Are there intermediate trainings for fixing/maintaining your vehicle?

My advice is that you look up the maintenance schedule for your vehicle, determine where your vehicle is in that schedule (in terms of age, mileage, and what maintenance is due), and then research how to do each maintenance item as necessary. The service manual for your vehicle will be an invaluable resource, along with forums specific to your vehicle and YouTube videos.

I've always felt the situation you're in is a challenge for many adults without a good solution. I had the opportunity to learn auto repair from my dad, and then took shop class in highschool. That was enough training for me to start working on my own cars confidently. But for other people that didn't have those opportunities, there's no programs in place to learn basic DIY auto maintenance in supervised environment. The average person isn't going to enrol in a 2 or 3 year pre-trade college program for auto repair just to work on their own cars. I think a program run by the local municipality where adults could learn in a highschool shop class a few nights per week from an instructor would be a great idea.

derass wrote: ↑ I think a program run by the local municipality where adults could learn in a highschool shop class a few nights a few from an instructor would be a great idea.

If I were you that would be a business idea for me. Look into what government grants you can get and go ahead with that because it is an un tapped in market and a brilliant idea

It seems that you can take some university classes
https://www.autotrainingcentre.com/auto ... -training/
there are some Toyota focused ones here
https://www.ontariocolleges.ca/en/progr ... nic-repair

64 weeks
Automotive Service Technician Toyota (Map 32) (8689)
Centennial | Campus: Ashtonbee | Full Time | Apr 2022 | Open | Website
Program Length:64 Weeks

That second link is what I meant by "pre-trade program". Those are geared towards people who are looking to get into automotive repair as a career. Programs like that exist for all skilled trades (electrician, plumber, carpenter, etc.). I would imagine that tuition for those programs is several thousand dollars. So between that and the 64 week duration (full-time), those programs aren't really suited for someone just trying to learn basic DIY auto maintenance.

It's hard to tell what that first link is about as it gives very few details.

What I mean by a municipal program would be something like this. Run by the city/province, free or low cost, and a short schedule, like 1-2 nights a week for 8-12 weeks or something.
https://www.toronto.ca/data/parks/fungu ... &kw=&view=
https://www.ontario.ca/page/adult-learning

you are right ..I did not realize it is full time and 64 weeks is ~1year

Read the owner's manual and then you will be smarter than most owners.

BDSL wrote: ↑ Read the owner's manual and then you will be smarter than most owners.

I will probably read the service manual as well and everything I can get my hands on
As @derass sugested I will use Youtube to see how things are done.
I will need these skills in a few years but the type of trip I want to do requires that type of preparation

Buy a beater truck and watch/read YouTube/Toyota specific forums. Get your hands dirty with some basic maintenance items and learn a life skill.

CuriousC wrote: ↑ I am planning some long term overland trips. The vehicle would probably be a Tacoma or a Tundra

What are long term overland trips?

Its not hard to learn, these days a lot of information is available for free.
However you would want to have experience doing most jobs on a particular vehicle before you can be self reliant out on the road. Also consider the cost and portability of the tools that would be needed.

Have you ever worked on a car?

Best to start doing the basic maintenance yourself to get familiar with the engine bay and underneath.

These days YouTube has a ton of DIY. I suggest watching the DIY videos for doing the maintenance along with common repairs for that engine.

Save those videos for when your on your trip.

Should also help you to know what tools and the sizing that you will need.

TDSB offers adult night classes on a variety of topics, which used to include auto-mechanics. Their website is here: https://www.tdsb.on.ca/Adult-Learners/Learn4Life. Obviously, with everything being taught online, auto mechanic class isn't being offered at the moment. I cannot find a previous program listing pdf that shows the auto mechanic class.

Basically the class is taught by an experienced mechanic who is currently working at a Dealership. There are 2-4 locations available across Toronto depending on enrolment. The classroom size is 10-20 people. Usually the teacher will spend a few classes talking about basics of combustion engine, transmission, brakes, tires, etc. as well as some real world demonstration of some cars in the shop. Then, students are free to bring their own cars in for simple services, such as engine oil change, brake service/replacement, brake fluid change, tire change, tire swap (on wheel), filter change, etc. I've also seen transmission fluid change and spark plugs change but those are less common. There's no strict structure of the class. Whatever people bring in for service is whatever you will learn hands-on.

The class meet once a week for about 3 months. Each lesson is about 2.5 hours long (account for 0.5hr to set up and 0.5hr to clean up, it's actually just 1.5 hours). It is available in fall and winter (possibly summer as well but I haven't taken one in summer). The cost is about $200 each term.

I've taken the course twice at two different locations in Fall 2019 and Winter 2020. My overall experience is pretty good. The students are curious and the teachers are experienced and caring. Many people register for the course routinely just to use the hoists to work on their car. Some teacher will let you work on your own and some won't. If you care about your car a lot and don't want others to touch your car then you shouldn't bring your car in, since every student will get a chance to do something on your car. However, nothing teaches better than being guided while working on your own car.

The only downside is that you can't do any big job in the class. Anything taking longer than 1 hour is not possible to complete. Since the teachers would rarely let you just work alone. Usually they want to get everyone involved and spend half of the time explaining different parts. An oil change could take 1.5 hr, and brake service could take 2. Even tire swap or tire rotation could take 1 hour. The teachers usually won't let you start a job if they think it would take longer than the class lasts. If you couldn't finish the job before the class ends and your car is immobile, you gotta call a tow truck to tow it home. I haven't seen it happen but that's what the teachers say.

BDSL wrote: ↑ Read the owner's manual and then you will be smarter than most owners.

Hardly.
40 years ago you can read in the manual how to gap spark plugs.
Nowadays they are explaining why you shouldn't drink liquid from 12-volt battery.

Avoid Scotty Kilmer.

xrvr wrote: ↑ Hardly.
40 years ago you can read in the manual how to gap spark plugs.
Nowadays they are explaining why you shouldn't drink liquid from 12-volt battery.

When you operate any machinery, always read the owner's manual. Some information will be trivial, some are important (i.e. service intervals, fluid specifications, how/when to check fluid levels, spark plug specification, etc).

Notsojdmgc4 wrote: ↑ Avoid Scotty Kilmer.

But my toyota celica

xrvr wrote: ↑ 40 years ago you can read in the manual how to gap spark plugs.
Nowadays they are explaining why you shouldn't drink liquid from 12-volt battery.

One word: lawyers.

Haynes manuals have been pretty good in the past.
Now there are online resources such as repairpal and brand specific forums.

Along with night courses, you can also take some high school shop classes. As much as I hate to admit it, I think I learned the most working as coop slave at last year of high school working at GM and local auto electric shop.