Customer Reviews

Dodge Durango & Dakota: 2001 through 2003 (Chilton's Total Car Care Repair Manuals)

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Twenty years ago I slept with my Chilton's book and wouldn't have traded it for anything. I bought this to get a better mechanical knowledge of my Durango, expecting a book of the caliber I used to know.
This book is highly generic. The instructions and descriptions of procedures are very vague. If you are able to use them you already know too much to be consulting a book. And the photos, well let me tell you. I don't even think most of these pictures are actually of a Durango. They certainly look nothing like the Durango sitting in my garage. This book is almost completely useless. Just don't buy it.

I have to agree with Bryan on this one.

Bryan wrote "Twenty years ago I slept with my Chilton's book and wouldn't have traded it for anything. I bought this to get a better mechanical knowledge of my Durango, expecting a book of the caliber I used to know. This book is highly generic. The instructions and descriptions of procedures are very vague. If you are able to use them you already know too much to be consulting a book."

I too remember a Chilton manual as being the tomb of knowledge for whichever vehicle you were reading. Twenty to Thirty years ago there were exploded diagrams to illustrate where washers went, if there was a shim, etc. Now I would kill for an exploded diagram instead of the fuzzy grey-scale photos that leave a lot to your imagination. The step by step instructions were much better then than they are now as well. It is as if the author had maybe seen the vehicle at one point.... perhaps, maybe.

Unfortunately I do not know where to get the quality of manual I am used to and have to hope on occasion I can derive enough of an idea of what they were trying to tell me to muddle through the occasional new territories I might encounter with my vehicle. I imagine it is this way with all of the Chilton manuals now days. I cannot imagine they are picking on Durango owners. :-)

This is a very poorly constructed book and does not compare with past Chilton books for my former vehicles. Every repair that I have made on my 2002 Dakota w/4.7L required me to either rely on my own intelligence and past experiences or research on the Internet or seek advice from others because of some error. A classic example was changing my water pump. The manual instructed me to use a fan wrench to hold the fan still during removal. This is wrong, since the fan is attached to the water pump through a thermal clutch and the whole clutch/fan assemble is screwed onto the water pump with a ~1.5-1.75 inch nut-style fastener. I didn't realize this until I had already drained the coolant. The good news was that I could at least walk to H.D. for a 2 in. adjustable wrench. I think the instruction pertain to 3.8L, 5.2L and 5.7L engines. However by 2002, most of the trucks where 4.7L. What the book is good for is getting a general idea of what is involved and giving torque specs, assuming that the torque specs are correct. If you plan to work on your vehicle, you should have it; but know that the book will routinely mislead you.

It should be noted that Haynes publishes this manual and it looks very much like the Haynes manuals that I have flipped through over the years. I find it disturbing that Chilton allows their name to be put on this manual. I have always avoided Haynes publications due to my perception that they were second rate as compared to Chilton. Although I can't verify it, I believe that Chilton still publishes high quality manuals, but these are marketed to professionals. I basically feel sold out.

Excellent book for knowing what's what, bumper to bumper with your Dodge Dakota. It covers pretty much everything and has been a big help numerous times with my truck when it comes to finding out small details about certain systems or parts. About the only thing I wish it had a bit more of would be detailed photos and schematics of some of the systems.