Customer Reviews

Auto Fundamentals

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I recently took a class from the local community college that used this book as a textbook. I found it to be a great help in learning about cars. I had no experience with cars at all, beyond driving them. I wanted to get enough knowledge to do some repairs myself and to be able to keep my eye on the mechanics that I deal with. After finishing with this book and the class I am now confident enough to tackle many of the repairs that I would have spent hundreds of dollars on at a repair shop.

This book goes into great detail about every major system on an automobile. It shows how each type of system has evolved over the years. For example it talks about both carburetors as well as fuel injection. It covers ignition via a distributor with points as well as other methods up to direct ignition. Despite the comment made in another review this book does have a very good grasp of the science involved. Electrical concepts are covered in more detail than most people will ever need.

I am a software engineer so technical topics aren't too hard for me. This book might be a bit too in-depth for someone who has little science education. I also think that using it with a class helped the concepts to sink in better. I strongly recommend a class at a vocational school or community college as a way to come up to speed. If you are a tinkerer and you just want to learn by playing around in your garage then this book is probably more than you would get through unless you are highly self-motivated.

The chapters don't depend on each other too much, however, and the book would be useful for reviewing the fundamentals of certain systems without trying to comprehend an entire automobile from bumper to bumper.

This book was the perfect answer for my need.

I received this item in a timely fashion and it was in great condition. This is a text book, not a how to book. So depending on your learning style you may or may not be able to get a lot out of it. I was looking for information on different types of suspensions, engines, etc. so this book was perfect. It goes into detail about how a combustion engine works from beginning to end.
If you are looking for an overall knowledge of cars and do well with books written in a text book format (there are illustrations and diagrams as well), this is a good place to start. Look elsewhere for a step by step how to do this or that.

I've only just covered the first 4 chapters, but I've found the book to be easy to read and understand for a beginner to car mechanical theory.

I'm a simple software/electrical engineer hybrid, and I've never had the chance to go all out an understand what was happening beneath the bonnet of my car. I decided to grab a book and do some self reading to satisfy my curiosity. It's been a great read, and I finally understand how a lot of the parts of the engine come together and work.

I did not intend to use the book to teach myself how to maintain a car. So it may not suit that purpose. But it's definitely a good read if you don't know where a flywheel is located, or what the timing belt does.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I started this book not knowing much about cars and ended with a vast amount of knowledge. The book goes through basically every system under the hood of a car. It starts of extremely basic and works upwards in complexity as the book and chapters progress.

Before reading this book it would be helpful to have the following:
1. Knowledge of Physics, most importantly electricity and magnitism. There are a number of different applications inside a car that make use of solenoids, magnetic fields, inductance, AC/DC current, and many more concepts in this field. Knowledge and understanding of circuit diagrams also would help into understanding how things work.

2. Principles of hydraulic systems.

Thats basically it, being a Physics student I had these at my disposal so it wasn't too bad for me. The book DOES have explanations of all of these concepts, but it still would make understanding easier if you had the knowledge prior.

Here are the pros and cons of this book:

PROS:
-Starts concepts off in a very basic manner but progresses into complexity. This helps satisfy people who may just be learning, and people who want to know the hardcore details of things.

-VERY informative. There is so much information in this book that it is pretty much assured you will finish with a thorough understanding of the way cars work and run. It will most definitely help you diagnose complicated problems that you might be having with your car.

-The end of each chapter provides questions and key words that are essential for understanding.

CONS:
-Many times in this book, it will refer to a system in a car that it has not yet been defined. For example, it may reference the differential in a suspension system, yet it has not said what a differential is. It would probably help (it did for me at least) to know a SMALL amount of information about each system in the car before you read this book. Articles on "ehow.com" are excellent in providing a good amount of information in a short concise article.

-There are no answers to the questions at the end of each chapter. I guess there is a teachers edition or something out there, but the book I had had no answers for the questions. Which means you really do not know if you are right or not when you answer the questions.

-The information on Anti-Lock breaks was extremely lacking. I found it strange that every other chapter of the book went into great detail except for on Anti-Lock breaks.

Thats really all there is to say. I fully enjoyed this book. It has an incredible amount of information and you will definitely finish with an extensive knowledge about cars. VERY VERY please with this purchase! :D

I bought this book as a self teaching tool. Just started chapter 1 and have already learned tons! Can't wait to keep reading. The text goes in depth with each subject, is easy to read, and offers more than just information on cars but science as well. I would recommend this book to anyone that is interested in how a car actually works. Not just the basics.

From my initial experiences with this book, learning about specific subsystems, I'm very impressed with the quality and depth of the explanations. This is truly, as the title suggests, a _fundamentals_ book, in that it covers, in detail, the theory and operation of all of the parts of a modern automobile (and even those of less-modern autos, e.g., those with carburetors instead of fuel injectors.)

The only rough spot, in my eyes, is that the illustrations are somewhat inconsistent in style. The text uses a combination of original and manufacturer-supplied illustrations. This combination would be useful for demonstrating inter-manufacturer distinctions in designs for the same basic technologies. While the authors do use the illustrations in this way in some cases, they also sometimes use the manufacturers' illustrations as the sole visual reference for a given technology. These illustrations are perfectly suited to the task, in clarity and detail. My complaint, though, is that the inconsistency of jumping between the style of the original illustrations, commissioned for the book, and the style of the manufacturers' illustrations. It's more difficult to make comparisons between illustrations of the two styles, to pick out, visually, the ways in which one technology differs from another.

All of that, though, is only a mild criticism and suggestion for future improvement. This is an _excellent_ text, and one for which I don't at all regret paying a "textbook price." Take it from me... I'm a connoisseur of textbooks! :-)

I would definitely have to recommend this to other after reading the book. Very precise and easy to understand.

EXCELLENT REVIEW TEST BOOK HOWEVER ABSOLUTELY NO USE WITHOUT THE FIRST TEXT BOOK.
WELL BOUND, EXCELLENT PROFESSIONAL PRESENTATION AND WELL WORTH THE MONEY FOR BUDDING, (OR AMATURE) MECHANICS.

i simple terms this is the book anyone who wants to stop the guess work with most books in this field. NO NAMES you books know who you are! the book is very well laid out and full of everything a learner needs to know and want to know!
top book.
thank you Mr. M.W.Stockel, Mr C.Johanson and Mr. M.T. Stockel.

Don't buy this book if you are looking for a overall summary of how cars work. Buy the textbook with the same name as the workbook adds nothing to the reference/learning process