Servicing CD's -- are they useful?

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Thu 17 Jun 2004 21:38
Servicing CD's -- are they useful? - buzbee
Previous postings have told of car maintenance CD's offered via eBay and one poster, at least, was satisfied with what was obtained. My experience was not so good. The 'factory Service/Repair manual' turned out to be pretty useless.

It showed me where to plug in an ECU analyser, if I had one! It also displayed a nice table of bolt sizes and their tightening torques. Not where they were, though.

As to information similar to that found in a Haynes manual, forget it. For example: nothing on how to check the oil level in the gearbox/transmission unit, or on how to remove an ignition unit and take out a plug, or where the air and petrol filters are, or anything about lamps etc. No such pictures or information.

The CD appears to be one of a set where each one probably covers a different aspect. This one is probably the least useful of the set. After I emailed the source as to what others were available, (I was looking to buy) I got no reply. Be warned! You can finish up with a nice tea coaster.

Anyone else with any experience?


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Thu 17 Jun 2004 22:05
Servicing CD's -- are they useful? - Aprilia
What's the car?
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Thu 17 Jun 2004 23:03
Servicing CD's -- are they useful? - Sooty Tailpipes
The Vauxhall ones off ebay are excellent... what make were yours?
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Thu 17 Jun 2004 23:07
Servicing CD's -- are they useful? - buzbee
Nissan Micra K12
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Fri 18 Jun 2004 01:51
Servicing CD's -- are they useful? - buzbee
From a very red faced buzbee. :(

My CD reader (me?) had only looked at the first section of the CD. Having now gone back and had another go I have found there is a lot more on the CD than I new about.

Sorry mods about the mis-information.

Only consolation is perhaps a few more know there IS a CD for the new Micra.
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Fri 18 Jun 2004 10:05
Servicing CD's -- are they useful? - Anglesey Ian
Well done that man in his admission !

I purchased a similar CD from E Bay (which turned out to be a copy)and found it to be comprehensive, informative and helpful. The main advantage I found that it places you one step ahead of a patronising service manager. My car: Saab 9.3 TiD (2001).

The only problem that I encountered was that I couldn't open it up on my home system (Windows XP) but could on my work computer (running Windows 98)

Regards,

AI
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Fri 18 Jun 2004 13:06
Servicing CD's -- are they useful? - Yak
Most of these are available on Ebay are downloadable off the internet if you know where to look. The ones on Ebay are just copies by poele trying to make a fast buck... unless you are on dial up and it would take a week to download.

Niether of these are particularly leagal ways of getting hold of these CD though.
Nissan 200SX, modded, 240bhp : fast!
Peugeot 106 1.4 XND Graduate : slow!
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Fri 18 Jun 2004 16:43
Servicing CD's -- are they useful? - Roberson
Hi,

I have wondered about these as I have been VERY close to making a bid but I'm not sure how much information I would get on the New CDs for a car which design is 13years old.

So when a genuine VAG manual (book) came up, I bought it. It was quite good but not that useful as it was really a preface to the whole manual series. Volkswagen have many different manual for each part of the car, so this book didn't focus on anything in particular.

On my quest to find out more, I found a russian site which although contain NO instructions for servicing etc, it does give very detailed exploded diagrams with each and every part number. The site contains information for Audi, BMW, Daewoo, Honda Mitsubushi, Nissan, Toyota, Peugeot, Volkswagen and BOSCH. Don't know abouth any of the other sections but the VW one ain't that bad. So if you need to know how something is put together, or what part number you may need (or learn russian, but the part names are in english?) try www.elcats.ru

Also there is volkswagen.msk.ru which I think contain PDF versions of original VW manuals.

Sorry buzbee that this has a distictly VW theme.

Roberson


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Fri 18 Jun 2004 20:16
Servicing CD's -- are they useful? - MrWibble
You may also need this free online Russian-English translation site !

translation2.paralink.com/
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Fri 18 Jun 2004 22:03
Is a CD readable? - buzbee
My experience is that CD readers vary in their sensitivity. Some are much better than others -- perhaps not so much the more recent ones. So the home PC reading problem could just be that rather than the difference between Win98 and Xp.

In regard to the Nissan CD, I used an Adobe 6 reader. I put the CD in and a list of headings appeared. So far so good. I then clicked the top one, to open up the reading, and then paged down as far as I could go to find out the extent of what was on the disk. I did not realise my roaming was being limited to whatever section I had clicked on. Hence the disappointment.

Trying to page down further just hit an end stop. What I had to do, to read what was in the other sections, was to abort the reader! Then fire it up again so as to get back to the menu list. Then click another heading.

After doing that I found loads of useful information.






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