Customer Reviews

Volkswagen Jetta, Golf, GTI: 1993-1999 Cabrio: 1995-2002 Service Manual

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am not an "auto mechanic" by any means, so I was pleasantly surprised when I recently ordered this book and used it to remove and replace the exhaust manifold gasket on my '94 Jetta. The book gave very detailed and easy to understand instructions to aid me in my task. The book has also helped me with other various tasks, including a complete front and back brake job and a complete tune-up. The book has already saved me hundreds of dollars & I would recommend it to anyone who is thinking about working on their own water cooled Volkswagen.

This is an excellent repair and maintenance book. However, when attempting to service my brakes, it fell short of giving a full explanation of what needed to be done. All I really wanted to do was to was replace my brake pads, but the caliper drawings were confusing and it referenced one-time-only use on the bolts holding the caliper, which is not true. A little lock tite on the bolt and you're good to go. The replacement bolts are just new bolts with lock tite already applied, and, as long as the bolt is in good shape, there is no need to replace. This should have been referenced. It also did not reference the requirement to use a special caliper piston tool on the rear calipers, since the rears need to be twisted because of the e-brake.

Overall, however, this is a great book and a must-have for any 1993-99 Jetta, Golf, or Cabrio owner.

I've got this book today,the content is very detailed and easy to read it! I'll begin to repair my mal-functioned A/C lights on Saturday.this book gave me great helps.

The only pity is this book only cover 2.0L 8v engine in code ABA(This is for North America only) (My engine code is 2E)

But I also bought a Haynes book"Volkswagen Golf & Vento (Feb '92 to '95)" from Amazon.co.uk. With cross-reference, I think this will do to me! which contains european models!

I have only had the car (97 Cabrio) for a month. The car is for my teenage daughter, so I expect to be working on it a lot! The car had a few issues when we got it, and I've used the manual several times for diagnostics and repairs. I was impressed with the completeness of coverage and the level of detail. I thumbed through the Chiltons Repair Manual at the auto parts store before ordering the Bentley manual. For the particular item I was interested in Chiltons did not do a very good job of describing the procedure. So far I've taken off door panels, replaced a cloudy headlight unit, done a tune up and realized I didn't want to try to replace an ignition switch. I am not a mechanic, but I do enjoy working on cars. I would consider myself mechanically inclined, but not a mechanic. This book was worth the $$.

Bought this to get some clues into changing out a bent control arm and putting on a new set of shocks and springs. The detail in the manual is very good, and I figure that by picking a $40+ manual up, I saved between $300 and $400 doing the suspension myself (I have about 20 years of shadetree wrenching on VWs under my belt, so your results may vary).

This book is the bible for third generation Jetta, Golf and Cabrio maintenance and repairs. With hundreds of pages covering a wide variety of topics, it is definitely well worth the money. It has already saved me big $$$ since I got it. If you use this manual and buy your parts online (from auction sites for example), I'm sure that you will be able to save a lot of money as well!

I've used Chilton and Haynes manuals and was completely floored when this thing arrived in the mail.
I have the Haynes manual for the same car and am sorry I spent the $30 on that one. The Haynes is printed on poor quality gray newsprint with low contrast and grainy photographs. The Bentley is printed on sturdy, bright white paper. There are no photos, but the illustrations are much more useful than the pictures.
As an example, I needed to replace the nuts for the wiper arms. The Haynes was no help but the Bentley told me in the exploded wiper diagram that they were M8 nuts.
I replaced the heater core in the car with the Haynes and was frustrated beyond belief at the poor editing, fact checking and cross referencing. I simulated the same procedure with the Bentley and I think the task would have been about 30% easier if I'd had this book for the initial run.
The wiring diagrams and trouble-shooting sections alone in this book are worth twice what I paid for it and are either generic or completely missing in the Haynes.
Short of having the actual VW service manuals and guides I don't know how you could get better.

This manual is well laid out, it doesn't send you to appendix A in the back of a different manual in another city to find the torque specs necessary for the procedure at hand. There are references in the sections to necessary information about prerequisite or related procedures, but most of what you need is right there in the section you've looked up. For example: In the section on timing belt replacement (camshaft drive belt), The diagram on page 15a8 includes not only an illustrated, numbered breakdown of each component of the assembly, but each of the bolts listed in the diagram has the required torque specification listed right along with it. This is a nice touch, but don't forget to check the web for the widely available step by step tutorials (with color photos) available for the job you need to do. When I saw the picture of the flywheel timing mark on a web tutorial page, it became obvious what I was looking for. Even after finding the flywheel timing mark on my own Jetta, the black & white diagram of this component in this manual makes me wonder if the artist was looking at the wrong car. But don't get me wrong, if you have one of the cars covered in this manual, you need it, just don't forget to check your other sources as well. By the way, Amazon had the best price and availability when I was searching for a factory shop manual. Another hint: If you are tired of beating your head against the wall looking for VW parts, check out german auto parts dot com on the web.

Im a auto mechanic for a german auto maker(not vw)for over 11 yrs now. I bought this to service my vw jetta, ,mostly for specs and wiring diagrams. From a professional level this book is very good. It has lots of valuable info and specs for the diy weekend mechanic. The wiring diagrams are full and there are a ton of them. I read wiring diagrams daily for my job, but found these very difficult to follow. I feel theres too much wiring and items on each page. The wiring pics are small and its hard to follow each wire from page to page. You almost have to use a magnifing glass to follow thru the diagrams. All in all its worth the cash if you plan on servicing your own car. The chilton or other similar books have limited info, and are more geared to the diy mechanic. This book is more greared to someone who knows what parts make up a car and what makes one tick.

I have the Haynes Manual for my MkIII Golf and it had some holes. This manual answers all the questions I had. It's the book to have if you are wrenching your own VW. It isn't without it's thin spots, but all in all, it's invaluable.