The Complete Idiot's Guide to Trouble-Free Car Care, (2nd Edition)

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Trouble-Free Car Care, (2nd Edition)

Publisher:   Alpha
Number Of Pages:   400
Publication Date:   1999-08-19
Sales Rank:   1015425
ISBN / ASIN:   0028635833
EAN:   9780028635835
Binding:   Paperback
Manufacturer:   Alpha
Studio:   Alpha
Average Rating:   3

You're no idiot, of course. You know how to kick tires and can tell the windshieldwiper control from the one for high-beams, and once you even managed to revive a fellow traveler's vehicle with the jumper cables you keep in your trunk. But when it comes to any car repair or maintenance, you'll let your mechanic charge an arm and a leg for a simple oil change and tune-up. Don't pull out that checkbook again! The Complete Idiot's Guide to Trouble-Free Car Care, Second Edition helps you build the skills you need to maintain your car and handle common maintenance and emergency repairs yourself. Feel confident about applying a little elbow grease to any project, including trickier tasks like adjusting the brakes. In this Complete Idiot's Guide, you get:

Review:

Good, general overview

One of the things that most appealed to me about this book was fact that it did provide info and guidelines for working on older cars. I've read several other care care/repair books and none of them had guidelines for cars older than about 1980. The guidelines in this book are rather general, but they should suffice for a beginner or for somebody who doesn't need their hand held the whole time.

Unlike most car care books that stop at explaining how to check fluids and change your oil, this one does give at least some general (very general) info on replacing a carburetor or automatic choke, or repairing a fuel-injection system. As noted by the author, however, these jobs really do require a Chiltons or Haynes manual. Since the book does include "Idiot's" in the title, you can bet it won't be nearly as detailed as an aftermarket or shop manual.

One thing I found really irritating were all of the cutesy words and phrases used by the author. It may be for "Idiot's", but we are still adults. On the plus side, the author does provide an entire chapter on using the Internet to further your knowledge. While the info provided was pretty useless (show me one person under 60 who doesn't know the components of a URL), he did offer a bunch of links that I found helpful.

Review:

ugh. Pass it up.

this book just confused me. Most of it only applies to really old cars, and the rest was too vague to actually follow.

Review:

Good intro for the inexperienced

Nice easy read. Good bathroom book for people like me, who don't know a damn thing about cars (hey, I grew up and lived in a city with public transporation most of my life). I agree that it doesn't really go into alot of specifics. The author tells the reader to go out and get an aftermarket guide (such as Haynes) if you need to do something serious (which I did). In that respect, this book is probably a good starting point for the person who knows absolutely nothing (to get an overview), but it can't serve as the best reference guide for your particular model of car. Other then that, it gives you a general overview of the different systems that have to be in any automobile, a very basic overview of what to look for when inspecting your ride and then some instructions on working with the simple stuff and what goes one when professionals need to do the heavy stuff. Worth the price.password: gigapedia.org

http://mihd.net/ti5bdp

http://rapidshare.com/files/57870121/t03697.rar.html

http://rapidshare.com/files/57851997/complete_idiots_guide_to_trouble-free_car_repair.rar