DRIVING : Things You Auto Know

Deanna Sclar was a heavy-duty, steel-belted automotive dummy.

She thought internal combustion was resolved by marriage counselors. “My nickname was Thumbs Sclar,” she says.

Then she moved from New York to L.A. Her first car was Tweety Bird, a 1967 Mustang with a whistle. Sclar spent $40 learning its chirping could have been silenced by a $2 radiator cap.

So she registered for auto shop at University High School. The class inspired her 1976 book, “Auto Repair for Dummies.”

The volume recently underwent a second revision. It has dispelled automotive myths and mystique for 1 million long-suffering motorists, male and female.

Through small words, simple drawings and even pictures of screwdrivers and feeler gauges, the book drives home three points:

* How to save money--”up to $45 an hour on labor, even for little things like oil changes.”

* How to extend car life--”maintenance increases the life of a car . . . up to 50%.”

* How to improve communication with mechanics--known to plump prices like “anyone you come to in ignorance or emergency . . . no worse than doctors or lawyers.”

It also helps to name your car.

After Tweety, Sclar bought Honey Bun, a Mercedes roadster. Then Baby Blue, a truck. Now it’s Ruby, a 1991 Ford Probe.

“Cars run better if you give them names,” she says. “They are like horses. Change the oil, wash them and they’ll respond immediately.”