By Wendy Pan
For the do-it-yourselfer, repairing your own vehicle can save you $100. But don't shell out $20 or $30 for a repair manual that you may only use once. You might be surprised to learn there are several sources where you can get free auto repair manuals.
Repair manuals online:
• One of the first places to try is AutoZone's website. The site has a very comprehensive free auto repair guides covering most makes and models of vehicles from 1950 to the present.
• Napa auto parts website provides tutorials on basic auto maintenance such as oil changes, checking fluid levels and replacing air filters.
• Automoting.com has tons of information, is very user friendly and as a bonus, even has guides for repairing small engines and household repairs.
Message boards and forums:
Another useful resource is the 2carpros.com website. Here you can post questions and get answers from real mechanics. You can also search through lots of topics on auto repair, troubleshooting, and maintenance.
Edmunds web site also has a pretty good forum called car talk. It is peer based and has quite a few very knowledgeable members on board.
There are quite a few other forums and message boards available online, as well as peer based ones. Just type in auto repair forums or message boards in any search engine and you will see quite a few. Just watch out for ones that say they are free but try to sell you something, or say you can post questions, but must pay a fee to receive an answer. You will most likely find free auto repair guides and all the information that you need, so there is no need to pay for help.
Libraries:
Another often overlooked option for free auto repair manuals is your local library.
Most libraries have repair manuals in their reference sections, and although you can't check them out and take them with you, you are welcome to make photo copies of any pages you need from the manuals.
A lot of local libraries also subscribe to online auto repair manuals such as Chilton's or Haynes and offer free access if you have a library card.
Contact your local library and ask if this service is available.
If you really prefer to have a paper manual, check half.com, an eBay company that sells used books for a fraction of the price of new. Some of the manuals as low as $1.99. There are several other used book websites like Alibris books and Bookfinder.com to name a couple.
You can also check local used book stores.
And don't forget to ask friends and family, who knows, someone may have just the manual you need collecting dust in the garage!
Wendy Pan is an accomplished niche website developer and author. To learn more about free auto repair manuals, please visit My Auto Repairs Online for current articles and discussions.
Auto Repair Manual
Monday, February 23, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Auto Repair Shop Software - Computer Software For Auto Repairs
By Wendy Pan
With the computer age taking over, more and more businesses are turning to software and other technology to use in their shops. All the old 500 page repair manuals and guides are being put on their shelves and left to build dust until someone desires their hard bound qualities.
It's no wonder that auto shops are one of the biggest buyers of the new software available today. It was not until the recent past 15 years that auto shops really started to get into the technological swing of things. Once a few companies had produced easy to navigate auto repair shop software, mechanics everywhere fleeted to the stores to get their copies.
Auto repair shop software makes the job of a well trained mechanic much easier, giving diagnostic tips and info, wiring diagrams and pictures of particular components or parts in the vehicle they have looked up. Those are basic skills in some of the older software, as new technology has produced software that can give exact labor estimates and calculate the price of needed OEM parts.
Auto repair shop software is available in its many forms, from simple repair guides to complex programs that help automobile engineers develop new ideas and products. From the cheap software to the pricey big time business programs, repair software can do just about anything you need it to do. I have even run into a few programs that will help the smaller time shop owner get into accounting and bookkeeping in their repair business.
What an amazing thing the world's best computer programmers could produce. From the brains of the world's best mechanics and diagram artists, this repair software has helped develop the mechanics way of life. Making well needed information easy to find and no more pages to flip through. No more old receipts with faded illegible writing. No more countless lost files or paper work. Everything can be transferred into electronic data and controlled through many of the different types of auto repair shop software.
Any shop that has not moved into the swing of the computer motion will be left in the dust. There's no money to be made in old time auto shops that do not have the equipment or software it needs to properly handle the large amounts of customer and vehicle data that come in. This productive software makes it to easy for almost any shop to thrive and earn revenue in the busy world. Which is why you see so many little lube shops popping up everywhere. The chains thrive on software that can basically tell the auto tech how to do their job. Even many of the educational programs for working on automobiles are focused around a set of repair programs that are common in most shops.
This is also the reason you don't see as many old time mechanic shops around either. They once relied on referrals and small towns to maintain a steady flow of business. Now those small shops have faded away as the neighborhoods grew larger, because they could not accommodate to the larger number of customers and cars that needed service. With just books and paper, even the most talented mechanic had troubles keeping up. On top of that, technology in vehicles is constantly evolving, and there is no way that a mechanic who has been working in the field for 20 years will know everything about the latest model of car.
Repair software makes getting the information you need a breeze, and help organize the mess of clients and their vehicles. It was developed for exactly that purpose, and it is understandable that almost every shop in the world is looking into purchasing or upgrading their software.
Wendy Pan is an accomplished niche website developer and author. To learn more about auto repair shop software, please visit My Auto Repairs Site for current articles and discussions.
Auto Repair Manual
With the computer age taking over, more and more businesses are turning to software and other technology to use in their shops. All the old 500 page repair manuals and guides are being put on their shelves and left to build dust until someone desires their hard bound qualities.
It's no wonder that auto shops are one of the biggest buyers of the new software available today. It was not until the recent past 15 years that auto shops really started to get into the technological swing of things. Once a few companies had produced easy to navigate auto repair shop software, mechanics everywhere fleeted to the stores to get their copies.
Auto repair shop software makes the job of a well trained mechanic much easier, giving diagnostic tips and info, wiring diagrams and pictures of particular components or parts in the vehicle they have looked up. Those are basic skills in some of the older software, as new technology has produced software that can give exact labor estimates and calculate the price of needed OEM parts.
Auto repair shop software is available in its many forms, from simple repair guides to complex programs that help automobile engineers develop new ideas and products. From the cheap software to the pricey big time business programs, repair software can do just about anything you need it to do. I have even run into a few programs that will help the smaller time shop owner get into accounting and bookkeeping in their repair business.
What an amazing thing the world's best computer programmers could produce. From the brains of the world's best mechanics and diagram artists, this repair software has helped develop the mechanics way of life. Making well needed information easy to find and no more pages to flip through. No more old receipts with faded illegible writing. No more countless lost files or paper work. Everything can be transferred into electronic data and controlled through many of the different types of auto repair shop software.
Any shop that has not moved into the swing of the computer motion will be left in the dust. There's no money to be made in old time auto shops that do not have the equipment or software it needs to properly handle the large amounts of customer and vehicle data that come in. This productive software makes it to easy for almost any shop to thrive and earn revenue in the busy world. Which is why you see so many little lube shops popping up everywhere. The chains thrive on software that can basically tell the auto tech how to do their job. Even many of the educational programs for working on automobiles are focused around a set of repair programs that are common in most shops.
This is also the reason you don't see as many old time mechanic shops around either. They once relied on referrals and small towns to maintain a steady flow of business. Now those small shops have faded away as the neighborhoods grew larger, because they could not accommodate to the larger number of customers and cars that needed service. With just books and paper, even the most talented mechanic had troubles keeping up. On top of that, technology in vehicles is constantly evolving, and there is no way that a mechanic who has been working in the field for 20 years will know everything about the latest model of car.
Repair software makes getting the information you need a breeze, and help organize the mess of clients and their vehicles. It was developed for exactly that purpose, and it is understandable that almost every shop in the world is looking into purchasing or upgrading their software.
Wendy Pan is an accomplished niche website developer and author. To learn more about auto repair shop software, please visit My Auto Repairs Site for current articles and discussions.
Auto Repair Manual
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