Diy Automotive book recommendations for (vast majority of cars)?

I was wondering if anyone had any good automotive books that would help a novice diy mechanic be better at diagnosing problems and doing harder tasks. 

I'm looking for a good book to teach a bit of background theory ("How car's work") and specific tasks and "How" to use tools to find out what the problem is. Or any special techniques required for less common diy/adv diy tasks.

Example; how to do a valve job in a car, how to reset a car to TDC, best ways to do other things etc. Something a bit better than a Chiltons or Haynes, or even less specific. Perhaps something that could provide help with the ASE.


I'm not going to actually go into automotive at the moment, but I would like to learn more of the guts.

Comments

[AngryRedhead]

What about taking an automotive class through a trade school or something? Usually, as with most things, once you have a strong, basic understanding of how things work generally and how to source further information, you can go independent from there. You can potentially take just a few classes and save yourself a lot of frustration and aggravation down the line and perhaps make a few good connections along the way.

[Phill]

That's a pretty darn good idea. At the moment though; it's not attainable due to it being way out of my major. Automotive is just a hobby, not a career choice for me. Perhaps after graduation I'll take some for fun.

[Phill]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1428311491/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-4&pf_rd_r=0W4NPETGRS1ZN61Q0QMX&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470939031&pf_rd_i=507846

I was thinking of this one; anyone read it?

[frollard]

Trouble is while the mechanics are similar in each car, there can be vastly different techniques applied to achieve the same effect -- I'd reccommend the specific haynes (or other) manual for your particular car.

As for Electrical theory, I'd recommend a good paruse of wikipedia.

[steveastrouk]

+1 on that, yes, and as you say, there are techniques, but the practice is wildly different between ages and types of vehicle.

Perusing wikipedia is a good move, but picking up tips on "autoelectrics" is probably a good search term.

Steve

[Phill]

And perhaps better ways to diagnose electrical problems, they're always tough for me! I probably need more background information on basic electrical theory and such (How to read diagrams/How to use specific tools to do find a problem)

Thanks!