Is the factory service manual set worth it?

[BamBam]

I've seen those go for quite a bit of moolah, but I know on quite a few vehicles they are required reading if you plan to do any of your own service and such.

I bought one in PDF for my old Pathfinder and just printed the pages I needed and it was awesome. It saved me tons of cash on repairs because I could do them all myself.

Is this the way to go, or is the Haynes manual for $20 actually a good idea or what is suggested by the experts here?

 

[simple]

You can download the Toyota manual for free. The links are at toyota120 I believe. I'd try a search there.

 

[toto]

You're not supposed to be able to download the manual for free... Toyota doesn't appreciate that. Toyota doesn't sell the manual on CD-ROM - they only sell paper. They have a Web site - Toyota Tech Info System - where you can pay for access and view all of the manuals online. It's the same Web site that the dealers use internally. They used to use PDF for everything on that site until people learned how to download all of the information that way and even sell CD-ROM's on eBay with complete manuals. Now they've gone to a publishing system that's more interactive than PDF and also harder to download in mass quantities.

 

[BamBam]

Ahh, got ya. I thought the manual I got for my Nissan was a factory thing. It didn't look phony. It had all of the right labels and came in the right kind of case and everything. I've seen knock-off stuff from China or Hong Kong and this looked like a legit product. Maybe I was fooled. I was hopeful Toyota would have something similar. Sounds like they're all fakes. That stinks.

I used Haynes manuals for years, but I am kind of past that point on most things, as they are pretty basic on most vehicles... although they seem to go the extra mile on certain vehicles. I can't even check one out as they are all shrinkwrapped over at Auto Zone. That's why I thought I'd ask here first.

 

[03_4x4Runner]

I have used both and there is no comparison to the factory manuals. The Haynes etc. try to cover to many years and are not detailed enough. When I did my 4.7 timing belt the factory manual walked me through it step by step with no compromises. The 2 factory manuals (comes in 2 books) are about 5 or 6 inches thick compared to a 1 inch thick haynes manual. What does that tell you? you get what you pay for.