Just throw the book at it...

I have for many years been hooked on Factory Service manuals.  The aftermarket books in some cases come quite close, but in every instance I have seen, nothing compares to the factory manual.  And often the aftermarket manuals are not much better than a guess.

Since owning my Jeep Wrangler, I have had electronic versions of the manuals.  I have found this to be extremely convenient.  I don't have to have the book with me to reference a section and get some advice.  I can print a page or two and keep them with the car, or provide them to the place I bring my car for service.

With this in mind I didn't buy the hard copy manuals for my Wrangler though I did buy a half-way decent Haynes for the Cherokee.  I have the electronic version of these Crossfire manuals and they've been invaluable a number of times.

I guess the reasons I bought the hard copy are many:

• At heart I am a collector so the idea of having the hardcopy to put with the tools really appealed to me.

• Sometimes it might be nice to reference the book without coming into the house

• It could happen that I can't see the manual on the computer (power fail or disk crash?)

When I saw a chance to get these for a reasonable price I grabbed them.  I guarantee that if you work on your own car, these books or the electronic version take most of the guesswork out of it, and go a long way to prevent you from making costly mistakes in time or improper service techniques.