workshop manuals on CD - how to use them?
Discussion of MB workshop manuals seems to be a bit of a minefield. I venture in with caution...
My trawl of various forums in search of a W126 workshop manual seems to suggest that there are various types and sources. First off, every fule kno that there's no Haynes manual (though there may be US publishers - eg Bentley? - who do something similar for certain MB models). As for other possibilities
- it seems that it is possible (but maybe only for US residents?) to purchase from MBUSA an official workshop manual either as a bulky - and expensive - paper manual, or on CD or DVD;
- it's not clear to me whether the latter is a product specifically for owners/enthusiasts, or the same computerised manual that MB dealers and technicians use for tech info and troubleshooting, and which seems to need to be run on an actual or simulated networked system;
- there are offers around from various (!) sources, of CDs and DVDs which are described as MB workshop manuals;
- it is also possible to get from US websites pdfs of the training material used on MB technicians' courses (though this is pretty complex info and not easily understood by the average DIY owner like me!);
- one confusion is that in many posts on this and other forums, it is hard to figure out which kind of manual is which. As well as paper (or pdf?) manuals, I have seen references to WIS (workshop information system), TIS (technical information system), and EPC (electronic parts catalogue). Not clear whether these are three entirely different things, or WIS and TIS are in fact the same;
- because the official (and unofficial?) CDs and DVDs have search and diagnosis functions which rely on ActiveX controls, Flash player, and/or network connections to get into the pdf files, they are hard to set up and use.
.... which brings me to the main point of this post. I've discovered that a very fine chap called Steve Nervig in the US has developed a downloadable index which can be used, or married up with, the material on the MB CDs/DVDs. It gives access to the workshop manual contents without having to rely on the applications loaded with the manual. His site is at
http://web.mac.com/dakota/iWeb/Mercedes/Indexes.html
and it has useful explanation of how his index works.
This index is original, separate from, and complementary to the actual manual(s), so does not trespass on copyright. So wherever one may obtain a workshop manual on CD/DVD, it may be worth seeing whether this index helps to access and make it run. I've tried it on the CDs I have, and it definitely makes them more user friendly.
Hope this helps others who, like me, have been trying to get hold of decent guidance on how to tackle tech and maintenance tasks.
br1anstorm
PS - might it be useful to have a sticky in the tech or DIY forum giving a basic guide to workshop manuals (official and not so official) or at least the difference between WIS, TIS and EPC?
It came and went for quite a while but seems to be gone for good.
