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.
95% of people who work on cars and say they have since highs hooligans don't actually work on cars
>fwd celica
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
Buy a 99 Corolla for $500