DIY Automotive Shop Manuals

In today’s economy vehicle owners have started learning more and more about how to take care of their own automotive equipment. Just when it seems like things can’t get any worse, independent mechanics and dealerships alike start raising their hourly labor rates and the mark up on parts. This is just their way of trying to mitigate the coarseness of rough economic times. Or is it?

Let me explain something to you all. I used to work in body shops, for a performance based (BMW, Volkswagen, Porsche, Mercedes) independent mechanic in which we also built track cars and  I also have many close connections at major dealerships. Guess what I found out after gaining all of that experience? No matter who shows up at the door, you all  are get ripped off one way or another. Sometimes you just don’t know because some shop owners are smoother talkers than others. I’d be a millionaire if I had got paid the difference of “rounded up” labor time the customer was unknowingly being charged! Another example is a friend of mine had an HID bulb burn out on his 2001 M3 the other day and the dealership quoted him $300 for the bulb and a minimum of 2 hours labor at $130/hr to change it! Can you believe it? $560 plus taxes for a damn light bulb! Needless to say I ended up doing it for him at less than half the price and still made good money for 20 minutes (yes, that’s all the time it really takes) worth of work. Sorry BMW dealership, but your “overhead” is not our problem! We’re not paying for you to have an $18,000 fully automatic coffee machine.

So to help you guys out, I have added an Automotive Resources page on my blog that displays a good amount of workshop manuals. I particularly recommend the manuals from Bentley Publishers. They look like this:

BMW 3 Series (E90, E91, E92, E93) Service Manual: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009: 325i, 325xi, 328i, 328xi, 330i, 330xi, 335i, 335xi

I own a few of these manuals myself and from a technicians point of view, I can definitely tell  you that they are a valuable resource (even for professionals) to have in your toolbox. They are extremely well thought out, methodically written and contain excellent photos and diagrams. I especially love the electrical schematics section since it is hard to find good clear material on this automotive subject.