Maintenance w/out manual?

I know a lot of you guys work on your cars so I was wondering how do you guys do it without a service manual? And how did you guys ever begin learning to work on cars? I mean...I would like to do a lot of stuff on my car but I'm scared of breaking something and making it worse which will in turn cost more to fix. :uhoh:

I started around 16 , I used to mess around with friends cars as well as my own. just basic crap like oil change, spark plugs, valve cover gaskets, real basic stuff that I could pick up on just by watching a pro doing it. I had a motorcycle around 18 and learned alot from my biker buds in one year cause bike are all maintenence. first year of college I worked at an auto part that had a machine shop in the back, I spend an hour a day (lunch hour) hovering over the machine shop dudes and thats where I learned how the internals of an engine work and how stuff like rotories, Diesel, turbos and other tech stuff work. that was about 3 years ago. nowadays if something breaks I try to fix it myself, I ask alot, I try to find people who have already done it and ask how to go about it, still 2 out of 5 times I'll rather take it to a pro then experiment myself. the more you mess around the more you will understand tech stuff when you read it. a year and a half ago I could not understand how to change the back sparkplugs from 3si.org, now I can read it and understand every step.

www.stealth316.com

I learn something new everytime I try something new...I just make sure I don't jump in over my head. I read everything before I try something new, and if I have problems I come back online and start looking for solutions. Best way to learn is have someone who knows what they are doing assist you the first time you try something new. My friend's dad helped me with my first brake change...after that, I had the balls to do my mom's, my girlfriends, etc...

Ah I see... Yeah, my dad kinda like just learned on his own and he's got the "balls" (like Igovert500 said) to try new stuff. I on the other hand am afraid that something will go wrong so I usually ask him to take a look at it. But yeah, the first time he changed the brakes, it went out and didn't work so he had to drive off the road into a ditch--totaled the whole car. It's stuff like that that scares the crap outta me. Hehe But I guess you gotta learn somehow....I just won't be experimenting on my babie. Hehe :)

wont be experimenting on your baby? naw man, life's all about making mistakes and learning from them. I just try not to make that many mistakes, but i make plenty. the only way you're gonna learn is by taking a risk and trying yourself. there's nothing wrong with assistance, but my assistance comes in the form of online reasearch! that's why i love AF and 3si.org and all the other many helpful sites on which individuals have documented their work. ya, stealth316 is great, team3s.com, and a bunch of others...check out the FAQ thread.

I started working on cars (just my parents) when i was about 15 or 16, just messing around with stuff, like air filters and interior stuff, simple things i couldn't screw up. then as i got older, i got more daring. i mean its all mechanics, so once you understand how it works, its not that complicated. picture a car as a set of several systems, some systems operating indepently, others dependently. just study each system how it works and all (howstuffworks.com is the awesomest site ever...that's what got me hooked on this stuff, they put everything in layman's terms with great illustrations!!!!). Systems like the engine (combustion, cooling), air conditioning/heating, suspension, fuel, electronics, etc. knowing a little physics is always a plus, but not necessary.

so i did some stuff here and there, but didn't have much experience, so the summer after my freshman year at college, i asked around, and found a 'job' at a full-service auto mechanic shop. since i didn't have a degree in auto service, i couldn't work on the cars, but the mechanics were really nice and asked me to help them out on big jobs, and i learned a WHOLE lot by just watching them do it and explaining it to me. There is no substitute for experience! gotta learn sometime. so that was 2 years ago, i enjoyed it, but am looking for different stuff. i'm currently studying for a degree in mechanical engineering, so i'd like to immers myself into physics and race car mechanics, fluid thermodynamics, and cool stuff like that.

so basically i just had this desire to learn more about cars and mechanics in general, and i have pursued it with great joy. any other questions, shoot em my way, happy to help anytime, in any way.

My first experience working on cars would be my car. I decided to pull it apart last fall and see what I could afford by spring. So one day I went out to the garage and stripped everyhting out of the engine bay but block, heads, and trans. And everything out of the inside but the dash and stearing wheel. When my parents got home they kinda flipped out.

But thats how I learn about most things, taking them apart and figuring them out. You will never be able to work on your car if your always afraid your going to break something. They same goes for everything, and is the main reason everyone leaves everything to the "profesionals", and pays out the ass for it. Because they are too afraid.

That being said, its nice to have a backup/daily driver incase you cant get the car back together, or if you break something and cant afford to fix it just yet.

My dad is the man! He is a tool and die maker, so he is GREAT with working on things and has every tool known to man. We have worked on everything in my car and work on the other cars in the fam too, but he doesn't have the energy anymore to do an oil change in the garage by jacking up the car. He just takes it to an oil change place. But when it comes to helping me with my car, he's more than willing. He teaches me, not just doing it for me. I'm certain I could change my spark plugs(did it with his help last time), I change my own oil and do lots of preventive maintainence on the car. Another tip: It's a lot better to work on somebody else's car than yours cause you're less inclined to be afraid of breaking something. My friend with a 3000gt wanted to gut his trunk, remove the back seats, and even spray paint his calipers. We did it all in a weekend without my dad's help. And my friend knows nothing about cars!

Working without the service manual is a good way to learn but its the best way to break something and end up spending a lot of money. I've done this many times believe me I know lol. The way I learned was just starting with simple oil changes, brake pads, alternators, and stuff. As far as major stuff you definitely need directions and the right tools, because some things need to be done an exact way or they will malfunction. But if you can read the directions before you start a job and it looks easy then once you do it, it will be just as easy as it looked on paper usually. For the really major stuff like engine teardown and rebuild, I went to school to learn that, and there's nothing particularly hard about it, but there's a lot of things that need to be exact. Everything else is pretty much nuts, bolts, and plugs.