---
title: Electrical Systems
description: This topic covers the principles of automotive electricity, wiring diagrams, and diagnostic tools. You will understand how to troubleshoot batteries, alternators, starters, and electronic control units to locate and repair electrical faults in modern vehicles.
category: trades-crafts
subcategory: automotive
difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced
url: /subject/electrical-systems
---

# Electrical Systems

This topic covers the principles of automotive electricity, wiring diagrams, and diagnostic tools. You will understand how to troubleshoot batteries, alternators, starters, and electronic control units to locate and repair electrical faults in modern vehicles.

## Available Resources

3 Books • 4 Websites

## Books

### 1. Automotive Wiring and Electrical Systems (Workbench Series)

**Author:** Tony Candela

Hands-on wiring reference covering conductors, grounds, circuit protection, relays, connectors, crimping and harness construction, illustrated with several hundred colour photographs. Builds the physical vocabulary and technique needed before wiring diagrams and voltage-drop testing mean anything on a real car.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1932494871?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** automotive-electrical, wiring, 12-volt, harness

### 2. Understanding Automotive Electronics: An Engineering Perspective (8th Edition)

**Author:** William B. Ribbens

Engineering textbook explaining sensors, actuators, engine and body control units, vehicle communication networks and on-board diagnostics at the level of the circuits and algorithms inside them. Gives a technician the model of why an ECU behaves as it does.

**Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0128104341?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** automotive-electronics, sensors, ecu, obd

### 3. Automotive Electrical and Engine Performance

**Author:** James D. Halderman

Pearson textbook, eighth edition, covering the ASE A6 and A8 certification areas: circuits, batteries, starting and charging, sensors, ignition, fuel delivery and emissions diagnosis. Readers finish able to test electrical faults and interpret engine-performance data systematically.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0138176922?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** books, engineering-manufacturing, automotive

## Websites

### 1. CAN Bus Explained: A Simple Intro (with OBD2 and J1939)

Technical guide to the CAN bus that carries data between a vehicle's control units, extending into OBD2 and heavy-duty J1939. Covers physical wiring, frame structure, bit-level decoding and data logging, so network faults and scan-tool readings stop being opaque.
Fills the gap every shop-floor electrical resource leaves: modern faults are as often network problems as broken wires.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.csselectronics.com/pages/can-bus-simple-intro-tutorial

**Tags:** can-bus, obd2, j1939, vehicle-networks

### 2. PicoScope Automotive Guided Tests Library

Manufacturer-published reference library of over 160 oscilloscope tests covering charging, starting, sensors, actuators, ignition and CAN communications. Each entry gives connection instructions, a known-good waveform and an explanation of the faults that distort it, so you can judge a captured signal.

**Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.picoauto.com/library/automotive-guided-tests/

**Tags:** automotive-diagnostics, oscilloscope, waveforms, vehicle-electrical

### 3. Electrical Engineering Portal (EEP)

Practitioner-run technical site publishing articles and guides on power engineering: substations, switchgear, transformers, protection relays, cables, grounding, motors and low- and medium-voltage installations. Readers build working knowledge of how industrial and utility electrical equipment is specified, operated and protected.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://electrical-engineering-portal.com

**Tags:** power-systems, substations, switchgear, electrical-protection, power-transformers

### 4. repairpal.com

RepairPal is a car maintenance and repair resource offering maintenance schedules, how-to guides for common issues, and transparent cost estimates, plus access to a network of certified repair shops.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://repairpal.com

**Tags:** websites, engineering-manufacturing, automotive

## Youtubes

### 1. Pine Hollow Auto Diagnostics

**Author:** Ivan Temnykh

Full-length, largely unedited diagnostic sessions filmed in a Pennsylvania shop: parasitic drains, no-starts, module communication faults and intermittent wiring problems. You watch a wiring diagram, meter and scope narrow a fault on a modern multiplexed vehicle down to one connector.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.youtube.com/@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics

**Tags:** automotive-diagnostics, vehicle-electrical, can-bus, troubleshooting

### 2. ScannerDanner (YouTube channel)

**Author:** Paul Danner

Free channel from Paul Danner, an ASE L1 master technician who taught electrical and drivability troubleshooting at Rosedale Technical College. Recorded classroom lectures and unscripted shop case studies show how to test circuits rather than guess at parts.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.youtube.com/@ScannerDanner

**Tags:** automotive-diagnostics, vehicle-electrical, drivability, troubleshooting

---

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