Recipes for Car Care: Guide to Auto Health [Paperback]

Kathleen E. Casagrande (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0766828387 | ISBN-13: 978-0766828384 | Publication Date: December 12, 2000 | Edition: 1

Preventive care isn't a mystery known only to professional auto mechanics, but rather a set of simple steps you can do yourself if you understand the "ingredients" that go into making your vehicle run. Recipes for Car Care is designed to enable you to perform preventative maintenance on your vehicle to lengthen its life while saving you money. This book covers everything from locating the hood latch to performing basic maintenance tasks such as oil changes to dealing confidently with professional mechanics and car manufacturers. Whether you are a novice at do-it-yourself automotive care or an experienced home mechanic, Recipes for Car Care will show you how to complete necessary car maintenance as easily as you would follow the "recipes" of a cookbook.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Delmar Cengage Learning; 1 edition (December 12, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0766828387
• ISBN-13: 978-0766828384
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,141,101 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yes!, March 31, 2004

By 

mothhead (Southern U.S.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Recipes for Car Care: Guide to Auto Health (Paperback)

If you know nothing about cars, this is the perfect book to start with! It doesn't teach you how to do complicated repairs; mainly it gives you a thorough explanation of how cars work, and it also shows you how to test how well certain car parts are functioning and how to do simpler procedures like replacing filters and valves.

All I knew before reading this was how to open the hood (and you don't even need to know that--it tells you how.) Now I can scan the mechanics' sights on the internet and see terms like "EGR system" and "oxygen sensor" and not even blink an eye--I know what they are and what they do and it actually makes sense!

The best feature of this book is definitely the way it's written. The author doesn't use analogies to other machines that you don't understand either. She compares different car parts to everyday things like rolling pins and tuna cans to help you understand what they look like and what they do. It makes things infinitely less intimidating and easier to understand. Everything is explained step-by-step and system-by-system, and technical terms are introduced slowly enough that you can absorb them. (You definitely need to have enough patience to start reading at the beginning and work your way through, though, because she builds on previous explanations.)

There are also diagnosing sections in the book to help you figure out what's wrong with a sick car and a maintenance chart to give you an idea when to replace things before they break anyway and cause more expensive problems.

A couple of things this book didn't have that I wished it did were price estimates for commonly replaced parts, photographs of parts (it has drawings instead), and a guide on how to negotiate a good deal when buying a car. A good book to get for those features is Auto Upkeep: Basic Car Care. Auto Upkeep is more the kind of book you can flip through. It has a lot of little tips on diagnosing problems and car maintenance separated from the main text in little boxes. It isn't nearly as thorough in its explanations as Recipes.., though, and even though it has photographs that help a lot in locating parts, I think the drawings in Recipes are a lot more helpful in figuring out the big picture of how the parts actually work. In other words, Auto Upkeep makes a good supplement, but defintely get Recipes for Car Care if you want an excellent, understandable explanation of how cars function!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two Great Introductory Car Books, August 19, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Recipes for Car Care: Guide to Auto Health (Paperback)

Hundreds of basic car care books are out there, but two that I have are excellent: Recipes for Car Care and Auto Upkeep: Basic Car Care. Recipes for Car Care lists basic auto maintenance and diagnosing procedures written in a cookbook type layout. Auto Upkeep: Basic Car Care uses the text with a supporting activity CD to give you step-by-step methods for basic automotive procedures. Recipes for Car Care uses well-drawn line art to illustrate concepts. Auto Upkeep: Basic Car Care uses both line art to illustrate concepts and photos to show car parts (I really like that!). Recipes for Car Care is more for one who wants to diagnosis and repair their automobile, whereas Auto Upkeep: Basic Car Care is more for any car owner that wants to learn more about the automobile, its parts, and car ownership. Both books cover most systems of the automobile (such as fuel, suspension, lubrication). However, in addition to explaining automotive systems, Auto Upkeep also explains the car buying process and automobile insurance basics (such as liability, collision, and comprehensive policies - and what they mean). I recommend that you have both books in your personal library.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy To Read, Great For Diagnosing Car Problems, December 8, 2010

By 

Fraueinkaufen (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Recipes for Car Care: Guide to Auto Health (Paperback)

An excellent car care book, with preventative maintenance instructions, do-it-yourself tips, and a well-organized log of common problems. Great for diagnosing those mysterious sounds your mechanic can never duplicate.