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When you buy a car, you're given an instruction manual that tells you
*how* to do things - how to switch it on, how to set the clock, how to
check the oil pressure, but not why they work.
What I would love is that, if requested, when you buy a car you also get
a book [maybe similar to Hillier's
Automotive Mechanics] that tells you
why the things in your car do what they do. It wouldn't probably cover
all of it, or any in much detail, but would give you a basic grounding in
the chassis, steering system, motor control [transistors etc.], engine
and gears.
[link]
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on CD or DVD with 3D modeling animations, the
more detail the better, please. That goes for
those high speed electronic logic cars as well. |
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Not to sound uppity or know-it-all-ish cause God
knows I ain't but doesn't the web site
howthingswork
achieve this? You would just have to print out
your specific car make's info? |
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I thought this was going to be a car manual that
tells you why in God's name your car is still running
with all that is wrong with it. A sort of backward
diagnosis if you will. |
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[blissmiss] I think it's meant to be a specific one for the car, like Haynes manuals. Howstuffworks doesn't have collections of technologies specifically for a Volkswagen Scirocco. |
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I'd like this, but car manufacturers seem to go to efforts to stop people maintaining their cars themselves, like blanking off everything under the bonnet except the dipstick. For that reason I don't think the manufacturers would want to give you a manual. |
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//car manufacturers seem to go to efforts to stop people maintaining their cars themselves, like blanking off everything under the bonnet except the dipstick// |
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Like proprietary software. |
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I want an open source car engine. |
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I am right now programming robots. They are small, but not
too different from industry robots or say the
microcontrollers that controll everything in your car.
Thing is.. you don't really want to know how we got them to
work. Most of the time it just does, and when it does, you
don't knock it. (why else is the locking mechanism for the
doors in my car Bugging?!) |
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Though, being a nerd, i like this. Croissant! |
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Don't fret [Suede] the halfbakery is full of nerds.
In fact we could be called "nerds 'r us". |
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Well first, this is against the automakers best interest to give you any extra troubleshooting information than the law requires. I'm sure they would and have in the past attempted to put up the "no user servicable parts inside" warnings. I mean come on why do you think they keep inventing new fasteners? It is to convince you that auto service is like brain surgery and way to complicated to be attempted by the amateur, please bring it back to the dealer and PAY for service.
Next where to begin? Who is the target audience for this manual? I do computer tech support so TRULY understand the vast limitations of the general public's knowledge. Where are you going to start explaining Lexus' new radar auto-parking feature?
If you want a car that is understandable by the end user and includes the manuals you are asking about, I suggest purchasing a vehicle which was designed with these goals in mind, the military Jeep, especially the WWII ones, or the military version of the Land Rover, especially the one that comes in a kit. |
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I do admit that this is a bit of a WIBNI - manufacturers
would
be unlikely to publish information about how to fix your
car -
but, maybe if you payed [I dunno, £5? which is less than
buying the book in the shop] when you buy the car, they
might be more inclined to let you have it. And it would be
specific to your car. |
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[MrQED] Yeaw, I do plan on getting a self-assembly car,
but only when I'm old enough [and rich enough] to drive
one. |
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This isn't anything you can't find online. If a Hayne's or Chilton's manual isn't explicit enough, you can find websites that explain how anything under the sun works. A written manual explaining what you're asking for would be a massive tome, indeed, probably several inches thick, and would cost a lot of money. And it would be redundant, because most technologies used in vehicles can be found in more than one vehicle. Like that fancy parking system. It'll eventually wind up in every new vehicle being made. Vehicle-specific parts are rare. For instance, if you want to know how an alternator works, look it up online at howstuffworks.com. It doesn't matter what vehicle you have, an alternator is an alternator and does the same thing regardless of what vehicle it's in. Many are even interchangeable. |
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My point is, decide what you want to know about, then look it up. You'll find it. No need for a huge book. |
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Yes, but I hate looking things up online, mainly because
there are no margins to write notes/doodle in, but also
because there's no proof that what you're reading is even
right, so you have to cross-check [another hateful task]
whereas with a book you can be pretty sure that what
you're
reading has been written by someone who knows what
they're talking about.
Plus I love books. I have a massive chemistry
textbook that I use instead of looking things up on the net
-
it's many times quicker, and explains everything much
better. |
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Dude... books are not any more reliable than the web. People lie in books all the time. |
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I can testify to that. My Haynes manual had a misprint. It quoted the resistance of the ignition coil in ohms instead of kilohms. I assumed it had gone open circuit and I spent most of a day extracting a replacement from a scrap yard. |
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That said, I'd still prefer to pay for a proper printed and bound collection of the information rather than printing one myself or trying to operate a laptop with my fingers covered in engine-gunk. Supplying one with each car is probably too expensive, but you could see it as a public education project. |
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It definitely sounds doable... if not by the dealer then from a third party. I just wonder how baked it is. There are all kinds of books available that explain how automotive parts work. I have an old text book hiding somewhere that I stole from my highschool auto shop class that explains a lot of the things that are common to most makes/models. The problem with books is that they never print them for every make/model. One of my last cars was a 2003 Ford Escort ZX2. I got it in November of 2004 and to this day I still haven't seen a Haynes or Chiltons manual for it. And I've looked everywhere. What they told me at Auto Zone was to go online and order a shop manual for it (which I never got around to doing) and that it would be a bit more expensive but infintitely more useful. |
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Maybe it's just me that has a thing for books then... I only
came up with the idea really because I'm building a motor
control system for a car at school, and looking things up on
the net is a real pain [at least for me]. |
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Maybe a car wiki that does all this? Then have an
option to buy a spool book of it? |
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Yeaw, that would work, only you'd need seperate books for
each model of car [high printing costs], whereas if you got
sold it by the manufacturer it would probably cost less. If
that makes sense. |
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