Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #278184 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780760322734
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From the Back Cover

About the Author

 As an automotive troubleshooter, race-car driver, and leading instructor of law enforcement pursuit driving, Brand makes his shows and columns informative and entertaining with his wit, knowledge, and easy-to-understand advice on any and all auto problems. A typical show will find Brand expertly fielding questions about changing your own oil, finding the source of squeaks, squeals, and rattles or even deciphering the complex inner workings of an automatic transmission, an engine, or electronics.

One of Brand's goals is simply to help people understand more about automobiles so that they may get longer service life and be wiser customers. He is in great demand as a speaker at automotive conventions, trade shows, and anywhere there is a gathering of people connected with the automobile industry.

Brand resides in Lino Lakes, Minnesota.

Customer Reviews

a good book overall
I think this book is pretty good for the 'mechanic wannabe' who's just getting started (like me). All the 50 projects are implemented with photos which is pretty neat. At the end of each chapter, there is a troubleshooting chart listing common problems associated with the specific components that are discussed in the chapter.
Now, after reading this book, I think some projects could have been a little more detailed, and some other a little less: The project on 'how to fill coolant' takes two pages front and back, but the one on 'how to change thermostat' only takes one...
Also, some projects explain how to replace such and such part, but it doesn't explain why you would want to replace these parts if your car breaks down:
* "how to replace distributor cap and rotor"; sounds great, but how do I know that these are the parts I need to replace if my car breaks down? It doesn't say anything about that in the electrical troubleshooting chart in this chapter.
* "How to replace the starter"; sounds great too, but where do I find it? there's no diagram in this book that shows you where to look under the hood, beside a picture of a car, at the beginning of the chapter, with a front mounted engine (my car, like most front wheel drive nowdays, has an engine mounted sideway); and the car used as an example in this project is different than mine.
Anyway, the point is, a little more details would have been nice.
However, it is a decent book and it gave me a better comprehension of how things work under the hood. It also gave me more confidence to work on my car.
My advice is: buy this book to familiarize yourself with cars, and learn very basic car maintenance stuff such as changing your oil, checking your fluids, tires etc.
For bigger projects like 'how to replace a water pump' (project 29), this is probably not the book you need.

For Basics Only
I bought this book only for its explaination of do-it-yourself wheel alignments. Otherwise, the engine used in the examples is rather simple. When most people open the hood of their car, they will be amazed to find much more there than pictured in this book.

Good for beginners
I bought this book a while ago because I like reading how other people perform basic maintenance on their cars. It is an easy read and would be helpful to someone who does not know much about car repair or maintenance. Since I work on cars regularly I currently have no use for this book so I am planning on passing it on to my 9 year old cousin to feed his interest in car repair. I think this book would also be good to keep in the backseat of a teen's first car. Then when they need to check the fluids or the car overheats, they will have a clue where to look and what to look for.