On Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:50:55 -0700, Bill wrote:
Auto repair types tend to not be electronic or computer savvy, so most of
the discussion will be on web site "forums" and not on Usenet.

Urgh, that's sad to hear; I've always found web-based forums extremely
inconvenient compared to usenet groups. Mailing lists aren't quite so
bad, but they still have the disadvantage of needing yet another
account and introducing yet another service to manage (particularly
annoying when it's a one-off question!)

Also these days vehicles are quite complex with all the electronics. You
pretty much need a factory service manual set, a computer code reader,
and a multimeter for many repairs/troubleshooting. You can order factory
service manuals from your dealer.

Yeah, I've stated before that I aim to never own a vehicle that's newer
than I am, so I tend to avoid a lot of those issues :-)

This is for the wife's car though (a baby at '97 vintage), so what you
mention does become a factor for certain types of problems. "thankfully"
the issue with hers is a vibration-related fault, so I can hopefully
avoid a lot of the (diagnostic) expense.

These books are quite detailed. For example a 1999 GM truck factory
service manual set I have is about 6000 pages long total and has 4 books
to the set. These tell you exactly where things are for your specific
vehicle as opposed to those little books sold at auto parts stores
(useless these days).

Yep. I've tried to always have proper service manuals for my vehicles
(although I still need one for my old F-100). I did wonder what the "parts
stores" - Chilton etc. - books were like, as I suspect they might be
better used as toilet paper... they probably seal them in the stores so
you can't browse them before purchase and realise how bad they are ;-)

Having said that, if they list torque wrench settings and other
"mechanical" details that can be enough in a lot of cases, I suppose - but
I still don't like 'em vs. having the "real thing" (although I've found
errors before in factory manuals, so they're not always perfect either).

cheers

Jules