Hey gang,

I'm in the market for factory service manuals for our daily drivers and I'm very curious about picking up copies on CD. They are WAY cheaper and you can actually search for things very easily. Have any of you ever used one of these? If so, what is your experience and how do they compare against the hard copy books?

Thanks!
John

 

From what I have seen, I don't believe they are searchable. If they are simply scanned, they are not. One could run OCR software on them to convert them to a searchable format, but at best, it would not 100% and would need very time consuming verification. Late model editions (for daily drivers as you say) may very well be searchable. There is so much more to them, but so far less that home garage mechanic can do anyway.
Speaking for "old car" manuals, the Chassis Service Manuals are indexing and there is not a big advantage to having them searchable. If you can't easily figure out where to look, you'd also have trouble finding the right end of the wrench.
I use electronic versions of reference material all of time, often for things I have hard copies on. Why? It can be faster, and particular pages can be printed out, taken to the garage or wherever, written on, spill coffee on and grease up, make notes on, highlite, then keep or pitch accordingly.

That is the idea behind the reference material on Wild About Cars. You don't *need* to have the manual itself. It is just a matter of preference.

 

^^^ This!

Unlike those of newer vehicles which are ONLY available electronically (and thus searchable), the only version of the CSM available for that year is a paper copy. The ones on CD are simply scanned versions of the paper one, often done as bootleg. Quality and completeness varies widely. As for CD versions being cheaper, there are currently over two dozen 1976 CSMs on ebay, with prices ranging from $4 to over $35. The Fisher Body Manual is also listed there and there's even one ad with both books for $20 total. I'll take a factory paper version over these scanned CD versions any day.

 

Thanks for the input guys. I have the manuals for my '76 Ninety Eights, but I'm looking for them on our daily drivers which are 2010 and 2013 models. The books are ridiculously expensive and I can't bear to buy a Chilton's book from past experience and knowing how vague they are.

I'm only even seeing the one for my CRV on ebay at this time so I don't even know if there is one out there for our new Chevy. Take a look at this listing and let me know what you think. It sounds decent enough for regular maintenace and occassional repairs.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2007-2008-20...d82900&vxp=mtr

My buddy is a BMW foreman and said some of his guys have used the CD copies of manuals with success. I think a scanned copy would probably be less beneficial but this listing doesn't seem to be like that.

 

I'm surprised you can even get paper manuals for cars that new. The manual for my 2002 Volvo is only available electronically.

 

My vision turns somewhat reddish every time I see 'this procedure requires special tools and techniques. Take it to a specialist' in the Hayes manuals. What exactly did they think we bought the manual for?

 

In my experience, the Hayes, Chilton, etc manuals are completely worthless. On the other hand, newer manuals are full of "use Kent Moore tool J48523...". Even worse, the SIX volume () factory manual for my Chevy crewcab dually is really just troubleshooting flowcharts, and every single chart invariably comes to a step that says "replace ECU with known good unit and repeat test".

Yeah, I guess the dealership might have a few of those around...

 

I have one for my BMW. I actually liked it up until I bought the two volume Bentley for it. I have the three volume for my Silverado and purchased the factory manuals for my 442 many years ago. Ebay is a seems to be a pretty good place for them.
Cheers Mike

 

OK so generally speaking, I'm getting the impression that the CD manuals for newer cars (like 2010 +) are probably a viable option. I don't plan on ever doing anything major but I will probably run both cars for a long time so I'd like to know I have the proper know how on anything that may come up, especially including torque specs, etc.

 

If you are searching on ebay, don't buy the first one you come to. Just like most anything else, condition and prices vary widely.

 

Yes, they are cheaper. Yes, one may do a search?

That said, I do not find them as handy/convenient as hard copy. The fact I do not have a computer in my garage may be a big part of that. Having to come in to the house, fire up the 'puter, boot the CD, do a search, print it out ... . I could have the job half done by then!