Customer Reviews

Toyota Corolla, 1988-97 (Chilton's Total Car Care Repair Manuals)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I have never before seen such a worthless repair manual. It has cost me valuable time on more than one occassion when I have attempted to find parts that didn't exist or were in the wrong location. The authors apparenlty never checked to see the differences in corollas between 88 and 97. I promise you that if you own a 93 corolla (as I do) this manual will provide you with more frustration than guidance.

I own both the Haynes and the Chilton books. I need one to fill in the blanks left by the other. If I had to use just one, it would probably be the Haynes. The Chilton would still be fine for most shadetree work. Neither have complete or even adequate wiring diagrams or in-depth info for transmissions,A/C,or troubleshooting. Haynes has the best photos and Chilton has an excellent write-up on vehicle emissions.

How do I dislike thee? Let me count the ways ...
- Which picture is it that relates to the instruction I just read?
- And in that murky photo, which one of the shadowy images is the part taht I need to replace or adjust?
- Some parts just aren't acknowledged to exist (Try to find any mention of the throttle presure cable for an '88 auto trans. Then try to find any mention of how it should be adjusted.)
- Some repairs reference two systems (If you need to repair the AAP; is that the diaphragm with spring accessed from the outside of the carburetor, or is it the ball/spring/ball found in the carb's innards? They're both labeled AAP.)

Don't waste your money.

Awesome book for anyone wanting to maintain their car! Great pictures, directions, and overall accuracy! Save us money on our old car! We've discovered that taking our oil to change at places like Firestone, Pepboys, EZLube, or other mechanical places are costly and sometimes not the best option. For instance, our first project was the oil change and that changed our minds forever! When we take our cars for oil changes, for the basic price, usually they just put in a generic oil filter or if they are shady, that does not even get changed as promised. There is no way you would know, b/c like us (before), you would not go under your car after an oil change to check whether your oil filter is new or not. Auto supply stores or general stores like autozone, pepboys, walmart, and target sells auto oils which is cheaper. For us, since we stated changing our own oil, we look out for ads of oil specials in AutoZone ads for monthly speicals, where you get 5qt of oil of certain brands + FRAM filter for $15.99 in Riverside,CA. By using the guide, we learned to change our own oil & filter for cheaper and it ensures that we get the best/desired oil type/kind depending on mileage and a new oil filter of choice. Moreover, the guide has helped us learn much about our cars and how to upkeep it and fix problems. The guide is layed out in sections, makes it easy to read and the language is very basic, so people who are not familiar with cars can easily understand what to do and what tools they may need. Our car is a Toyota Corolla 1994, and we've used the book to help us change out the fan, which was heating up, and also the thermostat w/guage. My spouse is not much of a car person, although he's become really handy since we got the book. This helps alot to save money when you don't want to bring your car to the mechanic which can run hundreds of dollars, and don't have the budget for it. We hope this will help anyone who seeks advice from real people like ourselves on the usefulness of this guide. Moreover, it's not necessary to buy this guide brand new, sometimes it helps to have notes written in there from the previous owner(s) to help with first-hand advice of sorts. We hope this helps! =) We'll be getting another book soon for our other corolla 2000.

Awesomely fast shipping! Item was in very good condition, even better then what I was expecting. It was exactly what I needed.

I got exactly the book I was looking for in less then 3 days! I am sure not every order will be as fast as mine since I live in the same city has this vendor but service was fast and the manual I ordered was exactly what I needed to get my car back on the road.

As always, if you select the correct volume, you will be very satisfied.
Chilton is among the top two auto service and repair publishers.
Be sure to visit your library and research the exact book you need, and give left-over volumes to your regional library.

Great source of information on Corollas (1988-1997), it complements Haynes manual for Corolla/Prizm. I have both.

My level: a Berkeley Graduate Student(IQ not bad), NEVER repair car before. I need to turn up the "idle speed" of my 88 Corolla, so go to book store to browse this book. 1. the book print in Black and White, autual photos are really in bad quality: especially for the engine parts: half of one picture is black, How the user tell what is what!! 2. for the drawing pictures only focus in detail parts, Not show where this part locate! If I can not locate the part, how can I adjust the parts, let along disassemble and asssemble! 3. To help myself, I find "Tercel" and "Camery" Repair Manual of the "Chilton's" to take a look, but all these books are the same layout, printing quality and illustration. So Do Not help at all. 4. They should offer a Master Map of the Engine System, Then divide the Master Map into several subpart by engine functions, then go even detail of each parts, but the book is not!! 5. As for my own experience of use this book: I assembles "TAMIYA Plastic Model - motorcycle, WWII Tank", I have to use the "graphic identification" skill of my eyes, try to guess and locate the engine parts from different chapters of the book, and combine the illustration together and final find out "idle mixture adjust screw" ONLY ONE SCREW! NEDDLE IN HAY! under the "Carburetor" use total 3-4 hours. 6. I keep notes and Not buy the book from bookstore. 7. If you are novice of the car, go to B&N or Boulders take a look of the book by yourself, it is waste of money!

The fastener torque specs for Ft*lbs and N*M are transposed in a few places; as a result I over-tightened the engine mount through-bolts. Incomplete sentences, phrases and thoughts, and omitted steps are peppered throughout this rag. I haven't any confidence in what I am reading and have to spend several hours prior to doing the work simply verifying the info, or deducing if and where there are missing steps. This book is a failure.