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Comment by BanterTrouble | Hacker News Reader

I am still a somewhat of a novice.

Your friend is right IMO. Do something simple first. Like a broken piece of trim, replace a light bulb, change the wiper blades yourself and build yourself up. I had repaired bicycles/motorcycles before hand.

Past that. I literally go on YouTube and watch someone do the task I intend on doing. I have the service manual downloaded for the car (people dump scans of the manuals online as PDFs) and a Haynes Manual (about £20).

Over the last 6 months. I've gone from barely being able to change the wiper blades to replacing a turbo.

I bought an older vehicle(s) that have a good aftermarket parts market and are known to be easy to work on. The simpler / less refined the car is the easier it is to work on.

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A word of warning. Usually these things are simple, but not always. Either way, you'll get your hands dirty, and mind off other things.

The YT video for changing my cars' front light bulbs was less than two minutes. After half an hour and a lot of scratches / bruises, I thought I got it done. Started the car, checked the light goes on and off. Scrub hands from dust and dirt, be happy.

Mandatory inspection two months later found out that it was pointing so badly off that their targeting device could not even get a reading. In other words, I had been blinding oncoming traffic. Car didn't pass inspection, I was defeated, and took it to the mechanic.

He also spent twenty to thirty minutes on readjusting the bulb, before it was done and up to spec. It costed only 15 euro, though, as they also expected it to be a 30 second operation.

I guess my point is, don't get discouraged when things don't work immediately, or don't work exactly like a manual / video makes you think. Often it's a learning experience, and while those can be fun, they also sometimes are very much not.

(I'm also a complete novice, and not particularly enjoying the experience, just not affluent enough to pay for all of the maintenance work.)

I had to replace the full wiper system on what is a project vehicle (which I intend to daily once it is all fixed). It took me several months to get the wiper system all working again.

The main problem I ran into was

- Parts that were marked as compatible that were absolute rubbish. You would there is little difference between one brand of wiper arm and another. Apparently not!

- It takes 2 days to order a part from the internet. The nearest part supplier is a 30-40 mile drive. So if you forget to order a part you are either waiting another 2 days or you have a 2 hour drive.

As a result. I ended up rebuying all the parts about 2 times and I should have gone to a local parts dealer where they give you either Genuine, OEM or quality aftermarket. The thing is that I compared the genuine parts that did work with the ones I bought from ebay and visually there is little difference. So now I only buy Genuine, OEM or quality aftermarket.

It is all part of the learning experience. Even though at the time it was frustrating.

> In other words, I had been blinding oncoming traffic.

Most modern cars blind oncoming traffic anyway. Either that or 20%+ of morons riding around with high beams and blue/purple LED retrofits.

You may have been defeated by the inspection, but the battle for headlight brightness/alignment was lost years ago.

Or maybe their "alignment" tool was a scam you got robbed of 15 euros?

I don't think there's any incentive for them to scam like that. The inspection shop I took it to was not a repair shop. Also further inspections for the repairs can be performed in any qualified shop.

For what it's worth, headlight alignment is not something a lot of people think about or even realize is a thing - it's just changing bulbs, right?

With any DIY car repair, you always run the risk of things like this, where you don't-know-what-you-don't-know. But it's still worth the ride and the lesson, imo.

Lightbulbs are horrendous these days. On my first car they were like changing a room light bulb, you just reached in and changed the bulb. More recent cars I've had to take the battery out or pull out the whole headlight assembly. It's good to have an idea of how the bits of the car fit together and the main components but significant maintenance is only for hobbyists or people with a lot of time on their hands.

When I was first driving I went through how to change a wheel with my dad and also brake blocks, oil changes that kind of thing. Even my dad who has rebuilt engines from scratch normally goes to the mechanic for everything now.

YouTube is fantastic if you already diagnosed the problem and know what part you need to replace. You just follow along with the video, pausing while you go. It’s perfect.

YouTube is kind of shit for diagnosis, though. Most of the videos just gloss over it. “Hey guys! So, my fuel pump is dead, so here’s a video on how to replace it!” Ok, thanks, but how did you figure out it was the fuel pump? Not a lot of YouTube content along those lines.

You need two things for your engine to run: fuel flow, and spark. If it starts but doesn’t run everything follows from there. If your starter motor doesn’t turn it over start there instead.

You also need air and compression! And if you want the engine to run longer than a few minutes, cooling.

I've found the best knowledge on that front are youtubers who buy beater old cars, get them running again and maybe even restore them to resell at a profit.

Their videos are between 20-60 minutes and run through the general process of going from no-crank-no-start to running, which is basically the same for all gas-powered cars. Diesels are a little different.

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