Best Car Repair Videos For Auto Beginners

when learning from videos becomes better than books 

Learning how to fix vehicles is a very rewarding feeling. There’s nothing like repairing an issue with your own vehicle and seeing it come back to life again.

Not only do you end up saving yourself a good chunk of money, but you also gain confidence to tackle the next job should it come your way.

So what is the best way to learn how to fix vehicles? And how do books stack up?

Today on the internet there are several great books geared towards automotive for beginners, like the ones listed below:

A time for more videos

I will say that books will always have their place for the beginner. The need to do away with them isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

However since YouTube’s come onto the spot, many people have posted tons of repair videos on their platform. This is a recent trend that began to sprout around the year 2005. Within 15 years, a lot has changed in the car repair and maintenance world online.

It’s becoming apparent that video is taking over as the superior format of learning when it comes to fixing vehicles.

What makes video superior to books

Comparing 2-5 still picture frames from a book VS over 3000 frames from a video to cover the topic of vehicles repairs, is a huge difference. Take a look at the comparison below.

I was only able to find 2 still pictures with my repair manual book (shown below) VS the huge amount of content from a video to do an oil change:

Best Car Repair Videos For Auto Beginners books vehicle maintenance book mechanic technician technicians mechanics
best car repair video 3
Play Video about learn car mechanics online free

With the video we can see much more of the moving parts, and we get a full picture how things work with the vehicle. This increases our visualization to dissemble components and reassemble them with better results when working on our own.

Best Videos For Automotive Beginners

So if you’re thinking of fixing vehicles and don’t know where to start, think about taking video courses online. The courses costs as much as a book would AND you get to see all the moving parts.

Learn how to take care of your vehicles for the long term; that’s what we want. And if you need mechanic training videos that will help you get into the field, there are professional videos for that as well.

And if you plan on becoming a bit more advanced within a year or two, you have options to earn money on your own as a mechanic. This is where you might be interested in the world of flipping cars.

I would recommend learning to fix vehicles for at least two years before deciding to flip cars. 

Doing fix and flips are a great way to take your mechanic skills to the next level. It’s a prerequisite to becoming self made mechanic or creating desirable talent people are willing to pay for.

Most states in the US don’t require you to have a license to flip vehicles. 

And most provinces in Canada don’t require a license as well. Check out the video below to learn more:

For 70% of North Americans, that means you can flip vehicles without a license. And flipping cars can bring you a decent profit if you do them right.

You can learn from the pros that offer online courses who will show you how to do your first flip:

The opportunities avaialble for beginners

The great thing about this field is that there are many paths to becoming a mechanic. 

Now with video learning to repair vehicles, it becomes much easier for the beginner to get started.

You’re no longer stuck anymore with having to go to school and focus on mostly textbooks. Colleges will cost you money in the thousands (XX,XXX), while professional online video courses will cost you in the double digits (XX). And the training is similar, if not the same!

So check out some of the video courses I’ve posted above. It’s an investment worth a hundred books of value.

You’ll save yourself a trip from high student loan misery lane. And you’ll become just as good as the pros did when they first got started; as a beginner.

If you’re thinking of applying for a job soon, check out the auto employer vs employee mindset in this field. It might help take the pressure off you the next time you go searching for employment.

And if you live in the States, learning about the employer mindset may open yourself up to more opportunities. I know I’ve bumped heads with employers all the time. It’s an industry that needs to get rid of bad bosses. And it’s not likely going to change any time soon.

But if you’re sick of people holding you back, you can open your own shop as viable option. There are even professionals out there willing to help you. 

Pros Willing to Offer Assistance Running With Your Business

It may be a bit costly upfront, but you’d still save and earn way more money getting your own automotive business running. You can use a solution like Direct-Hit Pro Academy.

You get access to over 350 training videos and professional mechanics who will help you to diagnose and fix any vehicle out there. Plus you get instant access to over 3 million repair manuals in the software they provide you with.

Something to consider if you want to level up quickly as a mechanic and shop owner.

Kickstart Your Automotive Electrical Skills

As vehicles are becoming more electrified, it’s important to have electrical knowledge and skills to work on vehicles.

Learn the simple real life Formula that Runs All Electric Vehicles.

Get a head start if you’re thinking about getting into the automotive field.

Last Update: October 10, 2023

Employer VS Employee: Automotive Expectations In Shop

When you’re first starting out in the automotive world, you can feel intimidated for interviews with shop managers.

You might feel underqualified walking into the shop to get a job.

Or maybe you’ve been hired for some time and now your boss is starting to act up. Maybe this is your 5th boss now, but for some reason you just seem to butt heads with your employers over time.

So, are employers really as good as you think they are?

Today we’ll look at how much smarter is the employer vs the employee.

Now we all know when we go to job interviews we can feel a little bit of stress. We walk into a brand new place. We see a new face and then we sit and wait to be called. Then we have to meet the manager or shop owner. We answer a bunch of questions and then we hope for the best. Sometimes we land the job, sometimes we don’t.

What happens if the manager doesn’t call you back after the interview? This happened to me a lot. And will that stop you from approaching multiple shops because one or two shops say ‘no’ to you?

You might even think to yourself, “These guys are smart. They know what they’re talking about. They must know I’m just not cut out for this.”

Realize that at the end of the day, these employers aren’t the brightest either. Some of the times they’re making mistakes too which ain’t so smart; sometimes grave mistakes.

two short stories I want to share.

The first employer I had was an owner of an independent shop. He is knowledgeable in fixing vehicles and I learned a lot from him over the course of my employment.

But on the first day I noticed he had a car running in his garage bay. I got a quick tour of the shop and maybe 10 minutes had gone by now. 

Next thing I know I see the same car that was running earlier, spewing out hot coolant into the air like a high pressure fountain you see at a city park. 

That fountain was probably reaching well over a meter high. Next thing, I see the owner rushing back to the car in haste to turn it off.

…2 Months Later

About 2 months working for him I get a car on the lift that needs a brake job. I noticed that the caliper pins are seized unto the caliper bracket. I quickly show the owner this problem and he immediately responds, “It’s okay, just throw everything back on with the new pads.” 

So essentially I did just that. We didn’t order a new caliper or notify the customer. We just put everything back like nothing ever happened.

I realized then the rumors to be true about shop owners taking shortcuts, and here was one of them. Not only will the customer’s new brake pads wear out even faster, but this could cause a safety hazard down the road later on. 

The owner just wanted to get another car into the bay and keep generating that cashflow as fast as possible. Not a smart idea if the customer gets into an accident. That can come back to bite the employer.

Second employer gambling with his shop.

The second example is when I worked for a different owner who had a good operations going. But, it had a very weak point that could easily be exploited. 

This weak point could knock him back in heavy fines and possibly revoke his license to keep his shop open. Which here in Alberta, is a requirement to have a license to keep your shop open. 

Some provinces in Canada don’t need a license. And in the States it seems you don’t need one as well. But here in Alberta and in some other provinces; if you don’t have at least 1 person with a license working on the floor in your shop, that can spell out trouble for you.

I discovered this through my coworker who told me he doesn’t have a journeyman license. He also mentioned that I ‘not say anything to anyone’ about it.

And whenever I saw regulations people walk into the shop, I would notice the owner running around frantically. Since it was just me and my coworker working at this shop, I knew the owner was trying to coo the regulations people because he had no licensed journeyman in his shop; including himself. And I realized he was just one step away from being shut down because of this.

Another shortcut an owner is willing to take so he doesn’t have to pay higher wages to a licensed mechanic. Not so smart.

After about two years I tried to call my former employer about setting up a business deal. The number was disconnected, and when I visited the shop everything was shut down. I looked online and saw confirmation that the place had emptied and was no longer open by looking at the reviews.

I learned alot from my employers

But to be fair these mechanics knew how to fix vehicles and impressed me some of the time. But that’s the thing, it’s only some of the time. 

The other times it’s just neutral or they’re out there taking shortcuts and breaking regulations.

Which means you as the beginner shouldn’t worry when employers say ‘no’ to you when you ask for a job. Now you know they don’t know what they’re talking about. 

You just head to the next shop and ask again until you land employment.

And for people thinking of starting their own business, competition from other shops shouldn’t stop you from doing your own thing if you think it’s going to work out.

So there you go. Employer vs employee. Are employers smarter? No. Not really. But if you ever do become an employer, now you know the pitfalls here so you can become a smarter one.

Learn how to become a mechanic with no experience or school. 

Watch a quick video here to get started in the automotive field if you have no idea where to start. With people saying go to college or get experience, it can be frustrating when you don’t have either and you’re starting with less money. So check out the video to solve this issue:

Play Video about how to become a mechanic with no experience or without school easy learning repair cars

Kickstart Your Automotive Electrical Skills

As vehicles are becoming more electrified, it’s important to have electrical knowledge and skills to work on vehicles.

Learn the simple real life Formula that Runs All Electric Vehicles.

Get a head start if you’re thinking about getting into the automotive field.

Starting your own business

And if you’ve fixing care for about 2 years but can’t seem to level up, consider flipping cars.

Learning how to flip cars can earn you a decent amount of profits if done right. Not only that, but you can level up you automotive repair skills at the same time.

Which means if you’re getting sick of working for people, you can become your own boss.

Check out the link below to learn more:

July 28, 2021