learning how things work?

[act smiley]

OK, I passed my driving test a little while back (huzzah!) and plan on doing one of those Pass Plus things before getting a car around christmas time. However, right now I'm not worrying about whether I should get a Fiesta or a Micra or whatever. What I'm worrying about is not knowing that much about how the thing would actually work, I mean I know the basic theory of it all (and I mean very basic) but in practice it means nothing to me. Which is rather annoying, cause I do generally like to fiddle with stuff, but I like knowing how things work first, and I especially like knowing how things work if they're very expensive, and cars are. But this isn't a demand to be taught how to know everything about cars ever via the magical internet either. I'm just wondering how it would be best to learn. Buy a banger and attack it with a haynes manual? Are there courses etc?

 

[andi]

Congrats on passing the test!

First stop I'd recommend: http://www.howstuffworks.com/

Loads of really well written simple theory on how all the different parts of a car work. Well worth spending some time watching the various videos.

There are loads of courses available at colleges/night schools, that teach anything from basic maintainence up, your local college should have a website with details of whats on offer. The haynes idea is a good one, if they make one for your car (they don't for mine, unfortunately). But I'm going for the getting your hands dirty and just having a go route. 8 months ago, I bought my first car and didn't even know how to change a wheel. Since then, I've been doing little bits and pieces to it, starting off with just a basic service, all the way up to dropping the suspension and changing the springs last week. I'll still far from a mechanical genius, but I'm far more confident than I was, and learning the basic stuff thats the foundation you need to do the really big jobs!

 

[fenderbass86]

I did pass plus. I found it very useful, I got a Peugot 306 last saturday and i'm still trying to get used to the heavy clutch. I stall it a couple of times a day!