So first of all, I have never worked on cars in my life, but I am working on and am interested in learning . (changed my headlight bulbs today, woot :) )

My question is, of all the standard maintenance, which ones can i learn to do fairly easy, and which ones am i better off just not even trying? I have no idea the difficulty involved in any of it really, I found learning to swap out the halogen bulbs to be easy but i dont imagine that was difficult for anyone :P

Lastly, im not really saying im gonna go out and try any of it tomorrow, I always do lots of research before touching anything, so I guess what im asking for is what tasks do you guys think would be in my range of learning, at this point, mostly just interested in what i can research about to get some more experience, thanks much for any help :)

Also just a shout out to my car , the REASON im interested is my 2003 Eclipse GTS is the first car ive ever owned that I LOVE :) I want to take the best care of it possible!!!

Since you've never worked on cars as you said. The easiest things for you to learn how to do are:

1)learn how to change your own oil
2)learn how to change your spark plugs
3)learn how to change your air filter/and or learn how to install an aftermarket intake on your car.
4)learn how to change your front turn signal bulbs
5)learn how to change your brake pads(rotors that's a little more work but it's still really easy)

Those are the easiest things you can learn to do on your own without having much trouble. And there are many more tasks that are really really easy, but those are the ones I came up with off the top of my head. And if you have any specific questions about any of those, ask, these forums are here to help you out.

go out and buy a chilton or hanes manual for your car first, then thumb through it. your basic maintenance issues are anything that does not include engine to transmission tear down.

i'd also say if you have drum brakes in the rear for a person who has never worked on cars just take it to a shop for your rear brakes. fuel issues are easy, electrical problems are generally easy if you have the patience to find where the problem is. suspension repairs can be done by you, but adjustments need to be performed by a technician.

rotate your own tires, don't be lazy and don't waste your money. on last thing if you can't figure out how to change your oil without going to someone or a forum on how to do it, then i'd suggest you just not work on your car at all. maybe get a POS car for 500 bucks and fix it up to sell it before you go ruining a semi nice eclipse GTS.

for now thats all i got, i could point out each thing for you, but first go out and buy a chitlon or hanes manual for your car and read most of the stuff that you think you can understand. until then just don't touch your car until you have some form of knowledge. i hope this helps you out.

Yeah , thanks much to both of you :) Was exactly what I was looking for

:thumbsup: No problem, like I said, if you have any other specific questions about something let somebody on the forums know.

I wouldn't attempt spark plugs on a GTS if you don't have a manual to guide you through it. Learn to do your own oil changes and brakes, and so forth. Coolant flush and trans drain and fill, change filters....blah blah blah. Ask for advice, its worth it to not screw something up.

spark plugs arent SUPER hard..a manuel definatly helps though. The good thing is the connections are either color coded or different shapes or both so its harder to mess up at least

Changing spark plugs on the V6 Eclipse (GTS at that) are very difficult on the rear bank, I don't suggest a novice trying to learn on the fly. Have someone who knows what they're doing help you.

In fact, have someone that knows WTF they are doing help you with everything, INCLUDING an oil change as pathetic as that sounds. You need to learn how to do it the right way and not make a mistake while doing self OJT.

+1 on what SC said. broken shit is never fun. And think how embarassing it'd be to have the car towed like, yea I broke this can you fix it?

Lol I would fix it and not even think twice, labor just went up another $65 /hr just cuz you fucked with it first!

Yeah thanks for all the advice, I think im gonna do a bit of both, some of the topics silver suggested I think I can learn, im gonna hold off on some of the others, but also buy a cheapy car and wrench on that .........

In that neighborhood, any suggestions? Im thinking about a 1995 something is about what i want, i was actually leaning towards another eclipse :P lol but I havent ever owned cars so I dunno what else would be good/fun to have, so any thoughts/suggestions of good cars near the 1995 model year would be fantastic :)

Personally if I was gong to acquire another vehicle just to wrench on to learn I would go to a salvage yard and pick up something for cheap that I wouldn't worry about messing up and didn't care if it was driven or not. If I learned enough to get it roadworthy then that would be great but otherwise your not necessarily spending a couple thousand dollars on something that you might mess up.

I'm closing this topic since you're now taking this into another direction on a vehicle other than the 3G Eclipse.