Why Forums Aren't Your Friends

I briefly mentioned forums (such as Supramania, Supraforums, or TS.info) as an online resource in my previous post, and often-times, they are! For the complete freshman mechanic, however, they're not. There are several reasons why: for one, in order to actually access the full content, you must first register to be a member of each form; secondly, there's a waiting period before you can post and ask questions--which is hardly beneficial for someone who needs an answer immediately; and thirdly, most of the people on the forums are actually quite rude. For example, I was perusing Supramania the other day, and a freshman mechanic posted a question on changing the alternator, given that there were no guides that he could find. Almost immediately, forum members began posting replies like "if you need to ask questions like that, you shouldn't be working on a car," or, "how dumb are you?" etc etc. With this blog, I seek to remedy the ills of online resources by posting step-by-step guides, complete with pictures and full explanations, but without any of the attitude.

My Driving (hah) Question

For my 20% project, I decided to do a little research into helping freshmen mechanics into working on the (naturally aspirated version) Toyota Supra MKIII. Thus, how can I more practically assist "weekend warriors" in completing maintenance, repairs, and even an overhaul through a free step-by-step online guide?

To elaborate slightly, I want to be able to better assist complete novices as they began the journey of working on a nearly-thirty-year-old car. I know that there are Chilton's and Hayne's manuals available for purchase at nearly any auto-parts store (or online for that matter), and that the Toyota Supra Repair Manual (TSRM) is available for online purchase as well as online viewing; these resources, however, are not complete. For example, changing the spark plugs--generally the easiest job one can possibly do on a car---on an MKIII is actually somewhat complicated, especially if you're not at all familiar with cars, and these resources don't even cover it! In other words, these resources assume that the viewer has at least a minimal background in terms of auto-mechanical repair, and skips over several steps in the beginning of many jobs (or completely neglects to mention how to do something at all). I am aware there are other online resources, such as forums, but I'll get to that in my next post. This blog is here to be a resource for those who have no idea how to do anything on the MKIII Supra: no rude comments about knowledge (or lack thereof), no judgments, only answers.