Auto Fundamentals: How and Why of the Design, Construction, and Operation of Automobiles: Applicable to All Makes and Models

by Chris Johanson, Martin T. Stockel, James E. Duffy

Book Overview

One of the most popular automotive theory texts available, "Auto Fundamentals" provides a study of the design, construction, and operation of all major automotive systems. Content centers around the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566375770
• ISBN13: 9781566375771
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Goodheart-Wilcox Publisher
• Length: 607 Pages
• Weight: 3.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 8.6" x 11.2"

Customer Reviews

This is a must for any real car enthusiast!

Reading 'Auto Fundamentals' is like taking a college Auto Tech class at your own leasure! Pretty much every question you have about the fundamental automotive systems WILL be answered by the time you finish this textbook. This is an absolute must-read for anyone looking to get into an automotive field, no matter what branch. Plenty of pictures (with thier own accompanying explanations) are placed throughout the book to give you plenty of visual aides to go along with the text. Although this is an excellent read, there are a few parts of the book that can overwhelm you (eg. automatic transmissions/transaxles and power steering systems we're so over my head I had to skip those chapters). The author goes into extreme detail at the beginning of the book, but that detail kind of tapers off near the end. Not so much that you won't be able to comprehend what your reading, but enough that it may get a little frustrating to read. I'm still giving this 5 stars though, it more than deserves it for it's wide variety of content and (for the most part) clarity.

Excellent book, but too much detail for beginners

This book provides excellent explanations and great diagrams. But I feel that it provides so many details that it can be very confusing for a beginner like me. For example, the book devotes 6 pages of the first 40 pages to just piston rings! I set out with the goal of understanding roughly how all of the parts of a car fit together and was overwhelmed with minutia about piston design. And it talks about the different procedures used to make different parts (whether they're cast iron or die-cast metal or pressure cast or pressed or forged or drop-forged or cam-ground, etc.) without describing what these mean (or, more importantly, the physical differences of the result, which is what presumably makes it worth knowing how each is made). I think the book would be significantly improved if it were reorganized to provide an introductory chapter of how the major parts of the car work (explain the four-stroke engine, for example, without mentioning considerations in piston shape and without distractions like discussing two-stroke engines, etc.) It seems like you have to read all 600 pages before everything starts to fit together. I would also like to see more discussion about why certain features make cars faster. Rather than just a taxonomy of the ways to design a certain part, I'd like to understand how the design choice affects the overall car. For example, when I go to the website of a car manufacturer and see the extra features in the sports-car version of a vehicle, I'd like to understand why exactly those make the car faster.

Readable, Intelligent, and Detailed

This is a fantastic book! It explains difficult concepts in easy-to-understand language, but it never patronizes the reader. The depth and breadth of the coverage are also very good - while reading it, I never found myself wanting information that I couldn't find somewhere within this book.The most surprising feature is the book's readability. For starters, the grammar and spelling are great, with no typos or conflicting information, which is (sadly) exceptional for this sort of small-press technical book. The text flows nicely from one topic to the next, complemented by the ample diagrams and photos. It's rare that I find myself not wanting to put down a industrial textbook, but this one kept me turning pages.The book deals primarily with the 'theoretical' side of auto mechanics, meaning that it answers questions like 'What is x?', 'What does y do?', and 'Why did they do z this way?' rather than 'How do I fix component x on a y model car built in year z?' But the text is plainly oriented toward working mechanics (unlike Bosch's Automotive Handbook), offering much practical info as well as many general rules and guidelines of interest to mechanics.In short, if you want to learn how automobiles work with a view toward fixing them, you can't go wrong with this book. If you were born with a wrench in your hand, you probably won't learn a lot here, but anyone else from neophyte to advanced intermediate will get his money's worth.

Fascinating book !!!

This is a really good book !! Stockel explain step by step how automobiles systems work with each other in a very understandable way. Even if you have no experience with cars mechanics, you will like this book. I just bought the second part: Autorepair fundamentals, hoping to find it as good as the first part. Two greassy thumbs up !!

This book is wide in scope and easy to understand.

This is that rare type of technical book which one might choose to read purely for pleasure. I searched local bookstores for a single volume which contained fundamental information of all automotive systems and could find nothing. This book has it all. It is writtten in language which any person of average intelligence can understand and is illustrated throughout. I would recommend it to anyone who feels his or her knowledge of automobiles is weak.