Is there no Chiltons or Haynes repair book for post-1999 LH body cars?

I wouldn't know from first-hand looking because I never use aftermarket shop manuals, but I see references to Haynes for 2nd gen. LH cars on

all the time. I did see a post that said that the

2nd gen. Haynes manual covers from '98 thru '03 (not listing '04).

Are you specifically pointing out the exclusion of '04? If you are determined to use Haynes, I wouldn't let that stop you. There are more differences between '01 and '02 than between '02, '03, and '04, so them leaving the '04 off probably has as much to do with the release of the manual before the '04 was out than any gross discrepancies that will be between the manual and the '04 vehicle.

If they do their usual "typical" schematics, I assure you they will be just as useless for certain other years as for the '04 since moderately significant electrical changes occurred between '01 and '02. IOW, electrically, the '04 will be more like the '02 and '03 than it will be like the pre-'02 years.

But this emphasizes why I don't use aftermarket manuals. I got burned too many times relying on the "typical" schematics. (When it comes to using schematics in troubleshooting, you can substitute the word "worthless" for "typical" if you don't know which areas are accurate and which areas have been changed - either the schematic describes the vehicle's electricals or it doesn't.)

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

While I have the factory service manuals for several of my older Dodge and Plymouth cars, there is likely nothing in the $100 300M Chrysler FSM that I would likely need or use that I wouldn't find in the $20 aftermarket manuals.

I wouldn't be taking my 300's engine or transmission apart, for example, but I wouldn't mind seeing some clear pictures or diagrams on how to flush the coolant out or battery replacement.

Yes, I see now that there is a Haynes book for 1998-2003 LH. For the first 4 or 5 years of owning the 300 I've looked for such a book at the various auto parts stores I've been in around here - and have never seen that book (or any other book) for the 300m.

No, just the '00 300m.

But I wonder why they framed that book to cover 1998 to 2003. I thought the "new" LH line started in 1999 with the 300m, and spanned until 2004 with the last 300m.

I found that a Haynes (or Chilton's?) manual that was supposed to cover my 2001 Dodge Ram was also quite wrong about the wiring of the Ram (specifically, the instrument cluster).

The 2nd gen. LH line started with MY '98 - for example - I own a '98 Concorde (as well as a '99). The 300M production started in late '98 MY, but it was called '99 (there is no 300M designated as '98 even though their production started before the traditional '99 production year).

AS I said, they probably published the Haynes long before the '04 MY, and designated it as covering thru MY '03. We can only speculate as to why - maybe they weren't sure in advance what year was going to be the last.

That was my point about the schematics being worthless. So as long as you don't want to do any electrical work...

There is the

subscription. But your $20 will only buy you one year's subscription, and it is not the complete FSM. But with that, you would get the actual 100% complete factory schematics specific to your year, PLUS you would get access to all TSB's that apply to your car.

FSM's do show up on ebay.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

I finally went with an alldata subscription. It gave me most of what I needed, and a one year subscription was less than the FSM. Also, all of the recall notices, and service bulletins are also included.

I was hoping that once FSM's started showing up on CD's, the price would come down, but not so.

In 1975, I bought a FSM for my 1964 Plymouth, and it was only $5.00. Now they are around $100. Used ones can be less depending on supply and demand.

KM