Has anyone any experience of purchasing/using any of the repair manuals available on CDs and for sale on ebay? What about the claim that they are the ones used by mechanics in the dealers? Are they as useful as the Haynes Books?
Any guidance would be a great help. Thank you.
John
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You pay your money and take your chance,the few I have come across ie ford and vw were very good but I took some time finding the part or information that you wanted as they were not particularly laid out logically.Also I find reading a manual is a lot easyer than reading a screen especially if you need to flick between pages.
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rustbucket (the original)
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I have the renault ones. they are very detailed and very helpfull.
Most of those you get on ebay are illegal copies
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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The ones I've seen are hacked copies of manufacturer's CD manuals and therefore infringe copyright. Bit like buying bootleg DVD's and CD's really.
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I bid for one of these only to subsequently receive a message from E-Bay stating that the item had been withdrawn due to infringement of E-Bay regulations.
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I bought one for Mercedes Benz C series. Waste of money IMO. Sits gathering dust and will end up in the bin eventually where it deseves to be.
Ron
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Having looked at mine, it is most likely a copy of the official one. Much useful information. Just print out the pages of most interest and make a small manual for quick reference. They go for about a tenner.
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what I find more usefull are the parts cds as the detailed diagrams show how parts go together,some are available at the parts counter of the main dealer
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The main hassles I've had with service disks off ebay is getting them to run under Win XP - I too find the parts diagrams more useful / easier to follow than the servicing information.
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They vary, some are v.good - copies of the mfr ones. some are rubbish.
Try searching around - you can sometimes get the real ones at a sensible cost. I picked up the genuine microfiche parts diagrams and workshop manual for a porche 964 for $50 from a us dealer. I also got the same thing on cd from another owner - identical, but the cd was more useful - not needing a fiche machine. (quote from local dealer was £700+vat for the paper copy)
you might also look at diydata which has quite useful info if they hold the data for your car ~ £15/year.
Bentley manuals are generally much much better than haynes which I am unimpressed with these days.
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You can try look on the Gnutella network, there are many of these CD titles available if you search by the car model.
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I have had Vauxhall ones which were excellent, and saved me £Thousands, and also made me aware of secret issues the dealers should be aware of but can't be bothered to read. I recently bought VAG ones and can't get them to install, just get error messages at every stage.
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Tonight at 19.30pm I went on to Ebay and purchased a CD for Honda CRV 02-04 at only £1.50 + £1.25 P/P total £2.75, so not much to lose, although feedback suggests it should be ok. As soon as I receive it and check it out, I will let you all know and repost the results, it was certainly the cheapest Ebayer on there.
Regards.
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I have a Ford one purchased off Ebay (three initials, banned from being mentioned on many forums) and no way was it even half legal at £6 on a crudely labelled CD-R, but it is very very good.
Not only does it cover the entire Ford range sold since the early 90's, but has a nice easy to use front end with full search facilities, wiring diagrams, diagnostic flowcharts, service bulletins and recalls. All the topics are hyperlinked and you can search by area of the car (i.e. engine, suspension, heating and ventilation) or by FINIS code.
In short, it's brilliant, and would have been a bargain at 5x what I paid for it.
Cheers
DP
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I bought a VX one off Ebay. Not impressed. Graphics were indistinct and I got the impression the whole thing was incomplete. Not easy to navigate as a member of Joe Public (garages might have more of a knack!) The bottom line though, is they're cheap as chips and in the absence of a Haynes which more and more are not available for many modern cars, for the money, you have nothing to lose by buying one - its better than nothing!!
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Further to my purchase of the Honda CRV (CD) Manual from Ebay about three back. After receiving it and checking it out it is amazing, it seems to cover anything and everything on a CRV 02-04, it even has a "keyword" search facility just in case you cannot find what you want in all the sections and sub-sections. As someone who uses Ebay regular, this is one of my best buys and highly recommended to any other CRV users at £2.75 inclusive.
Regards to All.
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my only concern would be that at £2.75 it must be a ripped copy therefore are you sure some encrypted nasty beetles are not on the disc eating your hard drive as i post?
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my only concern would be that at £2.75 it must be a ripped copy therefore are you sure some encrypted nasty beetles are not on the disc eating your hard drive as i post?
I always scan the CD first.
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