Based on this description, I was thinking about getting the Bentley Service manual. What do you guys use? Anyone have experience with both?

 

DEFINITELY get the Bentley Manual!

Best $$$ I evar spent!!!

 

They're both Bentley manuals. (see here) Which one do you have? Service manual or repair manual?

 

Katiebear, I have a similar issue. I'm buying a VAG-COM from Ross-Tech and they offer the Bentley repair manual at a discount. They (Ross-Tech) specifically say that the service manual is not as thorough as the repair manual. I guess I need to decide if I want to do routine maintenance and troubleshooting or do I feel the need to do more complex repair work. I'm leaning toward the former. I noticed that this thread is a couple weeks old, let me know if you already bought something and, if so, how it looks.

 

@Katiebear: I got the repair manual.

@gaspasser19: The reapir manual has exploded views of sub-assemblies, and parts lists/numbers, which helps identify individual parts. This is priceless, for me, because

I have never seen the service manual, so i cannot offer an opinion for/against it.

 

I ending up buying the service manual in hardcopy, and I was a little disappointed. Here's a few examples why:

1. The prodedure for changing the spark plugs was very short, and basically said to pull off the ignition coils and unscrew the plugs. No mention of the work to remove all the stuff required to get at the coils, or that my coils bolted on.
   
   
2. The procedure to change the timing belt and the heater core were surprisingly brief. If I didn't know better from reading these forums, I might have assumed these were both 4 hour projects that I could tackle on a Saturday morning.
   
   
3. No part numbers. I changed my fuel filter yesterday and saw that I needed to buy 4 new sealing washers. After searching 6 online retailers, I finally found them at ECS. A part number in the manual would have been nice.
   

I just ordered the repair manual on DVD, so I'll do some side-by-side comparing and report back. Not sure if I'll keep both or try to return the Service Manual to Amazon.

 

Where did you order thr DVD version from? The one I got from Bentley Publishing included exploded views, part numbers, etc.

 

It's also a Bentley manual, and I got it at FCPGroton.com. I compared the cover of the DVD to the one on the Bentley site, and they looked identical. I chose fcpgroton because they were the cheapest. So far, I've found three different versions of the Bentley manual. One's a DVD, one's a CD, and third is the hard copy that I bought originally.

 

Now I have both the service manual and the repair manual, and I think the service manual (hardcopy) is a whole lot better. I thought the repair manual would have more detail, but actually it has less. This is based on my comparison of the the descriptions of the following procedures:
- Replace timing belt
- Replace spark plugs
- Replace turbos
- Replace fuel filter

As an example, the repair manual procedure to replace the spark plugs looks like this:

The procedure doesn't even acknowledge the coil packs. Not that I need a detailed procedure to deal with spark plugs, but it's just a point of comparison between the two manuals. The service manual showed much more information, including the coil pack removal, recommended spark plug manufacturer by model year, and also that the puller tool is stored under the cylinder head plastic cover. One think mentioned by the repair manual that was skipped in the service manual was the need to remove the windshield washer fluid reservoir. I've only made a cursory review so far, and I'll post more info as I get deeper into both manuals.

 

I think I wanna marry you...

Monday - Friday, only, because I currently have Briesa4 as my weekend-wife.

Audi babes iz HAWT!!!