Customer Reviews

General Motors A-Cars 1982 thru 1996 Automotive Repair Manual

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I bought this book because I have been working on swapping motors and wiring harnesses on a Chev Celebrity('88) and a pontiac 6000('85). I needed the diagram for the multi-port fuel injection for the celebrity and all I can find in this book is '86 and earlier multi-port fuel injection diagram. If you are going to publish a book claiming to be from '82 - '96 shouldn't you include all diagrams and documents for those years and makes? I think so. This isn't the only situation with this book like this. I have encountered others. This one is just the most recent.

Poor automotive repair writing is common. This state of affairs can be tolerated when the information claimed in the title is supplied in the text.

This Haynes manual provides insufficient information for any particular model or year to allow even a fairly experienced auto repair amateur to do much more than trace out problems blindly. Even the wiring diagrams that describe a particular model and range of years give schematics only of "typical" systems with insulation colors and the features actually present on any given system left undefined.

In addition, they provide precious few photographs and diagrams of the locations and configurations of various components such as pumps, compressors, and other parts that may vary significantly from one vehicle to another.

The final insult is the tendency to describe a number of systems and problems as being too complex or specialized for the owner of the manual, therefore omitting them from the text, suggesting instead that the reader consult with the appropriate repair shop.

This is even worse than my old AMC repair manuals, not good company for a mainstream publisher.

What happenned?

I have an '83 Celebrity, and had, in the past, purchased one Haynes manual for it (then, only shared info on the Celebrity, and it's identical Pontiac twin, the 6000) and one Chilton's Manual. BOTH of which I remember being quite helpful.

Unfortunately though, I seem to have lost them while moving, and had to invest in a replacement. Now I can't believe what I'm seeing between these covers.

Now for the record, I've always leaned towards Haynes to be more helpful and less simplistic in their technical approach. But in an effort to reduce the amount of product offerings (I'm guessing this as why) they have consolidated this and several other manuals to one single manual of normal thickness... having lost LOTS of weight in the details department.

There are entire engine configurations eliminated here... one can barely find MENTION of the 2.5 liter 4cyl... as much a staple of the Celeb as the 2.8 V6.

This "revision" STINKS.

I recommend any alternative.

I used this book to fix quite a few problems with my 95 Buick Century, and while the text can get confusing (because of the many motor references), I was able to repair every issue I had with that car - from routine maint (oil, air filer, belts, radiator, spark plugs), to some bigger things (exhaust, brakes, alternator, electronics).
I wish the book had more specific pics and descriptions of the car I had, but as it it - its spread pretty wide.

I agree the others this book has no real information you can use. But for my '94 Olds this is all i can find. It may be a waste of money but it is somewhat of a start in troubleshooting your car.

This was really nice to find on Amazon @ a very very cheap price and in very good shape, since my daughter just bought her first car and Dad will need this book.

There are a lot of haynes manuals out there, and they all cover typically the same things, basic maintenance. I believe that this book held a lot of valuable information, but i feel for actually working on anything, it is just to get you kicked off in the right direction. While using this manual to take apart my door, I think that it covered everything generally, but didn't get into specifics. Even if you have this book by your side, you still have some figuring out to do.

If you are capable to doing repairs by yourself, this book would be good for specifications, but not really how tos.
If you aren't really good at repairing things by yourself, this book will help, but expect to have to figure some things out for yourself

I came here looking for this manual because I did not want to pay as much as my car was worth at the Auto store for the book, and I was glad I did! All of the info. one ususally expects from Haynes, with the exception of the defrost system, which is why I bought the book in the first place...

I bought this book General Motors A-Cars 1982 thru 1996 Automotive Repair Manual to help a friend who was fixing my car. We needed diagrams of the interior driver's door, showing how the locks work and where the rods are attached, etc. There are no diagrams for this, and just a couple of small b&w photos that are not helpful. For a book on a specific type of car, this really comes up short. Another friend was looking for the proper sequence for the spark plug wires, and this book wasn't much help there either. Now I am told I should have bought a Chilton manual, instead.

The service was prompt and the condition of the book was as I expected. However I thought I was getting a Chilton's manual and got something called a Haynes Manual. I guess this will work as well.