Oil, batteries, tires, brakes, rust, winter, and what's worth your money on the parts store shelf, all told plain by a retired mechanic, the way I'd tell a neighbor in his driveway. It runs 459 pages, with the chapter and page for every answer.
Twenty-nine chapters in seven sections, and six appendices at the back. This is the real table of contents, so you know what you're getting before you pay a cent.
Up front: A Letter from Jackie, page 5 · How to Use This Book, page 9
The rules forty years in the shop taught me, the owner's manual nobody reads, a small garage set up for older knees, and how to work on a car without getting hurt.
Motor oil and the oil change, filters, spark plugs, the bottles that promise miracles, cooling systems and head gasket sealers, and what really goes in the tank.
Testing and charging a battery, cleaning corroded terminals, jump starters and cables in the cold, and lights, fuses, and yellow headlights.
Tires and the numbers that matter, flat tires and the plugs that hold, brakes by sound and feel, and wipers, windshields, and night glare.
Rust, glues and epoxies that hold, stuck and broken bolts, scratches and paint, and the mice that move into your car every fall.
Getting a car ready for winter, the kit that lives in my trunk, and what your car is telling you with its lights, noises, and smells.
Dealing with mechanics without getting taken, buying, keeping, or selling a car after sixty, and driving well past seventy.
The pages you'll print. Tape them to the garage wall or keep them in the glove box.
459 pages in seven sections, with six appendices at the back: the printable checklists, charts and numbers, Jackie's Shelf with what I'd buy again, a plain-words glossary, a year of car care, and a Trouble Index. Every chapter ends with my Garage Notes, the handful of things to remember if you forget the rest. Since it's a digital book, you can search it too. Type a plain word like battery and it takes you to every page I talked about it.
Forty Years of Turning Wrenches, Written Down · Jackie Pollard, Volume I
Under the hood, batteries, tires, brakes, rust, winter, and dealing with shops, told plain for the regular car owner, with a whole part on keeping a car after sixty.
Taken from the book you'd get, not mocked up. My letter at the front, two chapter openings, and one of the checklists you can print.
Tap or click any page to see it full size.
Page 5 · Front of the book
A Letter from Jackie
Page 93 · Chapter 7
Spark Plugs: Read the Fine Print
Page 311 · Chapter 23
Mice in the Car
Page 410 · Appendix A
The Five-Minute Walkaround
I'm seventy. I started at a full-service station in 1972, when I was sixteen, spent about eight years at a dealership, and ran a small shop of my own until my knees and back told me to quit in 2019.
On the channel I test the stuff on the parts store shelf: plugs, oils, filters, rust removers, jump starters. And every week the comments ask me the same thing customers asked across the counter for forty-odd years. Jackie, which one should I buy?
So I sat down and answered it, part by part, with the page numbers. That's what this book is. If you've got a question about keeping a car running, odds are somebody asked me first.
Jackie
Check out, and the book is in your email within a minute. It's a digital book you read on any phone, tablet, or computer, and you can print any page at home. Nothing ships, and there's nothing to cancel later. If it doesn't earn its keep in a week, email me and every penny comes back, and you keep the book.
Forty Years of Turning Wrenches, Written Down · Jackie Pollard, Volume I
You shouldn't, yet. Read the sample pages on this page. If they sound like a man who spent forty-odd years under the hood, the book is 459 more pages of the same.
No. It's written for the regular car owner. Plain words, a glossary at the back, and a clear line between what you can do in the driveway and what goes to a shop.
No. It's what I learned at the station, the dealership, and my own shop, plus what my own channel tests showed, with the fine print most videos skip.
It covers the things every car has: oil, filters, plugs, batteries, tires, brakes, wipers, rust, and winter. For the exact numbers, it shows you where to find them in your own owner's manual.
It's a digital book you read on a phone, tablet, or computer, and you can print any page you like at home. You get it the minute you check out.
If you can open an email, you can read this. One link, one click, and you can print the checklists for the garage wall.
Email within 7 days and you get every penny back, and you keep the book. No forms, no questions.
It's all set down plain, with the chapter and page for every answer. It's $27 today, in your email within a minute, and you've got a week to decide with the whole book in your hands.
Get the book · $27