I'm going off to uni to do mecheng and hopefully specialise in automotive, but obviously time will tell, i've always been massively into cars and thought i knew a fair bit about makes and models but never much mechanically, which is where i want to start to learn about next.

I'm pretty amazed to be fair by the amounts some of you guys on here know i'm just curious as to how some of you learnt what you know, whether it be at uni or through just opening a bonnet and seeing what's what, an hows best to just learn

Cheers

Adam

I didn't know f all until I pulled out the spanners and had a go. Started off pulling apart 125cc motorbikes as they don't come much simpler than that.

Also did a couple of years at college studying motorsport engineering but you really need the practical experience. You will probably fuck some bits up at first but that really is the best way to learn.

i have fixed a couple of things on my car, using like a Haynes manual and just seeing if it works, which has obviously helped, but my car is all i have to play with, and i don't want to fuck it up

how much did you learn whilest doing that at college?

the vast majority of my knowledge comes from hands on rebuilding cars, and go karts, and trying to do as much as i can myself. of course depending on who you know this can be great or not.

Forums are a great source of information for whatever you're interested in. Reading books helps.

I did one year of transport technolgy and mangement and that thought me a hell of alot and was a fantastic year of education.

Now studying Motorsport Eng so its a level deeper into the components and designs and such.

the best way to learn is by your mistakes. but its not the cheapest

College was OK, it gave me a great insight to the technical side of mechanics but there wasn't enough practical work for me. Was very science and maths based which to be honest is what motorsport engineering is all about.

The main thing was having a couple of scrap cars in the workshop to just take apart and put back together. Doesn't matter if you ballsed it up then.

At the end of the day it's all just nuts and bolts. Fault finding is where you need the real knowledge.

Edited 4 June, 201214 yr by gaz56

At the end of the day it's all just nuts and bolts. Fault finding is where you need the real knowledge.

yeah, diagnostics is where the money is, but its come with learning and experience,

Now studying Motorsport Eng so its a level deeper into the components and designs and such.

Ditto.

Breaking shit and being too tight to pay someone else to mend it.

Upbringing due to my dad having his own race team,

Playing with bikes and stuff when younger. Go karts from about 8-9, motorbikes and cars from 14.

I think a lot is just common sense.

My actual car knowledge is shocking, I'm shit at model names and info on them haha

My Dad and experiencing problems and fixing them yourself by reading up on them on forums like these. Learning from experience is the best way to learn! I don't know lots but I know a little.

Yeap agree, reading books/degrees doesn't convince me, hands on experience is win

Degrees and education give a sound theoretical knowledge of how things work and a good understanding to why doing certain things on cars works. They also train your brain in a way to methodically approach a problem or fault in an appropriate way to fix it.

Actually fixing a problem quickly though comes from experience.

Hands on abiliry only comes from experience too.

I have done a degree and know all about the theoretical side of things but I am constantly learning from reading posts on this forum and working in real life.

I am constantly reading the technical sections of this forum to gain a better understanding of what people have tried and what fixes the problems they are encountering. There is a very wide knowledge base on here, where people have attainded the insight in different ways, which is very useful to tap into if you don't grasp something!

I can see how having a dad that has a race team could be beneficial haha, but my dad is hardly the most practical guy so i've not really had the upbringing of pulling things apart and fixing them other than playing with lego haha.

Yes just being on here literally everyday since november has been great, the stuff I have learnt has proved invaluable at times when the car has broken,

Another thing i find that non of my friends are into taking cars apart which i think plays a big part, although i obviously have my own car to work on, no on wants to help hahah, i think having people around you who have the same interests in cars helps a lot maybe i have the wrong friends haha

Breaking shit and being too tight to pay someone else to mend it.

Amen.

My dad is from the old school (grew up in the war) where people actually repaired stuff instead of todays consumerism where we buy new replacements (and why not, its practically cheaper these days) so I've had that attitude instilled in me. Started off with small electrical items (walkmans, CD players etc.) and expanded into cars. He had me changing tyres before I could drive, and was always getting me outside to look at things when they went wrong. So I've just expanded that myself with trial and error, reading a few books and generally getting it wrong (and ocassionally right!). But I've had no formal training in mechanics or engineering (I'm a biologist, so quite the opposite to engineering!) and I work with all my own basic tools.

Regarding maintenance though, I'm just too tight to pay some other bastard to do it. People think cars are magical things and you have to be a genious to work on them but thats bollocks. So long as everything goes back the way it came off, you can't go wrong.

Breaking shit and being too tight to pay someone else to mend it.

Yep

Truth is I loved cars and mechanical shit from an early age and just loved breaking and fixing shit to get an understanding of how it worked. A lot of my childhood was spent in the back garden with a basic tool kit, building working motor bikes out of the broken carcasses of bikes I found dumped around the estate

My actual car knowledge is shocking, I'm shit at model names and info on them haha

Same as, people will start talking at me about some car and reeling off facts and figures and I just get lost, that's not what I enjoy about cars, its the hands on working out solutions to problems and what not that I enjoy. I find working on cars her therapeutic

dumped around the estate

That says a lot about where you grew up

dumped around the estate

That says a lot about where you grew up

Lets be honest Matt, Dalbeattie is hardly Windsor is it. It might just be above Dalgetty Bay as the arsehole of Scotland

Making it up as i go along!

Fixing my uncles petrol strimmer when i was younger is what got me started (little does he know the engine out of that went on to some contraption which was ment to be a petrol scooter ) then moved on to bikes and cars.

8 years college, a few back streets and nearly 3 years in a dealership as an apprentice breaking shit is mainly where iv learnt stuff.

And as others have said, I'm not that good with facts and figures about makes models, I just fix them :).

Collecting Matchbox toy cars means I could identify a De Tomaso Pantera from 1000 yards aged 9.

As aboy went around some scrapyards with my dad as we had an old Hillman Imp that often needed parts.

When I left home I drove it until a big end bearing went, I think. Didn't know enough to mend it then, and

the local garage declared it a goner, and that's something I've always regretted.

So, had always done simple things like fan belts and new batteries (box is empty and the acid comes separate in Germany!) but limited by a bicycle tool-kit.

But started proper under bonnet after a Ford Sierra 1.8 CVH lost teeth from a new timing belt

Bastard garage that had done the belt change denied all responsibility saying the water pump bearing was seized.

Had it towed to my house, bought a torque wrench and a Haynes manual.

One of the hardest things I've ever done is get the last bolt out of that cylinder head.

And by the third day I was really beginning to think that Ford wanting £900 and the towing garage offering 'a bargain' £800 to mend it was perhaps not an exaggeration.

But when I did get it out and had the head overhauled, and fitted a scrapyard dizzy and new water pump and timing belt

I thought, never again.

Even if I only manage to take it part of it apart, then have to pay a garage to complete the job I will have saved and learnt.

Of course it helps having an ancient Polo. So easy to work on. And the helpful guys on this site too. But with youtube videos of things like dismantling an aircon compressor clutch a few clicks away it's getting even easier on modern cars.

Used to build nitro RC cars as a kid, helped my dad restoring his Lotus when I could, used to rip old engines apart and rebuild them for fun.

Then studied Motorsport, got a job working in industry etc etc!

started from dad rallying then tinkered around with cars and engines then studied motorsport at college then went on to work for ferrari then now to bmw where i currently work as a tech

my grandpa for mechanical/electrical stuff and my papa for VW stuff.

Never got new stuff bought for me so i built or mended handmedown's ...

My brothers both rode bmx and me and far as i can remember i've always been fixing my own bikes and building them, taking shit apart just to see how it works too and sometimes not beeing able to make it work again :p ..

But yeah by doing and getting your hands dirty is the best way to learn, as you can tell I'm not on the literate side etc lol...

Guy Cant beat abit of scrapheap challange from bits around the neighbourhood lol :p