How do you get started working on cars? i was never into them as a kid but now i am...

how do you get started working on cars? i was never into them as a kid but now i am. i want to work on one and learn shit but i'm a wageslave who rents an apartment. i feel like everyone who knows anything about them has been doing it since high school. how do you guys do it?

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you see shit that needs to be fixed and you fix it

you buy a shitbox that's cheap to maintain and repair and work on it until its not a shitbox.

i only own a daily. should i get some cool old car that needs work done and just dick around indefinitely?

How old is the daily? You can get started on the small things on a daily if it is old enough.

Oil is a good starting spot and work your way up to a valve adjustment or port cleaning. Most cars made this century are all just modular replaceable parts. It is actually a lot simpler than you think it is.

Where I live, it is mostly lying on my back in the snow fighting rusted bolts.

Your likely not allowed to work on cars in your apartment complex. Working on a fun weekend toy is alright but fixing a DD that you depend on gets old after a while. You're not missing much.

'16 GTI.
Sadly that is the case. I'd have to store the project elsewhere.

I can identify most the important parts of the engine bay but thats about it. I have no idea where to start.

yeah pretty much.

So the bad news is that you are too new for a Haynes manual, you are still under warranty, and German cars aren't the easiest to work on. The good news is that your intake ports likely have a fair bit of carbon buildup which could use a cleaning.

didn't know about the Haynes manual, when do they usually release them? as for the difficulty...i did some research on turboswaps and boy it looks like a bitch. I did notice the exhaust tips get dirty too. what should i use to clean the carbon buildup? thanks btw

Here in NYC I park on a quiet street and start my work sunday morning. When cops pass by they never say anything but if they did I'd tell them I cant afford to pay for the work so I must do the work myself.

You should buy a repair manual for your car and look through it as well as joiing any forum your car has. Forums are great.

My problem is that something breaks but I have no fucking clue how to figure out what it is, I just know my engine isn't working. How do people learn to diagnose their problems?

They don't anymore. Newer cars are online only subscription BS in order to protect the dealer network.

Im in the same boat as you OP. Got bit by the car bug, now im looking to get some mechanic-skills. I bought a 94 Celica st202, its so sweet i feel i have to learn to maintain it. It has a relatively high milage too so its a must. Started with just an oil-change and i bought a haynes repair manual, that i can recommend. It has pretty much everthing you need to know, pics and step by step instructions.

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95% of people who work on cars and say they have since highs hooligans don't actually work on cars
>fwd celica

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phoneposter kill yourself

Phoneposting is comfyposting

i had a childhood background with building remote control cars/go-karts/motorbikes

>Parents help me buy a car
>they move overseas for my dads job
>left with my dads shed/tools
>i get rear ended at a set of lights
>insurance company pays out
>find a manual aw11 mr2 for sale
>has a few electrical problems, occasionally cuts out while driving
>pretty much learn manual on the way home
>doesn't cut out luckily
>under the dash is just spaghetti
>extremely shitty installed immobilizer
>car used to have a sound system that was removed
>bunch of wires that i'm pretty sure were for gauges
>has a pretty serious oil leak
>auto-electrician quotes $300 to clear it up
>take it to a mechanic
>says it's the cam seals
>will need timing belt and all the seals
>quoted $600
>poor uni student
>go to parts store , quoted $120 for parts
>use internet and workshop manuals
>clear up the wiring, remove piles of wires
>takes me a full weekend to do the timing belt and seals
>car was solid as a rock for about a year after that
>did a few things like various suspension bushes, a wheel bearing, and general service stuff
>get rear ended by a drunk driver
>insurance pays out
>there's a cheap SOHC ae86 for sale
>buy it
>swap the aw11s 4AGE into it
>drive that for years
>pull the engine back out
>rebuild the engine with some help from my father
>swap an LSD diff into it
>clean up some stuff i didn't do properly the first time

that taught me most of the stuff i know about cars

>mom bought me 82 mercedes 240d for 300$ from whofuckingknows with over 300k miles on it
>had to be towed from the dudes house because it wouldnt start
>wanted to drive it to school so bad, stayed up three days in a row troubleshooting the glowplug system, injectors, adjusting valves and fixing misc leaks with rudimentary tools like butter knives,crescents and monkey wrenches
>finally get it to start after cranking it for an hour and it billows smoke out of the exhaust
>drive it around all day and find the smoke never went away
>rings are shot, engine literally burns more oil than diesel. Have to put a quart of engine oil in before i go to school, or else i would be off the dipstick before i got home
>soon ended up switching to 80w90 in the engine, lasted a little bit longer smoked a little less
>asked my dad if he would help me put a new motor in the car and he told me to go find one
>go to local junkyard, find an old wrecked 240d with a clean engine bay
>dad helps me pull the motor
>swap the motor in my car with my dad
>enjoy that car for 5 years, and the guy i sold it to sent me pictures 5 years after that of him vacationing in mexico with 480kmiles on the clock

and ive been turning wrenches ever since

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Buy a 99 Corolla for $500

You start when you have to replace your own brake pads and jewtube it, and learn everything that has to be done slowely

Maybe where you live, by me there are 15 year olds doing engine swaps after school. Feels bad man

buy a scanner

>Buy a scanner
What a fucking cuck that says that. Overall it is fairly simple in theory and gets difficult because of engineering. Engine wont start? you need 3 things , air fuel and spark, if it wont start one of these things are missing

Yeah

Im cool with fwd for my first car

Such comfy story, i wanna git gud

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>imblying you first car shouldn't also be your last car.

I got these huge monsters, I have no idea what they are for.

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>Don't wrench with me or my son ever again

>your big wrench matco cannot wrench your snap-on

feels bad man I think they using a mini wrench

I use them to jerk off

I use one about 2/3 that size for oil filters

>tfw studying mechanic works at 22
>tfw only dude in the entire class and prolly small college with no car
>tfw apartment manchild
>tfw cant get a job
>tfw even if i got a job in this place the car cost and insurance is off the fucking roof
>tfw even if i could get a job, a car that i could maintain, i live in a parking-less apartment with my family and i have nowhere to even work on the car legally

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Not sure if I actually like cars or am I just more infatuated with the concept of being left alone and working on something.

listen user
I was like you a few years ago, I was just doing my 9 to five after finishing uni and then one day I realized I kinda like driving and am interested in cars.

Just get some racing games, watch some intial D to learn about some basic cars, find what cars you like, try to buy one and reasearch into it and its competitors and bam you allready know shitload about a few cars,
Rest is talking to others about their cars, wrenching on your car and going out to race and learn more about going fast in a car

pick a project and work towards it. The more ambitious, the better. You won't learn much if all you are doing is oil changes and brake jobs.
One thing to keep in mind is that the ambitiousness of your project is directly proportional to the amount of times you will make the walk of shame to the mechanic or machine shop.

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Dont remind me
I used to see it around all the time. Then a year after selling, the plates are dead and its nowhere to be found.

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Do burgers get new plates when they change state? I send my car's previous owner an email when I moved interstate and had to turn in the plates so he wouldn't think I fucked it.

not in new zealand. plates stay live until the car registration lapses or you have to replace them

f

I'll occasionally break things on my car that are not essential and then youtube how to fix them.

Why not skip the breaking and just replace shit? Then you'd have the same gains and emergency parts.

Breaking things are more realistic in a way. You can just be driving and shit goes wrong. It helps me get a better idea of what to do if I break something than me just replacing it. Kind of like playing Shogi.

Fair enough. Can you give an example of what you've broken and how?