The art of auto engineering
howacarworks.com
howacarworks.com
Even though I'm sure it looks abandoned, I have been working hard on getting back into this. The last couple of months I've been developing a 3D viewer for mechanical components that lets you disassemble/rebuild/step through processes. I wish I could share it but I'm not there yet. Babylon JS is amazing though.
EDIT:
I'll throw down some random notes because I've never really talked about this:
- I've learned a LOT over the three years since I made these videos - about cars, life, boats, love, fabrication, quaternions and myself.
- I made these videos in a backstreet garage in Budapest. A personal situation arose and I left Hungary and tried to get going again back in the UK.
- I built a new garage/studio in the UK and kitted it all out in preparation.
- Then lockdown struck and I had to get involved in a real-world business that I co-owned. The people who did my video production couldn't travel, and when they could, the UK had become so difficult that they had no desire to stay. So I had to find a new team which wasn't easy.
- I also had to rebuild my own life and that took a lot of time and effort. I didn't have the energy to go back into videos - it's something that I did at a certain time of my life, and I knew that I needed to be stronger to revisit it or I would risk my own happiness.
- I feel a combination of emotions - I am immensely proud of what we achieved with this, and I'm embarrassed by my failure to finish it. That said, I don't think I've ever been more excited by this project.
Edit 2: Go and watch Tim Hunkin's Secret Life of... series @ https://www.youtube.com/@timhunkin1 You'll be glad you did!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0854299769/ref=dbs_a_def...
The original donor car was (I think) a Mk3 Ford Escort, obviously they are a collectors car now.
There have been a number of revisions now, it's published by Haynes the publisher of many car repair manuals. There is also a whole network of small business selling parts, you can buy ready made chassis and body panels for them.
I was gifted the book in the late 90s as a teenager, always planed to one day build one. And the fact the house I bought a few years ago has a garage with an inspection pit is only making it more tempting.
Photo of the school workshop, with a production line of cars: https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/image-editorial/oundl...
To anyone that's looking to get into wrenching on your own stuff, I can definitely recommend getting started on a motorcycle if you have space, money or time constraints. It's a lot more accessible initially.
The LX platform is incredibly easy to work on. Rear wheel drive, nothing too complicated to understand, good parts availability from places like Rock Auto. The big Hemi 5.7 is easy to rebuild and very rewarding. I grew up working on small japanese cars and Alfa Romeos, the Hemi reminds me a lot of the Alfa "Nord" engine despite the pushrods.
I had an MX-5 and loved it, but the LX cars are affordable muscle cars that even a modest workshop can make something fun out of.
As for what bike might be interesting, I bought a fuel injected, single cylinder bike. Pretty much as simple as it gets, and a great way to get started with the basics.
Don't be afraid to jump in, you'll be surprised at how easy it comes to you.
It's a car distilled down to its essence and that's why it's popular for kit cars and conversions. The components are tough, readily available and dirt cheap.
I honestly think I might still choose a Miata because you need to understand everything on this car to go much further. If were were to take the engine out of the equation then I'm afraid I don't know - my recent engineering experience has been with boats and diesels, rather than electric.
It’s not a car! I know! The thing is that motorcycles are such good learning platforms. They’re small, man-portable (in a pinch), there’s almost everything in there that’s in a car – but much less of it and more accessible. Single-cylinder motorcycles are also good for learning because there’s only one cylinder and one set of valves and one cylinder or fuel injector etc. :) One of everything and everything is smaller and more easily accessible than in a car. In short they’re very hackable machines.
The DR-Z400 is reliable, ubiquitous and cheap. Parts are available. Lots of DIY information out there and easy to find.
I knew NOTHING about cars. Got the motorcycle bug. A DR-Z400S was the most bike for the money here. Bought it. And that’s how I got into this by accident.
Now I know how to swap out a carburator for a bigger one and tune it, tune suspension behavior by simulating the hydraulic valving inside the suspension, maintain brakes, replace tires and pick them for what road feel I want, fix flats on the side of the road, fix a stator if I need to, reduce vehicle weight etc. etc. All by chance. Has nothing to do with me being smart or industrious and everything to do with lucking into ownership of a bike that kind of teaches you how to work on it and has a great online community.
I also really really really want a Miata!!!
I never had a Miata but I did buy a DRZ and have a blast on it for about 4 hours. The following morning it wouldn't start and after spending all the time I was willing to spend on doing valves/carb/etc, I decided that the 450 kit was to blame, so I just traded it for a 2stroke! I do hope a sumo will be in my future now that I live in a city, though.
Good luck on your Miata endeavors, I'm sure you wont regret it!
Going fast is all about power/weight. Some gear heads love changing the numerator. Some realize that the best option is to change the denominator. :)
And until a person has driven something in the Miata or lighter category, they don't know what they're missing.
There are reasons why the bike taught me to swap and tune carbs and rework the suspension!! heh!!!
It’s still a lot of fun to ride, and in bigger bike markets you’ll be able to find a bike that already has the stops taken out!
I went with a 1st gen Mini Cooper (2001 to 2006). So far it has been the perfect car to learn on, because I went with a working one and did the basic maintenance plus a few not-too-hard parts that needed replacement (of course your luck can vary, I'm very lucky that the one I chose was in a very good shape).
Why a Mini Cooper? My criterias were (1) a fun car, and by that I mean a 100+hp compact car around 10:1 ratio (2) of course the budget, 3000€ (3) the "fun car" part pretty much guarantees it, but good community support (4) I need to fit in it (I'm tall at 1.88m) and (5) must be Euro 2 or better (so pretty much a gas year 2000 or after car)
Compared to the Miata, it's probably a bit less fun to drive, and a bit harder to work on (everything is super compact in the engine bay), but you get a hard-top and small back seats, which to me means more space to put stuff. I actually carry most of my tools in my trunk all the time and work ... wherever I am. I've spent more time working on my car at my parents or in-laws than in my own garage (which isn't super great to work from).
I have to say I don't regret that choice. As for filming (I do record and did a Youtube channel about my tribulations, though nowhere near this course quality), interior has not been a big issue. Filming under the car while working on jackstands is pretty much impossible though (I'd need to buy a wide angle GoPro and more lights to even entertain a passable quality).
Important note: if you go for a Mini Cooper, prefer a 2005 or 2006 year model (post-facelift) if you go for a 1st gen. Going for a 2nd gen is not advised as they have tons of engine issues, and starting with engine work is not a great idea.
[1]: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mini_city_registered...
Thanks for the work you've done on it so far - and super excited to find out that the passion is still burning to make it even better.
Maybe it's the value of the current content, but consider raising prices for new subscribers after some more content is finished, maybe to $40 or something.
Or you could also try location-based pricing if you want to keep it affordable/accessible to people outside of first-world countries
Wish you all the best as you add to it!
He is self-publishing on YouTube these days but in the past was broadcasting similar things on UK national TV: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Life_of_Machines
Both the old and recent stuff is great.
Just my two cents… if it’s $25 for lifetime access you might want to make that more obvious (I was on mobile).
It’s not that I don’t think it’s worth it- actually the opposite. Hitting the landing page I actually assumed it’d far more, or have a series of upsells, etc. I started to navigate away when I noticed the smaller print.
Anyway, looks like great stuff. And thumbs up for Budapest.
I'm sure there are many more people like me. Please keep making more videos and information. We'll happily pay more to support the effort.
> Will this course teach me to fix my car?
> I am asked this a lot. If you just want to fix one thing on a car then you don't need to understand automotive engineering or how things work. You can find videos on YouTube that will show you almost any repair, and you just follow those videos. But if you want to be able to diagnose and fix any car, any engine without spending hours Googling then you want a deep understanding of car mechanics.
It works fine if you want to know how to change a generic wheel bearing on a trailer (wouldn't surprise me if it erroneously lectured you about using high temp grease for disc brakes along the way tho). It falls on its face in almost every case in which the generic "average google result" answer is not the correct answer or there is situational circumstances that make the generic answer inappropriate.
Sure you might get an "expert" answer on Reddit and GPT might scan over the "right" answer to your question in its computation but in most cases the generically correct but wrong in this instance answer is going to be more popular and more prolific and be what gets spit back at you and it'll be faster for you to just dig up the right answer yourself than coax the right answer out of whatever you're asking.
I'd trust a relevant subreddit far more than I'd trust GPT for something like that.
You don't understand. I specifically chose an example of a part for which there's a generic answer (all old school pair of tapered bearings on a spindle are changed about the same way) that will work in a wide array of vehicles and situaions but which that procedure is also not right a huge fraction of the time (a huge fraction of the cars on the road today).
>I'd trust a relevant subreddit far more than I'd trust GPT for something like that.
My point is I don't trust either. If you're lucky enough to have an enthusiast car or very, very common car you might be able to use the specific sub assuming the owners aren't generally dolts. If you ask how to change the wheel bearing on your Tacoma they'll say take it to the dealer. If you ask the mechanic sub a bunch of 14yos who know how to google will give you generic steps or just link you to the youtube video. That's the level chatGPT is on right now. If you don't know what you don't know it's dangerous advice.
First of all it told me that the area is not suitable for snorkelling, and that it is dangerous here. When I corrected it and reminded it about the snorkel trail it confidently corrected itself, then directed to me to snorkel 6 miles out to sea (where a windfarm is) telling me that the sea is only 2 to 10 meters deep there, and safe to snorkel. This is not true, and it would be a very dangerous place to snorkel there. But its confidence was scary.
The trick is to ask it only things that are both physically possible and also possible for it to actually know or provide the required extra context from which to deduce the answer. Otherwise it acts not unlike someone pushed against a wall by a guy with a knife demanding info it just doesn't have. It'll say anything.
“I know that you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen.”
For some reason people have the idea that truth is something ChatGPT optimizes for. Or safety of its conversant. That is absolutely not the case. IIUC, it optimizes for its answers sounding like an answer someone might give in a conversation (or on a web page or whatever). That often coincides with truth and safety, but - no more than that.
But its confidence was scary.
[1] Zhuowei Zhang, https://twitter.com/zhuowei/status/1254266079532154880?lang=...
[2] Incidentally, great book, The Nature of Truth, Second Edition, Classic and Contemporary Perspectives https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262542067/the-nature-of-truth
Autobau Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVNX--ROvtU
Autobau Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on-PhI5Rlyc
Autobau Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeqY03HUmlU
Autobau Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3cpM6jbqNA
A general series like this really helps putting individual YT videos into context.
A YT video on changing the timing belt might show me all the steps, but not how the engine internals look and what "interfering" means.
Nobody goes from doing nothing to doing everything in one go. It's the sum of many iterations of education then experience on many smaller subjects.
I fly paragliders for fun, but that doesn't compare at all in excitement to starting an engine where I just changed the timing belt.
I watched more than a few hours of video to do that. But it was possible to do with the help of YT videos and VW's official workshop manuals that you can buy and download from their erWin website.
I started from absolutely zero.
I've replaced the timing belt, water pump, alternator, brake fluid, master brake cylinder, removed and cleaned the air throttle body, flushed the coolant system, replaced the radiator, replaced the shocks, replaced the exhaust, removed the turbo and replaced the waste gate, used OBDS CAN software to troubleshoot sensor issues, etc.
It was a gradual process over several years. It was a lot easier since most of it was on my second car that I could just leave in its garage while I got parts or tools or watched another 10 hours of YT videos. But some of the stuff was on the curb.
If you're a software engineer and get paid by the hour, it's absolutely not worth your time if you just look at the money.
But it can be a fun hobby, and I really like knowing how the car works when it's starting to make weird noises on long distance vacation trips. Just know that it's not that hard in theory, but in practice the wrong bolt will shear off just as you have to put things back together and drive off with the car. So always have a plan B, especially if it's your daily driver and you can't just leave it for a week or two.
Having said all that, if you're interested in cars, then this video course is excellent. I paid for it a couple of years ago, and don't regret it.
So, reading my original comment and you response again, I can see how my comment came across as "it's easy to replace the timing belt, just watch a few YT videos". I agree that that's definitely not the case.
/me remembers jumping on his bicycle and riding two towns over to the Toyota dealership (in pre-Amazon days) to buy a rear spring hanger pin because I'd just spent 4 hours cutting the old one off after taking the day off work to get the truck fixed. This after making multiple bike trips to the industrial supply shop to buy more Sawzall blades that kept dulling as I tried to cut off a hardened steel pin!
Look for DIY workshop/garage services.
That's true. You need a lot of special tools for modern cars. When you acquired the required tools you'd best stick to that manufacturer with future car purchases or you'll have to buy the whole set again for your new brand.
On that note, Autozone and OReilly's in the US offers free loaner tools, which would allow you to do most DIY-able jobs. The only tools you need to buy yourself is a decent socket set and a few screwdrivers, and the tools would pay itself back in money saved vs. taking it to a repair shop.
Not really although it definitely helps. I started working on cars in a garage that barely fit a Miata with a basic set of wrenches and sockets piled up in the corner. I think you'd find that's how a lot of people start out in this hobby.
Specialty tools can be rented from auto part stores in the US or you can buy them relatively cheaply from Amazon or Harbor Freight.
This isn't true. You need just enough space to walk around the car and without a lot of traffic, preferably a spot with a little shade.
As for the investment in tools, you need way less that you think. You don't only buy what you need when you need it. Best advice for tools is to buy the cheapest version the first time you need it, and only when it breaks or doesn't work well buy a better quality.
Finally, you don't always need the "proper" tool to do a job. Those tools are often very expensive and are only used for that one thing. A little ingenuity (and car forums) will get you a long way when doing car work.
- Crawl the nhtsa.gov technical bulletins (manufacturer communications [pdfs])
- Make them searchable (good enough)
- Some AI (optional)
---
What for?
For example, the mechanic or used car buyer searches for:
`Oil leak S5 2019`
Response: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2019/MC-10155709-9999.pdf
Why? Inspect the network traffic when expanding an `nhsta` item, and notice that it requests `api.nhsta.gov/...` for the PDF link.
I find that vehicle model-specific forums are really helpful for this kind of thing. And many times the posters themselves have made videos of the process.
https://youtube.com/@howacarworks
Enthusiastic feedback in some of the video comments.
However, there have not been any new videos for a while, and there are some glaring bits that need covering (gearbox? suspension?).
All high-voltage components in your EV are well protected and clearly marked in bright orange: there isn't much danger of accidentally running in to them when working on anything else.
https://www.youtube.com/@WeberAuto
The professor that teaches it (John Kelly) is amazing and very well experienced in the industry: https://www.weber.edu/automotive/j_kelly.html
Some questions if I may ask: Is it possible to order the How A Car Works pdf in print?
Also did you actually write all of it? It looks like an old fashioned instruction manual. You know one of the good ones that explain concepts well. I only read a few pages and love the style.
I'm glad this popped up on hn!
Why is that "ok", and this isn't?
On pricing, compare this to how much people charge for programming courses and textbooks. Not unusual for people to upwards of $200 ("Best Value!") for an ebook and some sample code. I have no idea who buys those, but presumably the payback is good enough and maybe for professional development it's worth it. For 14 hours of professionally produced content, even if incomplete, 22 Euros a great deal.
@AlexMuir definitely deserves it to be at the top of HN with this project.