The Hack Mechanic Guide to European Automotive Electrical Systems

Roundel - October, 2016

BOOK REVIEW: The Hack Mechanic Guide to European Automotive Electrical Systems
REVIEW BY PAUL WEGWISER

Like all good scams, this one started with a brief e-mail message and the words, "Paul, my darling, just so you know...." I've fallen for that one at least twice before. People don't call me their darling nearly enough, and I'm nothing if not desperate for affection in all its often-twisted forms. The e-mail continued, requesting that I review another of Rob Siegel's automotive books published by Bentley Publishers, this one titled The Hack Mechanic Guide to European Automotive Electrical Systems.

Siegel's writing is well known to Roundel readers, and since the publication of his first book, Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic, his colorful and heartfelt writing has connected with an enormous audience of "other" car fanatics, as well as those curiously connected with them. I was excited to be reading another one of his books, with the prospect of reviewing it in published form, until I realized that it was a book ... about. .. automotive electrical systems. Perhaps the driest subject matter imaginable, right? Even though I'm a professional mechanic, only math fills me with more dread than the prospect of diagnosing and repairing errant electrical malfunctions in a car. Most people are visual learners. Things like math and electricity are invisible, mysterious, haunting forces - invisible, that is, until it's too late. Ever seen an electrical circuit burn up in smoke because two wires decided to get a little too friendly? Some things are best left unseen - and unsmelled.

But here is a book thoughtfully and exhaustively crafted to put our fears at rest, and explain the nature of the scary, complex things connected to all those wires. It's not as warm and fuzzy as Siegel's first book, but it digs immediately in to the nitty-gritty of why electrical things work - or don't work - on our cars, in a manner that still makes for thoroughly pleasurable reading. (I was so happily submerged in this book while on vacation at the beach that I received the worst sunburn of my life.) I only wish that this book had been presented to me about 25 years ago. In fact, I'd suggest it as textbook material for professional educational programs, and it is essential reading for the do-it-yourselfer.

Siegel's book has all the elements: hilarious personal anecdotes, entertaining warnings, loads of photographs, and easy-to-understand diagrams - along with the sort of personal touch rarely found in technical guides. Often, I'll open a technical manual in search of the simple answer to a simple question, and invariably stumble upon some word or term that I've never understood. This is usually the point at which my monkey brain takes over and I lose my train of thought, ambition, and patience to solve what began as a simple repair or troubleshooting project. But this book kept me on track the entire way through. Among my favorite things, was a clear, easy-to-navigate index and table of contents. I find myself constantly flipping through the pages of most technical reference books, going from glossary to index to main group sections to table of contents, and back. This book makes that process a cinch.

Consider it a tool to help get over the fears and confusion regarding electrical circuits, sensors, relays, and switches. In fact, it's more than a tool; it's like having your own electrical therapist. As a test, I used the book to troubleshoot an odd lack of spark on an Austin-Healey last week. Even when used for Edwardian perversions of circuitry, such as those found on British cars, the book provided everything I needed to know to methodically trace and resolve the issue. That sunburn doesn't feel so painful anymore.

I'm often asked for advice by people interested in working on their cars for the first time. I almost always respond the same way: "Get a Bentley book for it - then go from there." This particular book isn't just for novices; it has the good nuts-'n'-bolts stuff to refresh the skills of even veteran technicians and mechanics, while still making the world of automotive electrical service accessible and welcoming to the beginner. Whether you're working on a 1970s coupe or something still functioning on its second 14,000-mile oil change from 2013, this book will assist you in understanding, diagnosing, and repairing the many simple and not-so-simple electrical circuits designed to make your car function properly.

And Rob, my darling, just so you know: This isn't another automotive book that will sit on my book case at home. This one's going in my tool box at the shop. Permanently. Besides, it's already got greasy fingerprints on it.

-Paul Wegwiser

Review from and courtesy of Roundel magazine - October 2016

The magazine of the BMW Car Club of America

LACar.com - October, 2016

BOOK REVIEW: The Hack Mechanic Guide to European Automotive Electrical Systems
REVIEW BY: Doug Stokes

Thorough, surely scholarly, but still written in understandable terms, and with an almost uncountable (every page) wealth of sharp, understandable diagrams, photos, and charts ? this book is (almost) fun to read, even if it is only to try to better simply understand what?s going on under the hood of your car and not necessarily to trace problems down and fix them oneself.

Like a book on medieval warfare techniques and technology, or the ins and out of brain surgery, this book can easily be read just for the information ? Knowledge is (pardon the pun) power here. You KNOW that your car runs on gasoline, right? You?re quite aware of that at the pump every time you fill your fuel tank up and slide that pair of twenties across the counter or swipe your credit card in the slot. (By the way, if your European car or truck is a hybrid plug-in all-electric, go on to the next book review here. On the other hand, if it relies on an internal combustion engine, stay tuned?).

OK right, that running on gasoline question was bogus. Your standard car, truck, and/or motorcycle all need highly complicated electronic systems, not only to run and control the motor and automatic transmission, but to see to a huge number of your needs and desires, from sun/moon roofs to 20-way adjustable seats, and on to NAV systems and super-vigilant safety systems that guard and guide the vehicle as well as providing protection in collisions and crashes.

This book is most assuredly not for everyone, even though it?s written in some of the clearest and easiest to understand language, not everyone is all that worried about the electrically system(s) in their cars.

Until they fail.

This book is the one that 8 out of 10 people reading these words will never even crack ? but those two, the ones who this book is for, can be very important to the rest of us.

And that's the idea here. This is an intelligently-written course that deals quickly with the general theory of automotive electronic systems and then goes about informing how to diagnose and treat (I mean repair) both simple and complex electronics components that are vital parts of the nervous systems of a number of brands of very popular off-shore car brands.

WARNING: PERSONAL FLASHBACK: Many years ago, when I worked at HQ branch of Region 7 of the LA County Library System in West Covina, I developed a theory. (Bear in mind that this was long before the Internet and only in the early stages of videotape ? most technical knowledge was still only available in books.)

My theory was that well past half of the books that we had that pertained to doing some specific task (let's say your own plumbing, or re-roofing your house, or tracing down a short in your car's wiring system) were often, and in fact, how NOT to do it books ? in their use in informing the reader of the degree of difficulty of a certain task.

Readers were apprised of the how complex a job was and often (after assessing themselves) went with professional help.

Like the books in the LA County Library system, this one is very good at separating the adept from the less adept. And especially the less adept who understand that they really do not have to be able to re-wire their twelve year old Audi in order to be fulfilled, and who understand that far more clearly because they looked at the process in this book and said: "Pass ? let's get a pro in here.", which sometimes is the smartest, most efficient, least expensive, and safest approach to a serious automotive electrical problem.

One feature of this electrical textbook is the author's very informative information on the dangers of working with electrical devices. By now, I'm going to guess that we?ve all felt the vibrating sting of an electric shock. Since you're reading this, I'm going to guess that the shock did not wipe you out, but author Siegel is very careful to explain that a nasty shock CAN be very bad (life-threatening in many cases) and that caution and common sense is the only pre-antidote for this one. His warnings here are clear and correct.

And (aside from a radio not staying on station, or a CD getting stuck in the player) most modern automobile electrical problems are just that, serious. There may be sufficient gasoline in the tank, but if a very long list of electrical signals aren?t followed precisely to the letter, and dozens of minute connections aren?t made exactly on time and in a very precise order, in the words of Bob Dylan, "? you ain?t going nowhere".

-Doug Stokes, LACar.com

Article from and courtesy of LACar.com

Bimmer - November, 2016

Hack Mechanic electrical guide both useful and readable

Initially, Rob Siegel and I are friends, and we have both been on the masthead of the BMW CCA's Roundel magazine since Etruscan times, even though he looks way older than me. That doesn't mean we always agree or that we can't be objective about each other's work.

With that out of the way..

If the world has needed one automotive electrical system manual ever since different systems evolved in different regions of the world, it's this one. Why? Anyone who's ever looked under the hood and dash of a 40-year-old European car knows the hell it endured at the hands of those who didn't understand its electrical system.

While complexity has swallowed the automotive electrical landscape at the black hole level, knowing the basics can get savvy do-it-yourselfers through simple to complex electrical diagnosis and repairs, or at least let them know what they're paying someone else to do. It'll also make drivers conversant in the subject matter, letting them know how electricity works and how not to get shocked or set things on fire. It will answer the most common electrical question: Is my battery shot or is it the alternator?

Not knowing how to test things is the reason so many people buy a battery and an alternator in succession, having mal-guessed the first time. As Siegel explains in detail, all BMWs built up to 1996 and some systems after that can be diagnosed fairly well with a digital multimeter. They're super-useful, and you can get one for 10 bucks.

Speaking of mu1timeters, love doesn't begin to describe my feelings for Chapter 8, which shows comprehensively how to diagnose car horns. "No beep-beep" is a common problem once cars exceed 35 years of age, and cars of that age often fail safety inspections for simple horn malfunction.

Additional chapters cover ignition systems from points through electronic, reading wire diagrams, diagnosing parasitic power drains and even a bit on audio head units.

Additionally, Siegel has gone well beyond the basics to subject matter that should make this manual required reading in technical schools and repair shops alike. Heck, BMW service managers would do well to read it. ..and if they do, they'll enjoy it because the editors at Bentley had the good sense to let Siegel be Siegel. Unlike the dry engineer types who usually write manuals, Siegel has a God-given turn of phrase that makes everything he writes worth reading.

But will it help you fix your BMW? Yes. Fortunately for us, Siegel and team have put together a heavily German-based electrical manual. As Siegel explained, "Charlie Burke, who has written most of Bentley's technical manuals for the past 30 years, [said], 'The German-ness is the use of the DIN numbering system and the prevalence of Bosch electronics: There's a lot of truth to that, so we ran with it:'

That German-ness makes it relevant to Bimmer readers, but it's also what makes it less than optimally useful. Here's why:

Surely, a manual that calls itself a Guide to European Automotive Electrical Systems would offer a tantalizingly vulgar description of the most deviant, licentious and tawdry automotive subject there is, one so kinky only the Brits could be into it: positive ground electrical systems. Yet I found barely a mention of the subject on Seigel's manual. In fact, the manual covers nothing enigmatic, also known as British. For that, Siegel privately recommended author Rick Astley's (not the musician)Classic British Car Electrical Systems.

I asked Siegel how the Brits were skirted.

"Since Bentley's customer base is mainly owners of European cars and since both the DIN numbering system and Bosch apply to most European cars, 'German' was expanded to 'European:" he said. "We didn't explicitly set out to exclude the Brits, but that sort of did, since vintage British cars use Lucas electrics, and before a certain point, they didn't follow the DIN numbering standard."

Notwithstanding skirting the Brits and dashing my admittedly more-than-a-little odd automotive proclivities like positive ground, this manual puts Siegel and the Bentley Publishers Technical Team on my list of noteworthy authors of truly useful manuals.

-Mike Miller

Review from and courtesy of Bimmer - November 2016

https://www.bimmer-mag.com/

BestRide - June 29, 2016

BOOK REVIEW: THE HACK MECHANIC GUIDE TO EUROPEAN ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS by Craig Fitzgerald

I hate electricity. Yes, I understand it’s as important to the running of an automobile as the gasoline running through the fuel lines, but nothing this side of an automatic transmission rebuild fills me with more existential dread that working on wiring. Case in point: I fought with a faulty brake light on a 1965 Vespa scooter FOR 15 YEARS before I finally caved in and had somebody fix it.

So it is with great trepidation that I wandered into Rob Siegel’s new book from Bentley Publishers, The Hack Mechanic Guide to European Electrical Systems, which just hit the bookshelves today. The "Hack Mechanic" in the title references Siegel’s terrific earlier work, Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic: How Fixing Broken BMWs Helped Make Me Whole.

I have spent many, many hours looking at wiring diagrams, and trying to diagnose electrical issues. The only vehicle I was successful with was - ironically - a 1970 Land Rover Series IIa, which was only simple to diagnose because there was like one wire in it.

All of those manuals, diagrams and user guides I pored over featured the style of writing you’d normally need to read the installation instructions on a garbage disposal to experience. Dry. Dull. Designed to induce sleep.

A book like this walks a fine line. You can easily dumb it down to the point where you’re insulting your reader with cartoon pictures of electrons, or just as easily overestimate the reader’s intelligence and attention span and write it like your core audience once built the Space Shuttle.

This one is billed as a guide to European automotive electrical systems, and it’s true that it does provide a lot of specific data on the idiosyncrasies of Volkswagen, Audi, BMW and any other Euro manufacturer that favors Bosch electrics. But that’s not to say that if you own an Austin-Healey that you won’t get a lot of it.

It’s also not just for people who have cars of a certain vintage. A ton of the information collected in the book covers how to diagnose and understand things like all the sensors that make a modern car go and stop.

The Hack Mechanic Guide to European Automotive Electrical Systems splits the difference. It’s an actual "book" with "chapters" featuring "engaging writing" that doesn’t make you want to stick your head in an oven. Each chapter covers a specific topic, but it’s broken up with tons of illustrations, and sidebars designed to either offer deeper information, to provide a warning, or to deliver an analogy that can help you sort through your problem.

It’s complex enough to cover modern electrical issues (see Chapter 31: Testing Wheel Speed Sensors), but also never assumes that you’ve done any electrical work - or more accurately any electrical work correctly. Early chapters cover the basics of safety and automotive electricity, and most appreciated, how a multimeter actually works.

There’s real science in here, as the warning in the beginning of Chapter 3 indicates:

"[N]o one cares about Ohm’s Law. No one wakes up excited to apply it?But here’s the thing: You can’t safely troubleshoot an electrical problem or modify an existing electrical circuit without at least some level of understanding what’s going on. So think of this as your broccoli?You have to eat one piece in order to have a shot at the pie."

"Trust me. Eat the damned broccoli. We’ll have pie at the end. It’ll be really good."

The book is packed with information, but it’s also completely infused with Rob Siegel’s sense of humor and writing style. The book is actually credited to "Rob Siegel and the Bentley Publishers Technical Team," so the entire staff must have stood around in a conference room arguing about how to explain parasitic drain without boring the pants off the audience. That Technical Team is the best in the business at producing indispensable manuals for European cars. I had a full set of Bentley manuals for my wife’s BMW 525iT, and it saved my bacon on a regular basis.

Siegel breaks each chapter into meaningful sub-chapters, and within each sub-chapter, there are nuggets of entertaining detail. The "Tales from the Hack Mechanic" sidebars are great, detailing Siegel’s often maddening frustrations with an issue described in the more technical section on the same page.

Even the orange highlighted warning sidebars are fun to read. Dig right into Chapter 14, page 5, and read the Caution sidebar on disconnecting the battery while the car is running. "Grizzled old men and impatient young ones used to conduct this brute force test to see if the alternator was working. Do not ever, under any circumstances, do this!"

Guilty as charged, Siegel. Guilty as charged. With this book in hand, maybe I can finally figure out why the dash lights don’t work on my Blazer.

The Hack Mechanic Guide to European Electrical Systems is an essential addition to your automotive library, especially if you favor the kind of books that are stained with greasy fingerprints after an all-night argument with your car.

The Hack Mechanic Guide to European Electrical Systems
by Rob Siegel and the Bentley Publishers Technical Team
Bentley Publishers
Publication Date: June 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8376-1751-0
Softcover, 8 1/2 in. x 11 in.
420 pages, over 400 photos, illustrations and diagrams

Article from and courtesy of http://bestride.com/reviews/product-reviews/book-review-the-hack-mechanic-guide-to-european-electrical-systems

Rennlist.com book review - July 29, 2016

Depending on when your car was originally built, the electrical system could be fairly simple, controlling basic functions like the ignition, lights, radio, and gauges. Or it could be extremely complex on a more contemporary model, where the system controls anything and everything - power windows, electric locks, power seats with heating, cooling and massage functions, navigation, bluetooth, active spoilers, emissions systems, and the list goes on and on. However, no matter what the vintage of the vehicle is, when any of these components stop working, it can be frustrating to the driver, and difficult to diagnose. "Why did it happen? It was working last time I drove the car," is an oft-heard phrase on Rennlist, and many other enthusiast forums.

For those inclined to learn, or attempt to tackle some of these maladies by themselves, a good starting point might be The Hack Mechanic Guide to European Automotive Electrical Systems by Rob Siegel (and the Bentley Publishers Technical Team). The author may be more familiar to the BMW community - not that there is anything wrong with that - for his longstanding monthly column in the BMW CCA?s Roundel magazine, "The Hack Mechanic." But he has also owned other European marques too, including a G-series Porsche 911. And when things go south - and with a fleet of about a dozen cars, something is bound to eventually - Siegel sets to work himself.

Logically laid out, this book begins with the basics, and works its way to more complicated areas - starting with electricity and "how it actually works," then moving into more advanced areas such as switches and relays, adding new circuits, ignition, reading wiring diagrams, modules, buses and digital data, the dreaded OBD-II, and often inscrutable sensors. The how and why of basic electrical principles are explained clearly throughout, and Siegel shows you how to test them. You don’t have to feel intimidated - Siegel conveys the sometimes unfathomable world of electrical systems into easier-to-understand language (note I said "easier," not "easy") with practical real world scenarios, analogies, and a plethora of sidebars, drawings, photographs, and diagrams to back up the text.

Whether you’re an occasional home mechanic, experienced professional, or just want a better understanding of problems when speaking to a technician, this book should prove to be an invaluable resource that will help you save wasted effort, and make sense of electrical systems.

Our friends at Bentley Publishers have kindly offered a promotion for Rennlist readers. For a limited-time only, get 25% off The Hack Mechanic Guide to European Automotive Electrical Systems book by Rob Siegel. If you add Rob’s very entertaining Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic to your shopping cart, you can get 25% off that book as well!

Just use the promo code RennlistElectric and click HERE!

Article from and courtesy of http://rennlist.com/articles/hack-mechanic-guide-european-automotive-electrical-systems/