haynes manual

Kadeshh

i have often heard on the forum how good haynes manual are supposed to be but i've been looking for one for a new almera(03-07) and cant find it.

noticed that even on the haynes site they tend not to cover newer cars at all, anyone know why?

unkel

Kadeshh wrote:

they tend not to cover newer cars at all, anyone know why?

For commercial reasons one would presume. It's a bit of an investment to publish one so they need to reckon people will buy it

From my own experience: there is no Haynes for my car, a '94-'01 BMW 7-series (E38). And Bentleys (even better than Haynes) only recently launched theirs

Max_Damage

Too much complex electronics in cars these days, it is killing the DIY mechanic and thus Haynes aren't bothering to publish too many manuals on recent cars because of this. Shame too.

Seth Brundle

The manuals produced nowadays are (by general consensus) a load of crap.
I know the one for my E39 contains several errors.

bazz26

I think car manufacturers have alot to do with it too. They don't want the owner to carry out any DIY work on their cars these days. Instead they want you to bring the car to a dealer who charges accordingly. Even simple things like changing a light bulb are becoming a dealer only task on alot of new cars in the last few years.

It is possible that car manufacturers are generally no longer licencing their car blueprints to Haynes anymore.

JHMEG

Haynes are owned by Chiltons, so cars that were/are not available in the US nowadays are generally not covered.

Plus, as others have said, a lot of money goes into compiling a manual. Are they gonna see a ROI? Not on a 7-series manual, and probably not on an Almera manual.

I've had several down thru the years, and the more experienced you become the less useful they are. In addition a lot of their calibrations etc (eg torque settings etc) are wrong, according to the manufacturers' specs anyway.

milltown

bazz26 wrote:

It is possible that car manufacturers are generally no longer licencing their car blueprints to Haynes anymore.

I know years ago Haynes used to boast that all their manuals were based on a full stripdown and rebuild of the model in question. I doubt the manufacturers had too much input.

Over the years I noticed more and more mentions of manufacturers special tool no.234561 and the like. Add to that the advanced diagnostic and coding systems in modern cars and it's not too hard to see why the last one I took a leaf through in Halfords was little more than a glorified owners' manual.

daedalus2097

The more modern ones generally don't seem to cover really what you need at home... I bought the one for my '95 Golf and I have to say I was a bit disappointed after using several others for different cars before. It told me how to change a piston, hone the cylinders and fit new valves (all things I probably wouldn't want to do) yet never made a single mention or showed in a diagram the crankshaft position sensor which was giving me trouble. It did cover my engine, but was very sparing on the smaller things, lumping instead for more advanced mechanical things like head gaskets, conrods and oil pumps.

maidhc

Ford provide all their service manuals at a cost:
http://www.etis.ford.com/

I have the DVD version, but this only covers all the cars up to 2004. It tells you how to do everything from what I can see.

corglass

I have a manual for that car on cd, email me if your interested

DrChoda

Just look online for the real service manual for the particular model you have.
Lots on ebay for cheap, but usually these are just cd copies.
I'd prefer the real book, it's the same official manual that mechanics will refer to.

Kadeshh

found out recently that hanyes plan to publish the one i want in december, some family member can get it for me as a present now:D