Zapp Brannigan

I've been looking around online and can buy what they describe as "the same service manual the dealership uses when they work on your car!" for around 3-9 bucks plus S&H.

Has anyone here ever bought one of those? Are they useful? Or useless? I know the price is low so it's not too much of a risk but hey, 10 bucks is 10 bucks and times are tough. So before I pull the trigger I'd like an opinion or two.

Thanks.

djtsmith007

iTrader: (1)

I believe you can download them for free from hondahookup dot come i think...might have to google around.

But those CD's are just someone copying the manual from a free pdf and selling it i believe.

samnguyen

I've bought one on ebay for $7.99, for $7.99 not bad; but the quality is not that good. I don't think it's the same as "the service manual that the dealership uses". The dealer's service manual has more details when comparing the diagrams/pics.

Marmbo

Really depends. I bought two, one for 97 accord and one for 04 TL.

The TL one is great, lots of details,etc well worth the 5$ it cost off ebay. Everything is in one file, all the info I could want.

The one for the accord was around the same price but that one wasn't nearly as good at all, covered a greater number of years than I think it should have so to read up on repair info for the 97 I have to open 3 different files in the file packs it came with.

NE14RoxCJ

I've bought a few of these, now. The first being for my 04 TL. It is just a PDF of a factory service manual. I have since found that there are some pages missing from the electrical/wiring section. It is not indexed, so when I first got it, I printed a copy of the Table of Contents and went thru it noting the page numbers of each section. It has really saved me a few times. Well worth the $$.

The one I bought for our 08 Civic EX-L Coupe is not factory, but is very close. It is complete and each section is its own PDF file. It covers 06-09 Civics of all trims. Again, very helpful and worth the small amount of green.

The other one I bought (and paid a little more for ~$25) was for the 1971 Airstream trailer that my dad thought I would enjoy restoring. It is just another copy of a factory owners manual and repair manual. I haven't found any mssing pages, and the copy is of fairly good quality. It covers ALL sizes and models from 1971. It is NOT indexed in any way.

With the lack of good service manuals for older or newer vehicles, I think the software manuals are a great deal. I like being able to print out the pages I need and then toss them out when I'm done with the job. I make copies for each computer (house, shop, laptop, etc...) and even carry a copy of the TL manual on a USB stick in case I need it away from home. Oh, and I just found out that with iOS4 and iBooks, I can keep and view the PDF on my iPhone. It's pretty slow, but it works.

lucnex

iTrader: (3)

^^ Agreed. I just purchased one as well. Seems like all 12000000 pages are there and the quality for mine is pretty good. No need to be crystal clear since I can read everything fine. Maybe one day when I want to print 1000 + pages I will do it but for now it works great!

Zapp Brannigan

Thanks for the opinions. I'll probably take a gamble. You never know when you'll need it. I've heard horror stories from some people who dissassemble their entire front end just to change the headlight and then find out there was some easy way to do it if they just had the manual. And it seems like the newer the car, the more complicated everything is.