Anybody else feel like they suck at cars sometimes

Having a string of failures in terms of my ability to diagnose electrical problems. Just wondering if I should take up drinking or whatever regular people do. This hobby can really kick your ass sometimes.

Electricity is wizardry, everyone sucks at it. Some just suck less than others.

I spent five hours yesterday trying and failing to get a Toyota circlip axle installed in a Celica, so I know how you feel.

My truck probably has the simplest wiring harness possible on something that isn't a completely gutted race car with a carb... and I'm pretty scared of eventually having to rewire all of it.

One time I got stumped on why I couldn't get the rear brake circuit to bleed on a truck I once owned. After a week of failed attempts I took it to a shop. Turns out I missed a pretty obvious issue, some yahoo had plugged the rear circuit in the master cylinder with an eight penny nail instead of fixing the leaky rear lines.

Since this has turned into a confession thread, I'm sick of having to take my car to the shop because I lack the lift, tools and skills to get rusty bolts loose without rounding them off.

Not working on them, but I'd sure like to know why everything I buy rusts apart in six months.

The latest car was interesting in this regard. It kicked around the shop for over a year before I bought it for Various Reasons. It was fine for all that time. As soon as the title transferred to me, the exhaust fell off, the fenders and rockers rusted out, and various brake lines blew. As did one of the front struts, in the "top separated from bottom" sense.

I really don't get it. I'd think about buying a new car, but I'd probably be blacklisted after my third car in two years.

First time I ever did any real work on a car was a headgasket job on an L28. I used the timing chain tool early on, got the whole head job done over a few months around work, High school, sports etc. Got it all put together and the timing chain had slipped. Had to take it into a shop and spend big money. Felt the failure on that one.

I have come to accept that most new stuff I tackle will take multiple attempts before I figure out which way is up. Given enough time and dollars I can overcome the lack of skill and experience and eventually add to the skill set.

I own three cars and all are in need of some sort of repair.

Two are still partially disassembled from when I started the repairs and had to stop to deal with something else.

-Turn signals quit working on my fox body

-my 6 is waiting on me to finish the thermostat install

-my Miata has a bad cat.

I feel your pain

sometimes. i had one last diagnosis to do on the sentra SE-R to prove bad ECM to send it out for repair so i could sell it, and i have not seen the keys for 3 weeks. i hang the keys to projects in the garage but i brought them in the house with me and have not seen them since.

Electrics are FM- berkeleying magic. I learned that as an apprentice.

I've had my heinie kicked by the simplest of cars, so I too understand the feeling.

A solid 60% of the time I pick up a wrench I put it down wanting to end my own life.
Too bad I can't afford not to do some of my own work.

I absolutely hate working on cars, but the desire to drive a fast one, coupled with a chronic lack of funds, forces me to time and time again. Luckily, I'm good enough at it to not die.

Sucking is half the fun.

This is number one reason why my projects sit. Some issue kicks the crap outta me, everything I touch goes to E36 M3, and I'm like "berk this . . ."

I think the timing belt slipped on the J30 I just did that job on. It lined up fine, but I don't know that it was under enough tension to not slip when the car started. Everything was to spec, but the car drives like the timing is off a tooth or three.

All of the above. The only reason I've been able to make some real progress on my project car this year, is that I've got someone who doesn't suck at it to guide me, and to be the voice of reason when I want to throw a torque wrench through the windshield.

I feel like this when diagnosing driveability issues that dont throw a code on these fancy fuel injected vehicles. Grew up learning carb's and simple hei. This 99 chevy i got a few weeks back runs worse then my 89 ford yet the computer cant figure it out.

Tdlr: im about to buy another old truck and give up on fuel injection.

I guess i'm lucky. I originally came to cars because i had to know how everything worked. I enjoy a challenging diagnosis (even electrical!) in and of itself, it's just the constraints of time and energy and available tools and service information that detract from that by various amounts in each situation. So i do my best to get myself on the right footing before tackling anything as far as time/tools/documentation etc, and most of the time i'm ok. I've never once considered stepping away from the hobby even for a short time. I've been working evenings every night for two months and that has me PISSED. I teach people how to work on cars for a living but these last 8 weeks you can often find me starting to bitch right at 6pm about how i'd rather be at home working on my own cars than be at work getting paid to teach someone else how to do it. So there is no lack of wanting it here.

When I do brakes on anything but a miata. Regardless of the vehicle, I wind up with the last bolt that needs to come out or go back in refusing to do so. Pads on my old forester turned into a 12 hour job, for example. I will sell a car before I do hardlines again. A simple patch always turns into a full replacement between bad flares, leaky fittings, kinks, or rust.

Electrical stuff murders me. I ended up selling my otherwise-solid Acura Legend because it would randomly go haywire. Key out of the ignition, it would sit there with the dashboard lights flickering, radio would be on, heating fans would cycle on and off really rapidly. I had no clue where to even start.

Usually though, I feel like I suck more when it comes to buying cars than fixing them. The Acura had it's weird electrical issue, plus I ended up having to pretty much completely rebuild the cooling system and put a clutch in it. The Miata I thought I was getting a good deal on at $3900. Instead I found it'd been wrecked badly at some point (front clip grafted on, bad repaint, transmission out of an earlier car, bent RR knuckle, bent LF upper control arm, crunched framerails) and then worked on by a real butcher (Timing covers on wrong, end of the axle berked up, rain rail installed wrong, finger-tight bellhousing bolts, pilot bearing only driven halfway into the flywheel, amp mounted by running a screw through the filler neck, etc). And the Jeep, ugh, don't even get me started on the Jeep.

All. The. Berking. Time.

I have 6 cars that all need something from various maintenance and repairs to a major restoration. Right now I am stepping away out of necessity since my cars and tools are at home in PA and I am on a work assignment in NH for all of 2016. A couple of months ago, I was forced to some extent to pay someone to fix my Mini as I just don't have time this year to even replace parts, much less figure out what parts I need to replace.

Yes.