>>12335749
>Each time I try to do something I realize I dont know jack shit and need to buy even more tools.
ive been a mech for 12 years... this happens monthly if not weekly.
>I'll end up wasting half the day looking stuff up
then that day is not wasted

>Ive been trying to paint my cars but its been a huge time sink and at this point it would have been easier and not that much more expensive to just get stuff Maaco'ed
this is completely different than fixing mechanical shit. fuck body work. i will never EVER do that fucking bullshit ever the fuck again. all i did was my harley and i have better memories of iraq than i do fucking sanding and priming and sanding and priming and edging and blasting and mixing and heating and lighting and air, and and dust fans and FUCK no. no...nononononono NO. never again.

if you can fit your hand into a cramped space and twist a nut or a bolt you can 100% fully work on every and any aspect of a car by yourself

if you can plug 2 things into each other than you can work on computers


dude its so easy that when people say they dont know what they are doing i immediately lose all respect for them and consider them stupid

>>12336062
>>Each time I try to do something I realize I dont know jack shit and need to buy even more tools.
>ive been a mech for 12 years... this happens monthly if not weekly.

>>12336072
>if you can fit your hand into a cramped space and twist a nut or a bolt you can 100% fully work on every and any aspect of a car by yourself
>if you can plug 2 things into each other than you can work on computers


+1

shits not that hard just be safe when you lift it off the ground do the shake test lol

and you will cut and bruise yourself

and you WILL get pissed off

and eye protection is a fucking must

as the anon said above, there really is no excuse nowadays not to learn how to wrench on cars. My dad cant do anything beyond changing an air filter. After getting ripped off by sleazy, ex-convict mechanics, I found the drive to learn on my own. You can take part-time evening classes at a trade schools. Or, if your cheap like me, you can "acquire" auto books off the interwebz and watch youtube vids to gain a better understanding on how cars work. It all depends how bad you want it

>>12336034
you're pissing a whole lot of money down the drain anon...

>>12336189
I would rather spend my time learning skills that make me money. Instead of learning one skills that saves me a little money.

That being said I have learned how to do shit on my own. Still, it is more efficient for me to focus on increasing my income then it is for me to learn about fixing cars, which only save me a little money.

Man tools are really not that great of a problem $200 and you can get what you need. A 2 ton jack, and a good socket wrench kit is all you really need at the end of the day, they get everything done.

>>12336785
>headgasket

Which car skills are easiest to learn but also save the most money?

Are community college classes worth it? I have the potential for a free ride to community college and I've been thinking about quitting my shitty job and doing auto repair.

Good idea or no? I can't learn without being shown so, "go to the library and get a book instead of college" doesn't work for me.

>>12336785
lel wut? who says it cant apply both ways?

fix your own car
buy your own tools
pay less than what a shop charges
keep tools and gain experience in the end

Use experience to fix family/friends cars
make some money on the side

its a win-win if you ask me
You dont have to dedicate a majority of your time to learning this skill. But its still better to learn to at least understand and fix any small issues that come your way before they become bigger, more expensive issues. If ex-cons and cleaned up heroin addicts can do this, so can you
>>12336845
tune-ups/ basic maintenance (spark plugs, brake pads, fuel filters, oil changes)

>>12336901
is this your first time here?
be an electrician or an hvac technician
auto repair is only good to make some extra side money

>>12335749
do civilians not have like, diy shops?

I'm in the military and we have these garages with lift bays, tools, dyno, paint shop where you can take your POV and if you know what you're doing then you can work on your own, if not someone can teach you. I never even considered how much it would suck having to work on my car while living in the baracks because we have this service.

>>12336953
I haven't been coming here very long. I'm not necessarily thinking job, I just want to learn. My CC offers 2 year degrees in it, then full transfer scholarships to a 4 year if I get good grades.

I just mean am I going to learn anything? I frequent /g/ and /agdg/ and pretty much everyone there says college is shit for learning programming. I don't know if cars are the same when I comes to college and learning.

>>12336953
>auto repair is only good to make some extra side money

It's not even good for that. I worked in a garage for ~3 months and the atmosphere was dismal and from what I read my garage wasn't some isolated incident. The dudes I worked with were cool as fuck, but they hated their lives and were alcoholics and worked their fucking asses off like you wouldn't believe.

The environment in auto repair is just getting worse and worse, with dealerships taking a larger cut of the hourly labor and giving mechanics less with each passing year and with warranty work being so common now the mechanics get even less for that.

If you really must, just start applying at tire shops and be an oil/tire/battery changer. That will give you a good idea if you like it or not. Regardless of what classes you take in school, this is where you will start because experience >>> book smarts.

>>12335872
>>something breaks
>>google problem

Yeah, if only diagnostics was this easy. And if only every problem and its solution step by step were described somewhere.

Contrary to the popular saying, the Internet does not have everything readily available.

>>12336214
>>12336059

Or anon maybe prefers to not spend days to do something they can pay others to do and instead goes out to do something entertaining, which wrenching clearly isn't for that anon.

>>12337009
PS: If you do get a job in a garage, take eye protection seriously. For real, if they tell you to wear eye protection and you think you are way too cool for that shit, think again. You do not want to learn the value of eye protection when that wire wheel begins to fray and starts spitting a million needles out everywhere or a chunk of rust smacks you in your cheek instead of your eye.

>>12336977
heres a good book for someone to start off with

http://kickass[dot]to/automotive-technology-prins-diag-and-svc-4th-ed-j-halderman-pearson-2012-bbs-pdf-t9383253[dot]html

dont spend too much time studying every single detail of the book. Start off learning how an engine works, what makes spark plugs spark, and how the fuel system works. Afterwards, you can move to other systems like the emission, transmission, electrical, starting/charging and so on.

if at anytime your confused, youtube is your friend. Watch videos by ericthecarguy. He has good, simple videos for beginners.

I still dont understand why there isnt a sticky with reference material for car newbs.

>>12337050
Thanks. I had a lot of surgeries during my teens, so I just got my license a couple months ago and am now on my own and I don't even know how to change my oil.

>>12336785
>I would rather spend my time learning skills that make me money

do you have ANY idea how much money heavy diesel mechanics make? ESPECIALLY out in the oil fields?

>>12336034
>he gets too salty while working on cars for me to learn
>too salty for me
>"m-muh feelings are hurt !"
Get swindled, get scammed, get robbed, get jewed and get also cancer while you're at it.

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>>12336062
>i have better memories of iraq than i do fucking sanding and priming and sanding and priming and edging and blasting and mixing and heating and lighting

>>12336901
Auto repair is a shit career
Go diesel tech if you want to stay in a similar field or pick something else
Fixing cars should by your hobby, not your job

>>12336977
I seriously doubt any worthwhile university will recognize most of those credits. You'll probably get transfer credit for a semester of geneds they make you take and a few elective credits

Technically it will be called an associates degree but it won't get you out of your first two years at college. All the people doing cc first are getting associates of arts and science, not two year auto tech certifications

What's stopping me from leaning to work on my car is I don't have a garage.
I don't want to work on my car in the apartment complex parking lot because social anxiety and I don't want to go to some parking lot because what if I mess up my car? Then I'm stuck somewhere random with my car half disassembled.

>>12336062

My family has multiple body shops in Puerto Rico, sadly I grew up in FL so I never got to learn anything about that. I understand it's probably tedious as hell to make sure you get the paint job just right and you probably need some decently priced equipment.

>>12336072
I think they're more afraid of fucking something up irreparably, I know that's my fear when I'm working on the DD. I know I need this car to be functional by monday, I can't afford a rental, I can't afford major work by a mechanic, etc.

>>12336189
It also helps to get a cheap shitbox to take apart and fix up while you keep a DD on the side. If you can that is, I know that isn't realistic for some people due to space limitations and available funds.

>>12339232
>my hobby is drinking excessively while operating power tools

>>12339232

Some mechanics love their job and some hate it, just like any other field. I think what pisses them off the most if the idiots they have to deal with on a daily basis. You gotta be willing to deal with some ignorant and rude people who come to you thinking you're about to try to rip them off.


>>12339311

Yeah not having the right tools and equipment, AND the space to work on your car is probably one of the things that I can understand when someone says they can't get into it. Not everyone lives in their own home with a big garage where they can securely leave their car for multiple days while they do major work on engine, trans, or suspension.

I do IT for a living, dad never taught me anything about cars beyond driving basics but I know how a car works and do all my maintenance and just replaced my alternator

I don't like paying people to do stuff I can easily learn to do myself. The only thing I didn't personally fix on my car was the blown head gasket (diagnosed it myself though and just took it straight to a mech and told him what to do)

The internet, a Haynes manual and having a brain will help you with most of your car problems

>>12337050
I came into this thread because I'm in a similar position. I have to say that textbook is gold, thank you. Researching myself is fine, and I have learned a ton - but I'm also dreadfully aware of how long that took because I didn't know what to focus on or what was important to know. Diagnosis for example is still something I would be terrified to think about, because it requires such a deep understanding of how everything works and how they interact.

My intention actually when I got my car was to do all the basic maintenance myself immediately following purchase, and perhaps try to find someone on /o/ to meet up with who owned a garage and would mutually benefit from a new car bro. Is anyone in the GTA up for something along those lines later this summer?
M/19

>>12335872
Do you have any idea? That's the problem, YouTube guy usually has all tools, parts, probably done it before, and the dude probably cut boring shit out. People have no idea what mechanics go through and the level of intelligence needed to A. Decifer what the customer means when all they say is it goes chunk chunk bang. Good look googling that. And B. Actually fixing it and dealing with cheap customers, slow parts delivery, and all the shit in the way of the part you need to fix. Oh, and by the way, a loose exhaust, brakes, spark plugs and wires, and oil changes don't count as mechanic work you fuck. This is the reason that mechanics get a bad rap: people don't understand what it takes to fix something so they assume its easy and just getting fucked over. If you dont want it done right, fix it yourself you ignorant little shit. Stop bitching.

OP here. I just replaced my headlight motor and sand/primered my hood again. I guess even if I dont save any money or end up wasting a lot of time, its the experience that counts for something. In several years Ill look back and say "hey, that sucked and I didnt know jack shit but now its another memory".

But doing it in your apartment lot completely blows. I have to clean up after any work I do each day, wind blows dust and bird feathers everywhere, and my slav neighbor keeps saying "damn you really love that car dont you?" and making anxiety-inducing remarks whenever he sees me fucking around like an idiot kid.

Things Ive done, all easy noob shit:
> Changed oil, twice. Messy but eventually successful.
> Changed front brake pads on my Civic.
> Did some repainting - so far results are inadequate but Im getting there (I hope)
> Changed headlight motors and headlight

Still to do:
> See if there's anything up with my suspension
> Delete broken AC (or fix?)
> Fix chunk-tastic shifter
> Replace leaky heater core (already bought the core but nervous about fucking with my coolant system)
> More brake pads, possibly drum brakes

>>12335749
source on picture?

>>12336915
Not that anon, but I make way more money in my career than I'd make as a mechanic. Learning my job better equates to even more pay. And sure, I could make bank as a diesel mechanic, but I can make the same bank in my cushy clean office.

That said I do enjoy wrenching on cars as a hobby, but I try to balance working on my cars myself vs farming out to a mechanic. More likely to drop my daily with a trustworthy mechanic for a tedious job. At the same time I'm not paying massive markup and labor costs for a 5 minute coil pack replacement. I typically try to diagnose issues myself and from there decide if it's worth the frustration and time to do myself or not.