Author Topic: Where to find car repair manual  (Read 6221 times)

Zaga

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Where to find car repair manual
« on: April 05, 2014, 09:35:14 AM »
For those of you who know things about cars, where should I look to find a manual for my car so I can hopefully do some of the repairs and maintenance myself?  I have a Kia Soul.

Thanks!

Exflyboy

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Re: Where to find car repair manual
« Reply #1 on: April 05, 2014, 11:58:14 AM »
Ebay

Frank

Greg

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Re: Where to find car repair manual
« Reply #2 on: April 05, 2014, 12:08:05 PM »
I used to also find them at the local library.  You can look in their DIY section, and also in the "card catalogue" and if there's one in the system have it sent to your local branch.  I've done this and made copies of the parts I need.

I would also suggest joining a Kia Soul forum online or on facebook, and asking around, someone might have a PDF version you can get or even download from the forum files.

Zaga

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Re: Where to find car repair manual
« Reply #3 on: April 05, 2014, 03:58:13 PM »
Library, brilliant, don't know why I didn't think of that.  I'm there often enough!

Rural

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Re: Where to find car repair manual
« Reply #4 on: April 05, 2014, 06:11:26 PM »
Library, brilliant, don't know why I didn't think of that.  I'm there often enough!


Mine has an online database of manuals; no need even to go to the library.

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Where to find car repair manual
« Reply #5 on: April 05, 2014, 07:27:16 PM »
YouTube.

Video walkthroughs are quite nice for more complicated things.

zolotiyeruki

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Re: Where to find car repair manual
« Reply #6 on: April 06, 2014, 08:07:40 PM »
I have a Haynes manual for my cars, purchased at Autozone (or was it O'reilly? I forget).  They're "ok", but not great.  If you already have some mechanical inclinations, they're helpful.

Youtube is awesome.

Forums which are dedicated to your brand/model/year of car can be very helpful as well, since people on those forums have probably already done the exact repair you're about to undertake, and can offer helpful hints and advice.

Zaga

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Re: Where to find car repair manual
« Reply #7 on: April 07, 2014, 04:44:40 AM »
Thanks everyone!  I'm not worried about complicated things just yet, I was thinking of starting with an oil change or something :-)

I will try all of those ideas to find what I need, thanks again!

Greg

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Re: Where to find car repair manual
« Reply #8 on: April 07, 2014, 10:56:24 AM »
If you plan to have the vehicle a long time, and plan on learning to do things yourself, consider buying the repair manual from the dealer, or at least a factory repair manual.  They're often the best and most complete manuals, but skip some of the basics like how to use a floor jack safely.  A combination of a Haynes or Chilton and a Kia factory manual would probably be best. These days the factory manual might not even be in paper form though.

Ashyukun

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Re: Where to find car repair manual
« Reply #9 on: April 07, 2014, 11:07:03 AM »
If you plan to have the vehicle a long time, and plan on learning to do things yourself, consider buying the repair manual from the dealer, or at least a factory repair manual.  They're often the best and most complete manuals, but skip some of the basics like how to use a floor jack safely.  A combination of a Haynes or Chilton and a Kia factory manual would probably be best. These days the factory manual might not even be in paper form though.

Yup,  I believe most are online through a subscription service. There was an independant mechanic that had a small one-bay shop behind his house that I went to a few times for things requiring tools I didn't have and all of the manuals were on the computer. Said there was a service he subscribed to that had the manuals for everything under the sun (with some exceptions- there wasn't one for my D...) and it was constantly updated, but was also out of the price range of any hobbyist mechanics.

I've always picked up the Haynes or Chilton manuals for all my cars- I can get pretty much everything online these days but it's often really useful to have the hardcopy of everything collected together in one place that I'm not terribly concerned about getting some grease on.

Greg

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Re: Where to find car repair manual
« Reply #10 on: April 07, 2014, 11:26:33 AM »
This is why I'm happy to have older vehicles... my newest is 25 years old.  I have the hardcopy manuals for them and also PDF versions.  Helps that they are popular niche vehicles that have a cult following.  Anything not in the manual someone's done before any number of ways.

Blindsquirrel

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Re: Where to find car repair manual
« Reply #11 on: April 07, 2014, 08:10:01 PM »
 Autozone.com  sign up, create an account and then you have access to a boatload of tech info and manuals. They will email you good discounts all the time.

Exflyboy

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Re: Where to find car repair manual
« Reply #12 on: April 08, 2014, 11:55:32 AM »
I actually got a Factory service manual for my 99 Neon off Ebay for like $15.

It seems the dealers sell them on line when the cars get older.

Frank

LibrarIan

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Re: Where to find car repair manual
« Reply #13 on: April 08, 2014, 02:19:55 PM »
If the library doesn't have a hard copy of the manual you want, they may subscribe to the Chilton database that you can access remotely.

eefool

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Re: Where to find car repair manual
« Reply #14 on: April 08, 2014, 06:55:15 PM »
Not sure of legality of these, but I googled it and this was the first link:

http://www.kiasoulforums.com/29-how-diy/14483-2013-kia-soul-repair-manual.html