How to Diagnose and Repair Automotive Electrical Systems (Motorbooks Workshop)

This book is indeed the best automotive electrical systems book out there, as almost all other books waste the entire book on theories that hardly apply to actual hands-on diagnosis.

I am a graduate of highly-recognized aircraft maintenance college, and have achieved above-average grades in electrical/electronic systems courses. However, during my education we hardly covered "practical" part of our profession as certified technicians. This book cleared up some of my questions and was definitely better than any book I've read on electricity.

However, the downside is that the book still spends much space explaining theories that do not help doing the actual troubleshooting/repair. It could use more photos/illustrations, as well as comparisons between good units & bad units. Some of the components covered are also obsolete (point contact ignition system, DC generator, etc...), only helpful for those who are into vintage vehicles. The book also has too much advertisement, especially for Fluke products. Fluke multimeters are indeed the best in the world, and I myself use a Fluke. However, even my entry-level Fluke was $150 and for most home mechanics, Sears Craftsman DMM's are more than sufficient.

All in all, there is simply no better book than this one. On his next book, I would like to see more info on imported vehicles, as well as more up-to-date systems such as skid control, traction control, electronic climate control, navigation, discharge-type headlight bulbs, LED's, Optitron clusters, and engine-to-transmission data-link systems.

I'm your average "Tim The Tool Man" type -- stuff like fixing cars & bikes comes naturally to me, and I'm even pretty good at fabrication stuff like welding, but when it comes to electricity, I scratch my head, grunt, and hope nothing catches fire.

Tracy Martin's book actually makes a lot of sense to me, and each chapter builds on previous chapters, which is a big help to me. He doesn't assume you know a lot about electricity, but he doesn't speak down either -- just clear and accessable language. I really like how there aren't a bunch of crazy-looking engineering schematics & symbols, instead, he uses really straighforward illustrations. Good photos too.

Everyone from a DIY type to a professional mechanic can learn something from this book.

This is an excellent book that is ideal for someone new to automotive electrical/electronic systems and even someone like myself who has worked on cars for decades but can use a good review of these systems. The pictures and illustrations are so clear and colorful that they are almost stunning when you open the book. In fact, they are the best photographs and illustrations that I have ever seen in a book of this type. They are large and beautifully clear and the pages are of very high-quality glossy and thick paper.

I was a bit surprised by the amount of information about old electrical systems with distributors, points, generators, regulators, etc. But that's OK and someone working on a older car may find it to be a plus. However, many people may have little or no interest in the older systems and a unusally large percentage of the book is devoted to long obsolete systems. I would suspect that most people would prefer that the book emphasized modern electronics more. Don't get me wrong: The book does cover modern systems but I would say at least about 1/2 of it is about old systems. Also, know that this does not cover OBD systems at all but I'm actually glad that it doesn't because that's a subject in itself. (I bought the two most popular books listed on Amazon about OBD systems on Amazon and I found the Haynes book to be, by far, the better of the two. I have written a review of both of them. The Haynes book would be a perfect companion to this book.)

One funny thing that I noticed is that, in numerous pictures in the book, the author is shown using a DMM set to read AC voltage when he is reading a DC circuit. In fact, I don't know how he even got a reading on his meter as shown in the pictures. It's a small thing but it's funny that the author didn't catch that.

This book will be an excellent resource for me and I think others will find it valuable too. It's well worth the money.

Wow! I never thought I could learn car electrical repair from one book - but I did! This book is great. Easy to understand & easy to locate information. Very user friendly & laid out well. Good tests for your car, and helps you test your car yourself. Now I don't feel like such an idiot when an electrical malfunction occurs in my car - a good guide & resource! Highly recommend!

Scotty Kilmer recommended this book in one of his video's (Biden is Going to Make This Illegal Next Year) I orderd the other book also in the video along with the test light and an OBDII XTOOL D7. If you're like me you need to read this book very carefully as much important information is presented in the text and you'll miss it if you gloss over the pages. After I read it once I realized I needed to review the information again as electrical diagnostics does not come naturally to me. The authors 40+ years of electrical diognostic knowledge is presented through explanations of electrical diagrams, test equipment and rudementary theory. But hidden in those explanations are the test sequences and procedures that you will follow to run down a short or electrical problem. To understand how to solve electrical problems you need to think like a Mechanic would and that is logical system analysis which is required to identify the issue. For instance, in the book a simple circuit is diagrammed with a relay in it. It explains how to find a short or failure in the circuit based upon what the relay is turning on or not turning on. Because electricity is invisible we can only deduce what has failed by the process elimination and this book explains the process. Carefully read the explanations to see the logic Electricians follow. I hope this review helps.

Bought brand new, came brand new. Although it is a little too dumbed down for myself and i was hoping for more reference to actualy electrical problems / diagnosis, it still covers voltage drop pretty decent. Less about Ignition & more about troubleshooting scenarios & diagnostic procedures. The cartoonish drawing examples were a little much for me, showing a wiring diagram or actual component with the leads hooked up would've been better, but all in all, still a great book for the price. Beginners will soak this up, intermediate to advanced will not be able to get past the 10th page without a slight giggle. (but im not knocking it). Pleased in the end.

This book is a good one for the backyard mechanic who wants to learn a little bit about electricity and electronics in his/her car. It explains how to read a wiring diagram. It has several sections on cars' different electrical systems (charging system, starting system, sensors, etc) with explanations on how they work and how to troubleshoot them, which could really help you save some money down the road. Now you can do some troubleshooting on your car instead of `shotgunning' parts at it.
This book is easy to read, clearly explained, and nicely formatted, with a lot of figures/diagrams/pictures in color.
Although I was a little skeptical when I first bought it, I now find it more and more useful as I keep learning about cars.

As a former ASE technician at 2 different dealership shops, I found this book a great refresher course. I've changed vocations, and had "lost track" (read: senior moments!) of some of these fundamentals. As a few others have stated, much of the material in this book was written about older vehicles, However, the principals are still the same when it comes to electrical troubleshooting, just the greater amount of electronics involved in todays cars make it easier in some respects (OBDII Scanners, etc) and more confusing for the shear amount of circuits on modern cars and trucks. I would recommend this book to anyone from wet behind the ears starting out, to someone like myself who has become outdated and a bit rusty. Martin makes this an easy read, and doesn't drone on with enough technobabble to put you to sleep. Well done

This book delivered what the title said. It is not a how to wire a car book, if you need that then look at jim horners automotive electrical handbook. I don't give this book 5 stars because its emphasis is on ford, gm and chrysler. I havent owned one of those for about 15 years and never will again so a lot of the book was useless to me. If you own a ford or gm then this is your book. This book is still good enough to get 4 stars even so.

I don't know a lot about cars. Usually I just get in and go. But the other day, after work, my car wouldn't start. At first I was going to take it to a local auto electric shop but that I decided to buy this book because I could get it quickly and maybe it would help me do the repair myself.

Got the book and went to the section on starting systems. In no time I had a pretty firm grasp of what I thought was wrong and learned how to load test a battery with just a multi-meter. Performed the test, found that the battery was shot, installed a new battery, and saved a lot of money.

I found this to be a really good reference if you don't know that much about auto electrical systems and plan on keeping it on my bookshelf for years to come.