Best DIY manual for car repair newbies?

Isn't the title of the John Muir book "How to keep your VW alive"? I agree, great book, but we should honor the man by getting the title right!

mndsm wrote: Chilton, Haynes, the internet... and see if you can get a Factory Service manual for one of those.

+1

I bought all of the above for the geo....I only got the FSM for my datsun 910. The same is true for the dakota I cannibalized....just the FSM

FSM or forget it.
Haynes, chiltons don't even come close.
The FSM for my 92 maxima was over 1000 pages the chiltons is about 500. Wonder what they leave out?
oh yeah, that chilton also covers 93-99 (3 different motors, 3 different transmissions, 2 different chassis)

Step one: Purchase Haynes Manual Step two: get angry at lack of data Step three: install Haynes Manual in rectum Step four: if manual continues to disapoint, excite manual with hammer. Step five: Removal is Opposite of Installation.

Chilton is oddball. For some reason their supra manual covers 71 to 87 Celica AND Supra. THREE DIFFERENT CHASSIS 6 transmissions, 4 different engines... and 87 to 92 are still third gen, so why don't they get covered?

Haynes isn't much better, lumping MkII and MkIII into one book. not the same...

1988RedT2 wrote: Isn't the title of the John Muir book "How to keep your VW alive"? I agree, great book, but we should honor the man by getting the title right!

I honor him by calling it the Muir Book, lest we forget. The other terms are terms of endearment the book has earned throughout its life in the VW community.

But for the record the correct title is: How to keep your Volkswagen alive, a manaual of step by step procedures for the compleat idiot.

Thus the term idiot guide.

And yes, I actually had it sitting here next to me so I didnt even have to go look it up. Just purchase what must be at least my 6th or 7th copy. I usually let them go with a VW when I sell it and I just bought a new one for my dad to keep with his new bug.

• 1 - FSM if you can get one. For sure.

• 2 - Haynes - much easier to find the information you need than....

• not-even-an-option - Chilton - the bum fodder of service manuals. I cannot find my butt with both hands and a flashlight using that manual.

The Toyota FSMs are referred to as the Big Green Book, BGB. Includes cartoon illustrations for illiterate,

Sure, there are shortcuts, but if you follow the instructions, you're pretty much guaranteed to succeed.

Anyone else notice the ESL canoe?

for me it's youtube, almost anything i need to learn how to do there is a video for it.

I'd recommend a FSM and coming here to ask any questions. Haynes is kinda sorta OK for American and Japanese cars, might occasionally describe stuff a professional is just expected to know, but I'd be willing to spend up to 5 times what a used Haynes goes for on the FSM.

A factory service manual has the most accurate and detailed information of any manual, almost always. But they can be incredibly expensive, and presume you have knowledge and equipment you don't have. These are the books for the pro's, but not always for the novice.

Before I go any further, the issue of photographs vs drawings has to be discussed. A good picture is worth a thousand words. A grainy fuzzy black and white isn't worth a darn. A detailed and accurate line drawing (blueprint) lets you see things as they should be, but not necessarily as they are. I personally prefer a good line drawing, as it will clearly delineate things. Most photographs printed on book paper are too fuzzy to be used, imo.

Chiltons manuals are everywhere, and use line drawings. For that reason, and almost only that reason, I find them usefull. The text is far less usefull. The manuals do a good job of presenting the work in a novice friendly manner. For a cheap car that I've no need of something special for, I will typically have one of these on the shelf somewhere. They also make a good era series manual. Like their 1980's import manual. Not nearly enough detail to tear any car down, but more than enough to keep any of them repaired at home.

Haynes is another common manual. One I'd like to like more than I actually do. They use photographs, which are invariably blurry and fairly worthless as a result. At least in my opinion. An arrow pointing to a blur of grey stuff doesn't help me identify a particular hose the way a line drawing would. The manuals are written for the novice, and are so cautious that they frequently tell you that you can't do jobs you most certainly could. But, they do work well for generic repairs. I have a number of these manuals as well. These manuals are on local parts store shelves everywhere for about $20.

Bently is a harder manual to find, and is usually more expensive. Frequently they are reprints of part or all of a factory service manual. Very good, but for the money many times I'd rather have a factory manual. Beware also, they come in many odd flavors. There are probably at least a dozen different Bentley manuals for Triumph Spitfires for example, depending on when it was printed and where. I have about six of them myself, just for the fun of it. Some are many hundred pages long, one is barely forty pages long.

Clymers is another, more common on the motorcycle world. I tend to like this manual. If for no other reason than it usually includes a color printed wiring diagram. Frequently with mistakes, to make you think. Mix of pictures and line drawing, in a balance that I like. For almost all my bikes, I have a Clymers manual. Especially for those older japanese motorcycles that you just can't get a factory manual for any more.

There are a number of other manuals out there, but they tend to be oddly laid out, or remarkably incomplete in their information. I wouldn't recommend buying any of them without flipping through it and making sure it pleases you.

And with all of them (factory oem manual to the weirdest thing you find on the web) use your brain. They all have mistakes, usually in things like quantity of oil, or where a wire connects or such. You must always think while using these. Manuals that have been translated from one language to another often have the worse mistakes in them regarding this.