DIY is easier with Online Auto Repair Manuals

One point we’ve been trying to completely drive home is that you’ll be able to perform a wide variety of DIY automotive tasks with the help of online auto repair manuals. We’ll constantly keep “reminding” you of this as we go along, no matter how many times we need to repeat and repeat and repeat it. As long as it works, right?

There’s no need to be afraid of DIY Auto repair as long as you have the tools you’ll need to do the job (and as long as it is within the capacity of the DIY mechanic to pull off; after all, there are certain tasks that simply call for the help of an auto repair shop that has the kind of heavy duty equipment that most DIY mechanics simply don’t have and can’t afford).

Knowledge is one of the most important things here. You may start out with zero skill, but if you take the time to read up and gain the knowledge you need to perform your own repairs and maintenance tasks, you’ll be able to learn the ropes eventually. Just make sure you put in the work; there’s no use subscribing to an online auto repair manual service if you’re not even going to try and read it or understand the text.

Additionally, simply getting an online auto repair manual isn’t enough. You need to make sure that what you have contains quality and accurate information. Otherwise, you’ll just be stumbling like a blind man. If you go for the free online repair manuals, make sure you check them for quality and accuracy. For paid subscriptions, make sure you carefully pick a service that has all the stuff you’ll need and require.

Once you have the tools, the rest should follow—and you’ll be well on your way to a happy DIY mechanic experience.

Online Auto Repair Manual Reviews: Freeonlineautorepair.com

We’ve already provided a bunch of reviews centered on some of the preeminent paid or premium online car repair manual services on the world wide web, along with some posts pointing to a couple of free online repair manuals. Today, we’ll be setting our sights on a free online auto repair manual site, the aptly named Free Online Auto Repair web site over at http://www.freeonlineautorepair.com/.

The one positive that stood out for us is that the information at freeonlineautorepair.com is organized in a variety of ways. You can browse through listings like Common Diagnostic & Repair Topics, Quick Tips for cars and trucks, and an alphabetically arranged Repair Directory.

The Repair Directory is perhaps the most useful for many who are looking for something close to a repair manual specific to particular makes and models. Just click on the link to your vehicle’s make and you’ll be taken to a page that lists all the site’s entries featuring that automobile manufacturer. There are some active links for certain vehicle models, although it’s more of a hit or miss thing here. You can also find some pieces of general reference material that you can use, like tip and tricks for general automotive care and maintenance and a fancy online PDF glossary of car-related terms.

Perhaps the biggest drawback even with the seemingly numerous listings is that the information can be really limited. The coverage isn’t very comprehensive, with only a few entries included for some makes. Well, what can you do? It’s a free site. You’re in luck if you can find what you need in their listings.

When push comes to shove, freeonlineautorepair.com is not the best automotive repair resource on the Internet, and it certainly won’t be an alternative for premium auto repair manuals that you can use for comprehensive data. Still, there are some features on the site that you can use, albeit only a very limited amount.

The Best Things in Life aren’t Free

We know; the saying actually goes “the best things in life are free.” The fact is, that’s not true a lot of times. When you consider the context of online auto repair manuals, it can hold true for some, and not for others.

Sometimes, it depends on how diligent and crafty you can get when it comes to your Google search terms. Sometimes, it depends on how lucky you are that someone somewhere decided to scan his or her copy of an automotive manual or a car repair guide and uploaded it to the Internet. Sometimes, you won’t even have to go through all that trouble because your good ol’ local library has auto repair manuals (whether it’s a book or a CD-ROM) in their catalog. Sometimes, your trusted mechanic will have all the answers and—if you’re really lucky and friendly—he might give you the info and advice for free.

Still, there are times when you just won’t be able to find free online repair manuals for your particular vehicle, or the one you find just doesn’t explain your current troubles and issues. In such cases, the best recourse is to just buy the repair or service manuals off licensed retailers or from online repair manual providers.

Subscriptions to or orders for online car repair manuals are worth the investment, though—especially if you see your vehicle as more than just a vehicle. The price you’ll pay for a book or an annual subscription to an online repair manual is definitely small compared to the hefty repair and maintenance fees you might have to pay if you don’t want to do such tasks on your own.

So, yeah, sometimes the best things in life simply aren’t free. That doesn’t mean they’re not worth spending on, however. If you’ve got enough left on your car budget and you really want to save on mechanic fees, try checking out your online repair manual options now and hopefully come to a decision on which one to subscribe to.

Online Auto Repair Manuals: Empowering the DIY Beginner

Having a reliable set of online auto repair manuals to guide you is a surefire way to make DIY car repair much, much easier. If you look at the big picture, you’ll see that these online auto repair manuals, particularly the free online repair manuals, are perhaps the primary tool that empowers the novice DIYer. How so?

Looking at things closely, you’ll find that online car repair manuals are like the elementary school books for DIYers; they teach about the ABCs of automotive repair. It may seem easy to many experienced mechanics and enthusiasts, but not all people have a clear grasp of the various concepts and the technical know how you’ll need when tackling automotive repair.

There are many who struggle with anything but the most basic of maintenance or servicing tasks. That’s not to belittle or demean anyone who’s like that. That is why things like free online auto repair manuals exist—in order to give the common man the knowledge necessary to perform particular car repair, maintenance and service tasks on his or her own.

Others may argue that many, if not most, of the available online repair manuals are still too technical for many people. Well, it just depends on which repair manual service you subscribe to. There are different services one can use, and one should be aware of his or her preferences when choosing which service to patronize. There are online manuals that offer the kind of content that is easily understandable by most people. It’s all a matter of assessing the services and features as well as reading up on testimonials and reviews.

These online repair manuals, more specifically the free ones, really are great tools that give power to the DIY beginner. Everyone has to start somewhere, and if you’re just getting your feet wet in automotive repair and customization, getting a reliable car repair manual is a great place to start.

Online Repair Manuals: Google Tips

In this post, we’ll be offering you more tips on how you can easily search for good online auto repair manuals. One good way to facilitate searches is to make sure that the search terms are well-defined and strategic enough to get relevant pages. All it takes is a little crafty search engine know-how in order to get the results you want. Google is your friend, and here are some ways to refine your searches.

Use quotation marks

Enclosing your search term with quotation marks will net results that are exact matches to what you searched for. This will allow you to filter through pages that contain your keywords, except they occur separately, so it’s not really what you want.

Limit your search terms

You need to know exactly what you want to look for. If you’re looking for a generic repair manual, indicate it in your search. If you want a diagram for a particular component or system, make sure you type that in your search query. Don’t be too conservative with your search. Don’t say “Porsche Repair Manual” if you really wanted to look for a “Porsche 911 Service and Maintenance Schedule.”

Use the “Search within results” function

Once you’ve already gotten an initial page of results, you can still search through those results! Neat, huh? This is a good way to look for particular content using only the results you already have, instead of searching through the whole World Wide Web.

The * Wildcard Can be Really Helpful

Not many use the * character in their Google searches, but it can be quite useful. The * will stand for any term, so if you are unsure about what should be part of your search keywords, you can use this to help look for viable results. For example, if you don’t remember the full name of a certain part, you can let the * do the trick.


These are just a few tips when working with Google searches to look for free online repair manuals. As we’ve discussed previously, there are still many other avenues through which you can find reliable online car repair manuals, and we’ll save the tips and tricks for those for a later post.

Getting Some Free Online Auto Repair Manuals

Last time, we touched on how you can look for free downloadable online auto repair manuals. We mentioned the benefits of being able to cut down on repair expenses since you'll be doing the jobs yourself instead of paying your auto mechanic by the hour. In this post, we'll try to provide some more pointers and we'll even add a few links to get you started.

There are blogs that offer a wide array of different online repair manuals, auto repair guides, and just general information on various vehicle makes and models from all sorts of model years. You can find general specification manuals, schedules for periodic maintenance and service of various auto parts and systems, general repair manuals for particular vehicle models, installation instructions for specific vehicle components and accessories, and a load of stuff related to car repair.

Here are some good examples of sites that compile auto repair manual information, and they also have the added benefit of providing download links for a wide variety of manuals all in PDF format. The first one is http://www.freeautorepairmanualz.com, with its blog-style entries per manual. The good thing is that they are all sorted out by make in the sidebar, so you can use that to filter through their stuff. You can also use the search button above the sidebar to check if they have what you need. The other site is http://www.autozmagz.com/, which functions basically like the site discussed above. The difference is that you'll download the PDF file right away when you click the Download link.

There are many other sources for free auto repair manuals and free general car repair information. All you have to do is look for what you need specifically, including your vehicle's make and model in order to make sure that the results you get are relevant.