Workshop manuals

I have the proper Rover workshop manuals but it is interesting to see the comments from ten years ago about the Haynes manual. I have one and use it a lot. I have always actually found it to be a very good manual with a lot of useful information in. I had a 1987 BMW 535 years ago and the Haynes manual for it covered the 5 series and 3 series in the same book. The car they took apart was a 318 and for all the operations it just said "5 series is similar", which of course it wasn't!!!
 
All the earlier Haynes manuals across the board were better than the later ones. The later ones didn't go into any details about some components, they declared 'consult approved dealer or specialist'. The easiest way is if there are a generic couple of colour pages on repairing a wing. :rolleyes:
 
I just had a look on the Haynes website. It seems that now all they produce are limited data manuals with servicing info in and no longer do proper maintenance manuals. They cover changing brake pads and engine oil etc. but nothing else. Cheap for them but pretty much useless for the car owner. It is a shame that they have downgraded their product to such an extent but they are pretty much useless to anyone who actually wants to repair something now.
 
When I first started playing with cars, I bought a Haynes Manual, and to be fair it was very good for what I needed. It wasn't as good as a a proper works manual, but it was available in 1977. I did find some mistakes in it and a fair few things that it didn't explain, so I have to agree with the nickname HBOL (omissions edition).

So now, I have a Camaro which needs stripping, I have bought a Haynes manual and it's not actually bad.

Yes, they're not as good as a proper manual, but they are useful. Just my opinion.
 
by accident I discovered the other day that the Camaro's power window units and switches are the same as the Rover units and still available in the US. They were fitted up to about 1990 on the Camaro.
 
It was the same with the Vauxhall Viscount (66 to 72), which I found in the local breakers yard in the mid/late 70s and stripped out to fit in a P5b coupe.
 
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