Ford online service manuals and independant garages.

Jun 26, 2006 7 Replies

Bums.



Being a nosey fella I'd quite like a look at the service manuals for my



05 Focus diesel. You can get manuals for older cars from dubious people on ebay. Not for the newer models it seems. Do all Ford garages have a broadband connection to these manuals? What happens if I take my Focus to the local (non Ford) garage up the road? What can he do?

Ta. paul.



Most garages have something like Autodata:

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Only way to get them is via ford eTIS. And the only way to get access, is if you're a ford approved repairer.

Most manufacturer's are starting to use online manuals, as it's cheaper, and ensures technicians always have access to the latest information (unless of course the server's crashed!). Plus with the new laptop based ford diagnostic kit due this year, everything should link together seemlessly.

And totally incidentally it makes it harder for the home mechanic to get stuck in under the bonnet...and drives business to main dealers...

So with a main dealer service or repair costing more than the cars worth, they will all be uneconomic to maintain, hence un-saleable at

10 years old and have to be scrapped. That may impact the second hand value and residuals a lot. While older cars that can be maintained at a reasonable price will carry on being used.

-- Peter Hill Spamtrap reply domain as per NNTP-Posting-Host in header Can of worms - what every fisherman wants. Can of worms - what every PC owner gets!

That's a good point..

I'm sure they wouldn't let it get to that stage, would they? There'll be a Haynes out at somepoint I imagine (although how useful that'll be is questionable).

OBDII scanners are getting cheaper and more available all the time, too.

As an aside are their any mechanics on here who have used eTIS? Could anyone sign up for that info?

I use it quite often, but access is only available to approved repairers, but even I only get access to eTIS. If I need any security info, then I've got to contact our tech. support at HQ for them to get the info, as Ford are very careful about who gets access to their security information.

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