I'm so stupid... Was: Head Cleaners

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sat Jul 3 18:12:42 2004

> >I try to get the offiical manufacturer's manual (I actually have quite a
> >shelf of them now) -- often it's expensive, but it's worth it.
>
>
> Tony's right. The Hayes manuals are junk. And the Chilton's manual are
> worse! Now when I buy a car I make the dealer include the factory manual.

Alas I am told that over here many manufacturers will no longer sell the
official workshop manual at any price. And I can (just) remember when
some manufactueres would send them out free if you bought the car....

No while I can reverse-engineer just about any piece of classic computer
hardware given enough time, I don't think I could do the same for a car.
Sure I could figure out what the bits did, what the connections were,
etc, but I could not work out the correct tightening torques for all the
bolts, etc.

> They're expensive as hell to buy but the dealers cost on them is about 1/3

The cost doesn't really worry me. The one for the Citroan BX was about
\pounds 130, and we made that back on the first repair we did.

> of what they charge the public so they willingly include them if you tell
> them that it's the only way that you'll buy the car. And let me tell you,
> on a newer car with all the elctronics and computers you MUST have the
> factory manual if you want to have a ghost of a chance of fixing it. The
> dealers in this area charge $75 or more just to connect the readout box and
> read the diagnostic codes out of the computers. That alone will pay about
> half the price of a GOOD manual.

Alas the manuals I've seen don't explain the internals of the ECUs
(Electronic Control Units), they don't document the protocol for the
diagnostic tester. So you still have to buy some overpriced readout tool
to get the fault codes... Things were simpler 20 years ago when 99% of
engice faults could tbe traced with a compression tester, timing light
and Colourtunr (that's a sparking plug with a transparent glass
insulator, so you can observer the mixture burning in the cylinder. It's
one of the best things I know for tracing carburetter problems).

-tony
Received on Sat Jul 03 2004 - 18:12:42 BST