Anyone done a part time mechanics course?

Hi guys,

As ***le. Finally working full time and earning decent wage packet. Always wanted to get some good know how on my cars, but never know where to start. Feel like it's kinda pointless though as modern cars post-2010 are just all electrics and complex management by the ECU.. Guess the basics don't change though. Anyone done any evening college courses or the like?

Yep I did the NVQ Level 1 - one evening a week for a year. Definitely a good place to start and as the course went on the teacher would demonstrate more advanced stuff than was on the syllabus. If you can do just servicing and brakes you save yourself a fortune from that alone. Then you can push on from there yourself and do more ambitious jobs such as front suspension, driveshafts, exhaust etc.

The argument that modern cars are all electronic now is a myth. The basics like oil and fluid changes, filters and brakes etc, still need doing just like they always have.

A course is a good idea but nothing really compares to learning on the job and making mistakes imo even if you're starting from absolute scratch...get yourself a basic tool kit/socket set, jack and stands and start doing the very basic stuff to begin with...unfortunately there's no Haynes manual for our car to take you through jobs but the principles are the same for almost any car. You could set yourself little modding jobs like upgrading lights or refurbing your alloys for example to get you going, the honda workshop manual download is available on this site and that is very handy if only to see how components/parts are put together and come apart.