Factory Service Manual hard-copy?
 

Any vendors on here sell them? Would be nice to have a hard copy. The download copies are hard to navigate through and they just simply suck.

I wouldn't mind getting a hard copy.

No vendor would be selling the FSM unless they were a dealer.

It's copyrighted material...

-alex

@mav1178 statement is true...however there are companies that produce repair/maintenance manuals, ie Haynes. Unfortunately, it's a waiting game to see if a company like Haynes will produce one for the FRS/BRZ as they currently only make manuals for select Ford, Lincoln, and Kia models. Our best bet for a hard copy is to download the pdf manual and print it (whether by sections on an as needed basis or bite the bullet and print the whole manual).

I wonder if there are dealers here that'll cut club members a deal on the hard copies. Maybe we should start a group buy?

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...615/manual.jpg


You can download the service manual pdf and load it onto a flash drive, then take it to a FedEX office store and have them print out the manual and they can even bind them for you. Just to warn you it's hundreds of pages so it will be expensive...

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12135

Talked to the parts department at my local Toyota dealer and they said the hard copies are like $450 a piece or something like that. Pretty much told me that the reason why they're so expensive is to keep people from buying them and performing their own maintenance. Makes sense on a business stand point but it looks as though I'm going to do what @Nik33615 did and just take the PDF to my local copying place.

The mechanical pdf is 5009 pages though :(

To print 5009 pages in your local copying place its going to cost really close to the $450 mark or even more. :thumbdown:

Either be a student or find one at a local university that may have free printing. Do it in stages over a few days maybe...to not totally screw anyone over. Or only print realistic things you will need.

I was able to do it at my school (graduated little over a year ago). Paid them plenty of tuition and didn't print nearly enough while I was there. There's also a place on campus that binds it cheaper for students / FedEx will generally have discounts with student IDs

I know :(

Let's say $0.10 a copy. That still $500.90 lol. There's still the electrical books too :(

An independent mechanic I know sometimes loads these things up on an iPad. His iPad is all greasy from accessing the FSMs while he's working on customers' cars, but it works. It's the same tablet he uses to swipe people's credit cards.

I ought to load these into my onboard tablet, just to have them with me as reading material while I await the tow truck in the event this thing strands me somewhere.

Thanks for the idea!!!

I still have a few friends finishing up their college. I'm gonna see what they can do for me.

FedEx Kinkos often has a college discount. Many college campuses also have a "printing services" where you can custom order things to be printed (useful for teaching assistants and rarely utilized by other student body). Look into these for cheap printing options.

Nice idea!
Any other 100-200 tablet in an Otterbox is more cost effective than printing. Man electronics have become cheap! Need the tablet shock and smear proof? How about a high-end "kids" tablet? Left in the toolbox or even better load up a bunch of army field manuals and put it in the emergency kit or B.O.B.

$400 - $500 does not sound too bad to me considering a complete brake service will probably cost that much at the dealer.

Considering the amount of work it took to write up step-by-step guides that untrained car enthusiasts can follow and perform their own work, a hard copy should cost substantially more.

If you add the cost of the manual to the lifetime cost of the car $400 is only about 1.5% of what you paid for the car anyways.

It's also an environmental crime.

I only paid about $75 for a hardcopy FSM for my 240sx. I don't have a laptop/tablet, and have to do my maintenance at my dad's garage. So I would perfer a book, to checking the DIY pages, and printing out fluid types, part numbers, and torque specs, all ahead of time. I'll probably end up printing out one section at a time, but I get the same problem with the digital copy as this guy:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...8&postcount=41

So I don't know if there is a better digital version, or if the information is top secret.

But how old was it at the time?

I paid $45 for the FSM for my Jeep XJ, but the truck was several years old at the time, and there were hundreds of thousands of them on the road. I think when it was originally published it was around $400 new. As more and more of them hit the second-hand market, the prices came down.

You won't find a manual that cheap for this car now, because it's still too new. In five years, after a bunch of people have bought them, crashed or sold their cars and put the manuals up on eBay, I doubt it will cost you more than $100.

I haven't seen a Haynes manual yet that didn't suck, and they seem to have gotten worse as the years go on. I had one for my S10 and have one for my current Jeep, and they're both useless. Chilton used to publish a better aftermarket manual, but really nothing compares to the FSM.

about 10 years old.

2 day subscription is only $15
Access to all the info we do
https://techinfo.toyota.com/techInfo.../Register.aspx

Yes, exactly what the parts counter guy told me their techs use. $1200 yearly subscription (Canada).

I guess it's best to just print off what you need in the PDF file. It's still nice to have a hard copy to browse through though.

just subscribe to the us version

I spoke with my local dealer about a FSM. He told me I had to order it from Helm inc. They print the FSM's for most of the manufacturers. I checked with their web site and it did not list one for the FRS. I have the same problems with downloadable PDF"s being hard to use. I am also looking for a hard copy.

Are you able to download copies in that two day period, or can you only browse?

Yeah, Helms only has the owners manual and not the service manual for FRS. Nothing for BRZ.

For my Acura, I was able to buy the SM right away for like $75 IIRC.