Best auto repair manual

Factory service manual. It's clear, detailed, and easy to read. I dunno why I bought a Haynes and Chilton first. I was worried the FSM would only describe the use of fancy dealer tools, but it really is accessible to a garage mechanic, and a quick web search answers questions about getting by if you're stuck on a procedure using a special tool.

Dave

I looked up the price on the Nissan Tech site for the Nissan service manual, a whopping $275.00 for 3 volumes.

Granted that this is in much more detail (2,414 pages) and is probably the best thing I can get, I am afraid its way out of my price range. Thanks for your help though, David.

If someone can rate the third-party manuals available, I would be grateful.

Thanks

HH

$20 online (search this group at

to find the location). I used to think that Factory Service Manuals were the only way to go. Haynes & Chiltons consumer service books seemed to be getting more and more generic, and it seemed the FSM has a remove & install procedure covering most items I'd want to remove or install.

I have several Nissan FSMs (all you can eat for $20 for a day), and while they cover diagnostic procedures in detail, removal and installation isn't always covered. Anyway if I were doing much with my car, I'd look at the coverage in the FSM, and consider an aftermarket manual if it covered it better.

David

sorry to say, but i believe the manufacturer's shop manual IS the reference. Will save money and time. If you are a seasoned mechanic, the price may be steep, but for a week-end warrior, its well drawn and explained and, if you can't do it, you'll know what the tech is talking about and cut on the baloney. All the cars i've got, i made shure to get the manufacturer's shop manual. Didn't regret, they paid for themselves n times... my 2 cents

Ebay. I got mine for $70.

Dave

Mfr's manual is great... but expensive and makes assumptions about your level of training. Also, they frequently refer to special tools that are available as or easily substituted with common tools.

Haynes and Chilton has good stuff on the most frequent repairs... but also unhelpful generic instructions and illustrations in a lot of areas. They also provide suggestions on using common tools, or modifications for common tools, in place of special tools. One manual may be stronger for certain repairs, the other one for other repairs.

I find that having all three is the best choice possible: Haynes and Chiltons aren't that expensive, the only expensive one is the Nissan manual.

BuddyWh

Haynes is better than Chilton. It has pretty much gotten me where I want to go, and I paid $15 from Amazon. It isn't $275 worth of instructions, but it is certainly worth its price and more.

And what isn't in it can often be searched out on this site, if it is a fairly common problem.

JM

In case anyone missed my earlier post, it's $20 online.

Too bad! :-) Seriousy anything else is a joke and many times they send you off on a wild goose chase or tell you to remove all sports of things that aren't needed.

An example on a haynes manual for a 87 300ZX, it explains in detail how to remove the rocker arms as part of a timing belt replacement. I have no idea why anyone would do that! That money ($275) is well spent if you plan on doing your own repairs. You'll save that much on the first major service.

Can you download it as 1 PDF? If not, how many seperate files?

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19 seperate files.

Thanks, I'll check that out.

Where can I find it?

Thanks

HH