R.I.P. Haynes manuals

[gbb]

I suppose it is inevitable. What jobs do you realistically face on a car nowadays ?
Discs, easy.
Pads, easy.
Bulbs, battery etc, easy.
Auxillary belt , looking at doing mine soon.
Most if those, most people will only do once in each period of car ownership.

Timing belt, I'm planning to do mine when it's due.
Wheel hubs / bearings I've done before but wouldnt think they'll go on cars I have now.

There are jobs I'd like to think I could do, clutches, stuff like that but it's highly unlikely to be needed, again because my cars nowadays are generally between 12 months and 5 years old at the most.

But theres so many jobs people used to do, my dad changed engines, clutches etc...but he did that because he had to, it was inevitable these things went. They served their purpose very well, but their relevance has gone really.

 

[Venod]

They were very handy, some models better than others the VW Golf series was the best, I found.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Youtube beats Haynes hands down, but the one thing the book had was you could have it to hand while you were lying underneath the car.

The quality went through the floor though. Mrs SJ had a Saxo that needed the drive belt tensioning. I went out to the car prepared to take the offside front wheel and it's liner off and dismantle something else to get access as the Haynes informed me I needed to. Popping open the bonnet I could see clearly that there was more than enough room to reach the locknut and tensioner by simply reaching down over the engine. It took longer to get the tools out than it took to do the job.

Similarly with a starter motor on my old Mondeo, after much swearing about how the thing wouldn't budge I realised that a cross member had to be removed to get at a bolt, something not mentioned at all in the book. I seriously doubt if the author had ever taken a spanner to the car and based his opinion on having a quick look.

 

[MrGrumpy]

But theres so many jobs people used to do, my dad changed engines, clutches etc...but he did that because he had to, it was inevitable these things went. They served their purpose very well, but their relevance has gone really.

yep 30yrs ago, there were jobs needing done all the time. Cars were unreliable. The issue now and I see it , is that the kids these days have got it easy
. When I was a lad my boot was full of all the tools I would need to fix at the side of the road if needed! Lastly fixing cars, learning about taking things apart stood you in good stead if ever fancied an engineering apprenticeship. Trying now to show my boys but I need to now Google it on a tablet to show them !

 

[Tail End Charlie]

The Haynes manual for the Tiger tank is actually a good read. The story of how a Tiger, knocked out in Tunisia in WW2, was shipped to England, taken apart, examined, the war ends and it's forgotten about and then rediscovered and recommissioned. Together with a human story which I won't spoil.

 

[DRM]

I think the early Haynes manuals were based on a strip down of the car in question, they did the job, photographed the stages, then added it to the manual, the later ones they got the manufacturers book, that's not available to the public, and plagiarised it, throw into the mix that cars are now more reliable, and equally complicated to repair/diagnose, then there is no point buying a Haynes book, when what you really need is a computer programme from the manufacturer (not available) to do software updates etc, a code reader and list of codes, which can, more often than not, lead you up the garden path, then it's a case of sod it, take it to the garage, as they've likely seen the fault before, and can go straight to the actual problem, rather than trial fitting parts until the fault goes away, example of this, a mate of mine has a Citroen C4 Picasso, a warning light for the ABS came on, so off it went to the local Citroen specialist, after much fault finding it turns out the faulty sensor was ok, the wiring that goes the length of the car to the rear wheel had rubbed through and was shorting to chassis under the trim at the rear door, all down to how the wiring was routed during manufacture, it was repaired and the car is now all good, a couple of days later another Picasso went in with an ABS fault, the mechanic went straight to it, and fixed it, so the initial job for someone who is very familiar with the marque was still a long drawn out job, but they found it, the home mechanic has no chance in such things, but replacing things like brake pads and discs etc is still straight forward, but is common knowledge for those who are able to do such things, so no need for a manual.
when I had the 200 Tdi Disco, and the Freelander, I had the genuine Land Rover workshop manuals, they were brilliant and showed the correct way to do things, and what should be done on a service and when, along the correct torque settings and lubrication specifications, the Haynes manual for both was hopeless , for example on the Freelander Td4 (BMW) engine there was an oil breather that needed to be changed, every 2 years iirc, there was detailed instructions of the job, yet no mention of it in the Haynes book, but if left the pressure in the engine breather system would cause the dipstick to be blown out of it's tube and spray engine oil everywhere.

 

[Ian H]

They recently rebuilt/extended the motor museum, not far from here. I keep meaning to pay a visit.

 

[Profpointy]

The Haynes manual for the Tiger tank is actually a good read. The story of how a Tiger, knocked out in Tunisia in WW2, was shipped to England, taken apart, examined, the war ends and it's forgotten about and then rediscovered and recommissioned. Together with a human story which I won't spoil.

Agree - I too have the Tiger book which I bought at the Tank Museum on one of their Tiger Days where the actual Tiger of the book gets its annual drive around; the only runner left in the workd apparently.

I also have their book on thr Mosquito bomber and the one on space rockets. All a good albeit maybe a bit lightweight. I shall doubtless buy others

Back in the day I found the Haynes manuals oretty good for car mending, but recall modern ones being mire basic. The one for my Saab i've never used in anger, though did use the ones for my older cars quite a lot. I didn't find my 68 cortina unreliable in the slightest so long as a kept on top of things. I bought the manufacturers book for the landy but had the Haynes as well

 

[oldworld]

Up until buying the Toyota I always bought a manuals for the cars. I kept all of the old ones and you could tell a lot about the car just by looking how greasy and dog eared the manual was.
I'd always have a good read before getting out the spanners so I could mostly do it without reference to the manual but difficult jobs I had it open while I did the job.

 

[Juan Kog]

They recently rebuilt/extended the motor museum, not far from here. I keep meaning to pay a visit.

“ I keep meaning to pay a visit “ I stay in the West Bay / Bridport area several times a year , still not got round to visiting the museum.

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

I think its a real shame to be honest. I've done all kinds of jobs from Haynes manuals in the past. The internet is a great thing if you have a really poplular car. I have a Mazda 2, obtained a worshop manual off ebay. It's nowhere near as good as a haynes manual. But the knowledge I've gained from working on cars makes it understandable. Apart from torque wrench settings its no good for anything to be honest.

I think Haynes and common sense gave me the knowledge to work on cars, It's a dying art though...

 

[HMS_Dave]

How will an aspiring teenager understand sex without the "Haynes Explains Sex" Manual?

With such classically written pages such as this...

It is available on HARDback from haynes still. https://haynes.com/en-gb/haynes-exp...v6QSrOWjiKKVy2oO1yx_aKkHw0-uDsIcaAuDvEALw_wcB

Disclaimer: I do not work for Haynes nor do "favours" for them...