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Comment by bluetomcat | Hacker News Reader

Good stuff, but to do all this "at home" requires ample garage space and a solid investment in tools and equipment. It also helps to have non-busy roads in the vicinity, in order to do "test flights" after the fixes. It is certainly helpful as a guide to understand the basic automotive systems and not get scammed at repair shops, but for most people to start wrenching on their car confidently, not so much.

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I went from zero knowledge to changing my timing belt with the aid of the mfg manuals and YouTube videos.

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.

You can do many small repairs and maintenance activities without much specialised tools and equipment, but to confidently disassemble and rebuild engines, fuel and exhaust systems, body parts, driveline components, etc., requires more than a few hours of videos.

Everyone's first time with each of those subjects is prefaced by "a few hours of video" (or equivalent).

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.

It does require more than a few hours, but certainly starting with a few hours of video to understand the basics of automotive engineering is incredibly useful when you want to learn to fix cars. I taught myself years ago starting with a basic Time-Life book and worked my way up to factory technical manuals and research papers. I learned the theory first from books and then the practical later by getting my hands dirty and eventually being mentored by others who knew what they were doing. What I discovered from this path is that many of the mechanics out there have never really learned the first part, and while they're good at repairing what they know, they get stumped when they actually have to diagnose something new because they do not understand the underlying theory.

I never wrote that I was "confident" about it.

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.

> especially if it's your daily driver and you can't just leave it for a week or two.

/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!

This is true - I can only speak about Europe but almost no young people have feasible access to either the space or tools to do any of this unless it's their career or they have family. I wish I could solve the space, tools, and money situation but I can at least help with knowledge.

Exactly my point. It is probably feasible in rural and sub-urban parts of the US, but unthinkable in certain parts of urban Europe where parking spots are hard to come by, let alone spacious garages and long driveways.

> requires ample garage space and a solid investment in tools and equipment

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.

> requires ample garage space and a solid investment in tools and equipment

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.

> requires ample garage space and a solid investment in tools and equipment

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.

> a solid investment in tools and equipment

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.

This is untrue. Yes there are specialized tools, even some per manufacturer, but in reality 95% of the jobs people will be doing can be done with a standard mechanics toolset.

Ehh, for VW at least some jobs are a lot easier with VW tools.

For situations like this I find www.automotivespecialtytool.net to be particularly useful. It's a peer-to-peer car tool rental community. So if you have a rarely used, very specific tool you can rent it out to others; similarly if you need such a tool you can just rent it without having to buy it.

Same with bicycle repair. Each major brand has own proprietary toolset.

You can rent tools and the space to do this for a fairly low amount of money.

Look for DIY workshop/garage services.

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