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How do you learn about auto work? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by golden_zealot@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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Hey all,

I am wondering how to learn about auto work. I am self taught in many things but this subject evades me somewhat. It seems like the kind of thing that someone would teach to you directly but most of my learning comes from self study interacting with things directly and reading texts.

My brakes are starting to make a squeaking noise when I come to a stop and as a result I have gained an interest in learning about some basic auto work.

Does anyone have any good resources where you can learn about these things in a sequential manner? That is to say, learning the most basic concepts up to the more advanced concepts?

Thanks.

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[–] ptc075@lemmy.zip 6 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

As others have said, search YouTube for brake pad changes on your make/model of car. If that still leaves you with questions, you can also find a self help book specific to your car (Chilton or Haynes).

Good news, based on how you're describing your own technical level, I think you're going to find this is pretty easy actually. Only concern is if you live where they salt the roads, then some of these things will be rusted together. So, good to watch the video again & see how it's supposed to come apart.

Once the calipers are off, you need to support them somehow so they don't hang on the brake lines. I usually just slide a cinder block underneath them, but others like using bungie cords / zip ties & tying them to spring/strut. (Depending on the car, you may not even need to fully remove the caliper - many of them pivot upwards).

Probably worth mentioning, the pads themselves are cheap, but you should also resurface or replace the rotors. One of the important steps to making sure they last is having a clean & smooth surface when they're new, so that they will mate together smoothly. There's a lot of neat stuff going on with the transfer of pad material to the rotor itself, I can't pretend to cover it all, but "bedding" the pad material to the rotor properly ensures long life. And the short-short answer is that to accomplish that, you need new rotors or you need to have the rotors machined smooth when you replace the pads. I find it's usually more cost effective to just buy cheap rotors from Rock Auto online.

Lastly, you may want to watch a video on brake bleeding (getting the air out of the brake lines). In theory you might not need to even open the brake lines, but often you need to do so in order to get the caliper pistons to retract far enough for the new brake pads. (I like to bleed the brakes on every pad change just to have fresh fluid in there). I mention this because brake bleeding is usually a 2 person job. There are special tools to work around that, but you need to know in advance if you're going to need them.

[–] golden_zealot@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 days ago

Thank you, this is really informative!