Chilton's or Haynes manual for 2003 Camry?

I enjoy performing my own repairs and maintenace and have books for a

1994 Wrangler and Kawasaki motorcycle. I have been unable to find a book for my 2003 Camry (4 cyl.) though. I initially thought it may be too early to publish them, but now my Camry has almost 50K miles, and I'm anxious to perfrom some maintenance. I'm in NC and have been to Auto Zone, Napa and Advance Auto Parts and even the salespeople cannot find these manuals in their systems. I have also been to Haynes and Chilton's website with no result.

Does anyone have any idea why these manuals aren't in print? Are you able to get these in your local store?

Thanks,

James

PS I can't find a manual for my 2003 Grand Caravan either!

Reply to
teabird1977
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You're not going to like my answer.

First, you can get an general overview of maintenance items here:

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Primarily, you're checking, belts, seat bolt torque, fluid levels and conditions, brake pad thickness, and changing all the fluids when needed: brake, power steering, coolant, engine oil, transmission fluid.

But if you're serious about keeping up your car - and my opinion is the reason most people need to trade in or sell their cars is that they let mechanics work on them. It is so rare to find a mechanic that would take the time to do the work as carefully and thoroughly as a conscientious owner. When I do my own work, I'm able to take the labor savings, and go ahead and replace all the necessary associated parts. Anyway, if you're serious about keeping up the car long term, you need to buy the Toyota factory service manual set. Even if it costs a couple hundred dollars, you're going to recover that cost virtually the first time you use it - especially if you buy or obtain the competitive pricing for parts over the Internet. For example, recently I had to replace brake calipers, and the dealer quoted $525, whereas I was able to buy the genuine Toyota parts for $59.90 ea. I wonder if the professional mechanics would have taken apart the torque plate, cleaned the bores with solvent and replaced with new the slide pins and dust boots, then applied synthetic grease - yet that makes all the difference in equalizing brake pad wear and improving braking efficiency. I suspect not, because when I had mentioned to him the pads had been wearing unevenly for quite some time (prior owner had brakes replaced by the dealer) the mechanic said "they all do that."

Reply to
Daniel

They just came out a few months ago. I have seen them many places online now, haven't seen them in my local store yet.

Go to Amazon or any other major seller....

Also, while the factory manuals are nice, they really aren't designed for weekend mechanics and I find the one for my ford to be real overkill for what I do. t.

Reply to
timbirr

Thanks for the info! I'll hold out for now and maybe try to find one online.

James

Reply to
teabird1977

Don't know what the chiltons is like but my haynes for the 91 camry would suggest any alternative would be almost assured of being better.

Reply to
jg

I was a long-running Chilton's Fan, but Haynes works fine for my '97 Nissan.

If you are a fairly well-versed mechanic, whom the factory manuals are made for, that's what you need.

But if you need a little more direction, you'll find yourself quickly lost with the factory manual. They assume a fairly solid level of knowledge already exists.

Reply to
timbirr

Factory manuals show stuff you will never do at home and not some of the things a mug might need to know, but I can't find much in my haynes about the ICV & how to remove it, nor anything about the valve connected to the inlet manifold for the aircon., which hisses like a straw at the bottom of a can of coke.

Reply to
jg

Can't help you with your "under-hood" snake. But your local library should have a Chilton's in the regular stacks and/or in the reserve stacks. Might be worth a look to see if they are any help.

My Chilton for my '87 Corolla has a couple of glaring errors, but it gets me close enough that I can figure out the rest myself.

Reply to
timbirr

Thanks I will try that, was going there but keep forgetting.

Reply to
jg

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