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Hey everybody,
I’ve been using Haynes manuals for a while and for some things they are very useful while others.. A joke…
Looks like for newer cars there is a much larger selection.
Which manuals do you recommend and for what jobs?Of course Eric’s videos are best of all for the simple reason that he is using a real world car that has more than 100 miles on it, when stuff has aged and rusted like a car anyone will work on actually has! (Haynes.. All those cars you can tell are brand new and not even close to what you face in the real world!)
What are your thoughts!? Which manual maker and why?
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Chiltons is the worst and Haynes the second worst due to inaccuracies and very shallow, repeated, generic information.
Factory manuals and ones such as MOTOR manuals are the best but even those can have mistakes in them. Mistakes can also be found in subscription services such as ALLDATA.
A few years back I was wrestling an electrical problem on a MItsubishi and going by a Haynes wiring diagram that wasn’t matching up. A subscription to ALLDATA on that same car provided wiring schematics online and what was there? A scan of the incorrect diagram out of the worthless Haynes manual that I had.
ALLDATA insisted that “someone must have altered the wiring”. No they did not; it’s all factory. I eventually sorted it out on my own but it wasn’t fun without a wiring diagram. Just my 2 cents.
[quote=”Bluesnut” post=142519]Chiltons is the worst and Haynes the second worst due to inaccuracies and very shallow, repeated, generic information.
.[/quote]Second on the generic info!!
Chiltons *appeared* to be geared more to electrical for my prizm and civic but I only used it once or twice.
They guys over at fitfanatic are…fanatics.. of “Helms” manuals. I’d never heard of them.
I have heard if you need part equivalencies a Hollander manual can’t be beat.Then you have the factory tech manuals.. worth the cost?
Anyone else? Had hoped this would become sort of a repository for people….
Bishko and Helm have acquired rights to republish factory service manuals on paper and CD/DVD (in PDF format and searchable–very handy). Neither Helm nor Bishko write their own manuals (like Haynes and the others do), they are all factory reprints. The factory manuals, regardless of whether you buy them from the maker, eBay, used bookstores, Helm or Bishko, etc., they are worth every penny they cost. They always have the most reliable information, and are more complete than the 3rd party books.
I’m not familiar with Bishko but have Helm manuals and find them to be very good; especially the electrical/vacuum manuals. I’ve purchased Helm manuals off of eBay for a fraction of the price new.
I remember once over 20 years ago needing an electrical manual for a certain SAAB 900 and nearly had a stroke when I priced out the complete on paper set of factory manuals for that car. There was something like around 10 volumes in the set and priced at 900 bucks. Ouch, ouch, ouch.
Needless to say, I declined that and luckily found the electrical only service manual from a dealer in Chicago who sold it to me new for about 30 bucks including the shipping.
There’s a peculiar secondary type of repair manual, written by fans and long-time mechanics of certain cars which have dedicated, almost cultish, followings. Things are clearly explained in great detail for the layman, and quite often they are very entertaining reads in their own right. While they aren’t meant to be complete replacements for Factory Service Manuals, they still make wonderful reference sources. The tone tends to be more like “how to live with your vehicle”.
I’ve had experience with VW-themed books of this type, and they have proved to be very useful. In spite of the informal tone, they are dense with technical info. In this day of ashtray error codes and electronic sunvisors, I don’t know if anyone still writes this kind of survival manual, but it might be worth looking into to see if anything of this sort is available for a particular older vehicle that needs attention. This type of manual would be very useful to anyone tinkering on an old “project” car.
If you’re looking for something for your specific vehicle, I would say that Mitchell DIY is probably your best bet. I’ve never used their DIY product, but I can tell you their professional product is pretty much the industry standard. The information in Mitchell is literally the exact same as the dealer manual. It’s $26 (US) per year, if between that and vehicle specific forums you can’t find the information it’s hidden in a techs brain somewhere.
[quote=”cap269″ post=142576]Bishko and Helm have acquired rights to republish factory service manuals on paper and CD/DVD (in PDF format and searchable–very handy). Neither Helm nor Bishko write their own manuals (like Haynes and the others do), they are all factory reprints. The factory manuals, regardless of whether you buy them from the maker, eBay, used bookstores, Helm or Bishko, etc., they are worth every penny they cost. They always have the most reliable information, and are more complete than the 3rd party books.
http://www.autobooksbishko.com/
http://www.helminc.com/%5B/quote%5DThat is a great resource right there…
Nothing beats factory service manuals, I usually pick one up off of ebay when I get a new vehicle and then sell it with the vehicle or keep it iff I plan to get another one in the future. The schematics and in depth procedures and good trouble shooting issues
Factory Service and Factory Diagnostic manuals. They are the only way to go. Even then if you have a split year they will not have all the information you need. I wrestle with that every day with my vehicle and I have the factory service manual.
[quote=”MDK22″ post=142758]Factory Service and Factory Diagnostic manuals. They are the only way to go. Even then if you have a split year they will not have all the information you need. I wrestle with that every day with my vehicle and I have the factory service manual.[/quote]
Yeah, split years can be a problem. Some makers produce manual supplements. For others, usually the following model year manual covers them.Yeah nothing like that exists for mine wish it did. They changed stuff 3+x over the course of 1 yr. Makes me feel like the car was in beta testing. So I have to guess which one is right. With bigger things its not so bad like oh that piece isn’t on my car.. When doing electrical diag and you have 4 different parts of a circuit with 4 different layouts for each part of the circuit it makes you want to play volleyball with an engineer’s head.
One thing I really take issue with in regards to Chiltons is the accuracy of the info they publish; or lack of. I don’t know who comes up with that stuff but a lot of it is really off the wall. Here are several examples and I wonder how many people have been led astray by it.
I’ve forgotten the model but one manual provided instructions for heater core replacement on a certain model by stating it was done from under the dash on the passenger side. The reality is that it was done under the hood.
Some of their manuals specify that engine compression test readings are fine if one cylinder is 150 PSI and another is 115 PSI. Absolute and utter rubbish to print something like that.
Another manual on the GM Buick 3.8 V-6 engine states that good oil pressure is 6 PSI at 1800 RPMs. Totally bogus and if someone has 6 pounds of oil pressure at higher RPMs they better be looking to rebuild or replace the engine.
Mitchell as mentioned is very good of course.
Chilton, Haynes and Clymer seem to do a lot of “copy & paste” from one model year to the next, and a lot of important detail gets lost in the process.
Very true. You can buy a dozen of those Chiltons manuals and find the same text almost word for word. Guess it holds the production costs down…….
What’s laughable is when you dig into one to see if there are any particular procedures or how to go about something and there will be a generic paragraph which goes:
1. Open hood.
2. Locate part.
3. Remove all attachment bolts.
4. Remove part.
5. Assembly is the reverse order.What they should focus on are specs, addition of pics, location of hidden fasteners, specialized procedures, etc; even if it requires raising the price of the manual. I’d rather pay double for something I can actually use instead of a book that is better off used to prop up a shaky end table.
And their wiring schematics, when they exist, are hit and miss at best.
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