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lol u guys are a bunch of leg humpers.

 
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nah i always assume its a guy pretending to be a chick to get quick responses for there problems.but she could prove me wrong with some pics.

 
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i always assume its carnoobie pretending to be a chick to get quick responses for his problems.

 
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lol your probably rite. carnoobie is that you man ???

 
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Wow two pages in seven hours. Anyway you say your bf is in school for the same knowledge you seek. You kind of get where iam going with this right?

 
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I think we're all grown here. This isn't 4chan.

 
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i think she wants to impress her man with the mad jdm knowledge.

 
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search around the site, there are millions of posts back to 2001. or make a new post if you have a specific question

 
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Yea, what i'm saying is the chilton book has a chart of what needs to be done at what millage and it only goes to 90,000 miles, my car is up by 129,000 miles so i'm not sure what would need to be done, alot has been changed and updated but i'd hafta go through all the records to see exactly what, but the oil and oil filter have been done recently.

 
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And fyi guys, I am a girl, and the reason I dont want to ask my bf questions is because i'd like to suprise him by knowing things. Apparently guys think that girls can't know anything about cars, and I am here to prove any guy who thinks that wrong by learning how to take care of my own **** :P

 
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YAY! I got my maintence required light off! Thanks a ton! thats so exciting for me

 
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there is really no mystery. if you are interested in cars, eventually you will learn enough and know more than your bf. most of us here started out knowing about as much as you, if not less...

 
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i know you are. we were just teasing you.

we'd know if u were carnoobie (another member on here) by the patterns of stupidity in the question....and it wasnt present in yours. lol

 
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lol i bet all of us started off as the tool grabber.and i never assume girls can't learn about cars its just that most of them can care less.

 
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im a girl. i love cars. (guess "civicchick" kinda gives that away). lol

 
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Not iSharix, lol!
I guess the best way to learn more is to actually have the issue and try to solve.
civicchicck, you have the drive to learn, being the reason many replied, so keep going and, when you have an actual issue, like the maintenance light, post here or search for the solution and you will learn in a natural manner. For some parts diagrams, look at my sig.

cheers!

 
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thanks as long as i can figure it out most of the way and get a few pointers with whatever im doin, i can usually do it pretty good. but things probably wouldnt have happend (for the better of my car) without you guys.. so i appreciate the help. and thanks to everyone again

 
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Oh dear god Mel.. bringing in the faces.. hahahaha

But seriously, the best way I found learning to work on cars is diving into doing stuff on my car, using this forum and its members as reference, as well as searching old threads and DIY guides. I started off with my car knowing hardly more than doing an oil change. After almost 10 years of tinkering with my Civic, I was able to change out my headgasket. Even though that ended semi-catastrophically, every bad experience is a great learning experience, and I had the ability to fix my mess up, even though I opted to take it to a shop under false pretenses.

I don't really trust shops working on my car at this point. I feel I know my car more than they do, especially the last shop that touched my car. I had to go and fix their work.

 
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qft.

 
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Um, I dont want to sound totally dumb but what is DIY guides?? And thanks a ton guys, my bf was pretty impressed i got my maintence required light out :P And as for shops, I dont trust them at all either, not after what they tried telling me about my car, i might be a girl and not know much, but im not totally stupid.

 
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diy = do it yourself. and dont worry, most shops do not treat girls any differently. they want to rip you off if you are a guy too.

 
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worst part about the shop I brought my car to was that it was my dad's friend, so you think he'd hook me up with quality work. But no, like I mentioned, I had to go re-do a lot of his work and clean oil and coolant from places that make me scratch my head as to how they got there.

 
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I have also found that the public library has a lot of in depth car manuals in their reference section for all makes and models.

 
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To learn on how to identify parts right under the hood here is a good and simple way.

Open google images

Type part (alternator, starter, powersteering pump, valvecover, radiator) Whatever you want and can think of.

This will give you an idea of what the part looks like. Not all parts look the same but most are pretty similar. So basically if you know what a Honda alternator or starter looks like you will know what a Ford starter looks like.

 
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Wow, I think this world would be way better off if you guys were the mechanics lol. And yea google images help me alot to see what things look like, I am going to check out the library bc there are things that i dont know the name of, so google images wouldnt help me there :P

 
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I really dont know if thats true... I know some stories... U never know that..

 
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To me Alldata reads exactly like the manual. If you can, check out Mitchells. It's even more expensive but, is excellent for troubleshooting, especially electrical.

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On a side note: Most of the techs I see these days have a laptop just to have alldata and such at the vehicle.

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A special side note just for MelJ and you others in school:

I have been right where you are. If you can't demonstrate recent or even verifiable experience you can forget making over $8/hr starting out in the automotive repair and service industry right now. The only guys with me that got decent jobs straight out of school had experience or a part-time job during school. As it is, the only people that pay decent right out of school are dealerships and they won't hire people straight out of school right now when there is such a plethora of people they can hire from other dealerships.

Try to pick a specialty now, and start looking for where you wanna go after school now.

-Some of the dealerships (like BMW) have a work/school program where you go to their school for an additional 6 weeks-6 months and are guaranteed a job for 2-5 years.

-Get in good with your favorite instructor and have them recommend you or find the instructor that is best connected (there's always one). They won't recommend any of the felons in the back row but, they will recommend you if you show you're serious.

-Audio/video/electronics can pay a little more starting out but, there is usually no room for much advancement. If you can install your own stereo and make the wiring look factory (all it takes is wire loom and tape, I kid you not) then you can do any stereo install.

-Midas and Goodyear are decent places to start then specialize, if you don't mind getting paid crap for a couple of months. Some of the guys went to Midas and specialize, 1 does suspension and steering and 2 are into EP (engine performance for the uninformed). They all make $15/hr+ now (6 months out of school).

Are you wondering what I do now? Too bad! That's a thread of it's own- which is coming soon. I'll give ya a hint- I've always wrenched what I could on my own cars (mainly Honda- btw) so, I knew some about Hondas before I came to this site but, I got my job as a direct result of knowledge I gained here,a good instructor reference, and a little bit of luck.