Car repair manuals: Haynes or Chilton? (now with poll!)

BatmanNate

Lifer
Jul 12, 2000
12,444
2
81
I am going to order a book for my car (a 1987 Toyota Supra) in case I start wanting to put some work into it, and I was curious, which of these is generally considered the better resource? What are the pro's/con's of each? Does anyone have experience with both, or a better source for information on Toyotas? Thanks!
 

Linflas

Lifer
Jan 30, 2001
15,395
78
91
Your mileage may vary but I have always found Haynes to cover my vehicles in much greater detail than Chilton's.
 

Radiohead

Platinum Member
Jun 16, 2001
2,494
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You can look up your car in the Chilton's manual Here

A better source of info would be the actual factory service manual, but yeah it's $$$

Edit:
Fixed Link
 

Evadman

Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Feb 18, 2001
30,990
5
81
YMMV = your milege may vary.

I am a Chilton's man.

 

BatmanNate

Lifer
Jul 12, 2000
12,444
2
81
I've found both on Amazon.com for 5-10 dollars a piece, so both is an option. Is there any credible place to find factory service manuals second hand or below cost?
 

BatmanNate

Lifer
Jul 12, 2000
12,444
2
81
Originally posted by: Radiohead
You can look up your car in the Chilton's manual Here

A better source of info would be the actual factory service manual, but yeah it's $$$

Edit:
Fixed Link



"Your car has no repair listings"

:(
 

iamwiz82

Lifer
Jan 10, 2001
30,772
13
81
I've found both on Amazon.com for 5-10 dollars a piece, so both is an option. Is there any credible place to find factory service manuals second hand or below cost?

Ebay usually has some. I want to pick up mine, but they dont have my year currently.
 

bUnMaNGo

Senior member
Feb 9, 2000
964
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I like Haynes myself... my dad has both the Chiltons and the Haynes for our van, and we found that the Haynes goes into more detail than the Chiltons. We have the Haynes for a '97 Integra, '87 Plymouth Voyager, '85 190E, and '81 Subaru DL. We have the Chiltons for our '87 Plymouth Voyager as well as I stated before... we'd have a Haynes for my '99 Honda CBR 600 F4 but they only make one up to the '98 F3 right now =\ Looks like I'm gonna have to buy the factory service manual for my bike :(
 

etech

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
10,597
0
0
From the set I had for my 74 Volkswagen, the Chiltons was more for an experienced mechanic and the Haynes more for the weekend warrior. The Chiltons had a little more detail but didn't walk you through repairs as well as the Haynes. I found having both to be very useful and would recomend getting both. If you want to see what they look like check you local library, they often have at least one of them there.

There are often Factory Service Manuals on ebay. The new ones for my Jeep are ~$100. The ones on ebay are going for $50 to $60. I just got one recently. One repair that I can make instead of taking it to the mechanic will pay for it. Note, the prices are for the Jeep manuals, I haven't checked other types.

You might even find the Chiltons or Haynes on ebay. I told my wife I wanted the service manual and she bid on a Haynes for me. Got it for $8. Worth it just for another perspective to me.
 

etech

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
10,597
0
0
Damn, I hate it when people do that.

Why do you prefer Bently manuals? What makes them special? What other manuals have you compared them to? In what areas are they better? Give us a freaking clue. I really don't care about either of yours opinions without some more information to it.

 

Wingznut

Elite Member
Dec 28, 1999
16,968
2
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Originally posted by: iamwiz82
factory service manual
It's the only way. Period.

Sure, it costs a little more... But the first time you spend four hours chasing down a problem, only to find that the aftermarket manual is inaccurate, you'll WISH that you'd gotten the factory manual.
 

N8Magic

Lifer
Dec 12, 2000
11,624
1
81
Originally posted by: etech
Damn, I hate it when people do that.

Why do you prefer Bently manuals? What makes them special? What other manuals have you compared them to? In what areas are they better? Give us a freaking clue. I really don't care about either of yours opinions without some more information to it.

Thanks.

I prefer Bentley manuals because they are MUCH more in depth (1000's of pages as opposed to 100's) and the fact that they use diagrams rather than the cheap-ass pictures found in Haynes/Chiltons manuals.

They tend to be geared towards people who know what they're doing which dispenses with a lot of useless crap.
 

atom

Diamond Member
Oct 18, 1999
4,722
0
0
I've never seen a 3rd party manual any where near as comprehensive as a FSM. Think about all the headaches could be saved over the course of the ownership of your car for $150.
 

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
102,380
8,509
126
eh, i just want to know how to change my belts.

of course the manual had the wrong frickin' diagram... didn't look like my car at all!
 

Balthazar

Golden Member
Apr 16, 2000
1,834
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0
Chilton all the way, then again most of their books that I own are pertaining to either my Maxima, or old cars like '72 comaro, and whatnot....

Anyyyyyyway....