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Haynes or Chiltons?

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Originally posted by: helpme
Originally posted by: Ronstang
They are both absolutely useless. Either buy the factory shop manual or find the info online.
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they come at a price premium. But after most people buy one Haynes or Chilton first, or both, they give up and buy the factory shop manual.
So save some dough, and get the real shop manual.
 
Originally posted by: Ronstang
They are both absolutely useless. Either buy the factory shop manual or find the info online.
Click to expand...

That really depends on the age of the car. For older cars (pre-1990 or so) the Haynes manuals are quite useful as there is stuff on the car that mere mortals can repair themselves. With newer cars, I can see your point.
 
Originally posted by: ironwing
Originally posted by: Ronstang
They are both absolutely useless. Either buy the factory shop manual or find the info online.
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That really depends on the age of the car. For older cars (pre-1990 or so) the Haynes manuals are quite useful as there is stuff on the car that mere mortals can repair themselves. With newer cars, I can see your point.
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I don't know. My experience with any of them has been bad, even for older cars. They do lovely things like say "Remove the Alternator". No shit, but HOW?? It really doesn't affect someone like myself with 30 years experience working on and building cars but for the people that actually NEED a manual for a step by step you are much better off buying the original shop manuals....even for a 40 year old car. I have ones for 66 Mustangs and the set for the 57 T-Bird and when you really need some info to solve a problem it is in there. Well worth the money. You are saving a ton doing the work yourself so you might as well make the investment in quality tools, and the factory shop manuals fall under that category.

 
thery are useless. I had one for my old altima. Itwas telling me to take off a bunch of things in the car to replace the headlight. What a waste!
 
Originally posted by: Ronstang
They are both absolutely useless. Either buy the factory shop manual or find the info online.
Click to expand...

They are nowhere as complete as a factory manual but I wouldn't call them "useless", do you need that level of knowledge to replace pads or shoes, not really. I used a Haynes manual to replace a head and had no problems at all.
 
Originally posted by: BUTCH1
Originally posted by: Ronstang
They are both absolutely useless. Either buy the factory shop manual or find the info online.
Click to expand...

They are nowhere as complete as a factory manual but I wouldn't call them "useless", do you need that level of knowledge to replace pads or shoes, not really. I used a Haynes manual to replace a head and had no problems at all.
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Agreed. I'd go with the Haynes manuals personally. I've had the Chiltons manuals in the past and found them to be more confusing and had fewer decent pictures than the Haynes manuals.
 
I haven't looked in a Chiltons or Haynes manual in 30 years, but I sure have some poor opinions of Ford factory manuals. I got a CD version of my '96 Escort and paper manuals for my '98 F150. Neither comes close to the one I had for '81 Camaro for ease of finding information.
 
Originally posted by: Squisher
I haven't looked in a Chiltons or Haynes manual in 30 years, but I sure have some poor opinions of Ford factory manuals. I got a CD version of my '96 Escort and paper manuals for my '98 F150. Neither comes close to the one I had for '81 Camaro for ease of finding information.
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I had a '94 scort, still wish I'd have kept it rather than the $600 I got for it for trade. 3 door hatch, you wouldn't believe the stuff I got in that car, including a full sized washer, twin bed, "32 TV and dishwasher. Easy car to work on too (for FWD that is), 30/39 MPG as well..
 
If you're looking to spend less than $20 on a manual, go Chiltons. They're typically a little more detailed than Haynes. Though I will say my Haynes manual got me through all the repairs I needed to perform on my first car.
 
I've always bought Haynes manuals. However they can be lacking in information on some of the more complicated jobs. Usually with the Haynes manual and a good internet forum specific to the car to ask questions on or look for How-To posts, I've been able to do pretty much everything I've needed to on my cars. The guys on the Contour.org forum I used to frequent had step by step how to posts with pictures for pretty much all the do it yourself work you might run into.
 
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