Don’t let engine troubles get in the way of your summer plans! Maybe you want the best lawn on the block and need to repair your lawn mower. Or maybe you want to spend your days on the rivers, relaxing on your boat and riding your jet skis. Or maybe you need to keep your generator in tip-top shape for the next summer thunderstorm.
Summer also means road trips for many. Keep up with your vehicle’s maintenance and repairs with Auto Repair Source. They make it easy to find the information for your car without any guesswork. When your mechanic says you need repairs or when it’s time for your 100,000 mile scheduled maintenance, you’ll sound as cool as the Fonz because you did your research with Auto Repair Source.
Happy (Summer) Days!
Leigha Lamont @ Wilkinsburg Public Library & Eastridge Branch
Back in March Leigh Anne wrote about the unfortunate demise of the Auto Repair Reference Center from the Power Library databases. Good news! Your patrons now have access to a new, comparable resource called Chilton Library. Chilton Library includes repair and maintenance information for vehicles going back as far as 50 years.
Also included in this resource are technical service bulletins/recalls, labor estimators, ASE Technician test prep questions, and vehicle specific maintenance schedules. How many hours of labor should I be charged for to replace the A/C compressor on my Toyota? 3.7! I think I’ll just drive with the windows down this summer.
Chilton should be a very recognizable name to anyone who does DIY auto repair. Their repair procedures are safe and accurate. More reliable than a video posted on Youtube by a person who might not know the first thing about auto repair.
Auto Repair Reference Center was recently removed from POWER Library, much to the disappointment of many library staff and patrons. There are tons of sites out there that will gladly sell you the manual you need, but there’s really no one great free resource for this kind of information. While the Digital Resources Committee looks into alternative access options, I decided to poke around the magical internet and see what, if any, temporary relief was available.
“What do you mean it’s not in POWER Library anymore???”
Chevrolet, Chrysler, and Ford owners have it best, as these manufacturers provide owners’ manuals for free as .PDF files on their respective websites.
Ford’s website, with its clean layout and clear organization, is easiest to search. It’s also got the widest range of manuals, covering cars from 1996-2016.
Chrysler’s free manuals extend back to 2004 only, but is the easiest to use of the three: pick your year and vehicle, then download the file; there’s also a free child safety manual available, with detailed instructions for installing car seats.
Chevrolet’s manual collection is the least extensive, with the oldest manuals available from 2008. However, certain makes and models come with not only the manual, but helpful repair videos as well. As a bonus, pictures of each vehicle appear above each download link, making this useful for people who are more visually oriented and/or don’t know what kind of car they have, but would recognize it on sight.
The next best bet, if you don’t own the cars named above, is, oddly enough, Pep Boys’ Do It Yourself Guides, which reproduces sections from the Haynes manuals (a trusted name in DIY auto, for those of you who walk, bike, or take the bus like me). These guides are not make or model specific, and are designed to provide “first aid” for any failures, funny noises, or other freakouts your car might be having. The writing style and level of detail assume you’re comfortable enough fiddling around under the hood, but are written clearly and simply so that even beginners will find them easy to follow. Many of these guides gently suggest visiting Pep Boys if you still can’t figure out what’s wrong, but that’s a small price to pay for credible information.
Though these aren’t long-term solutions, they at least give you something to offer your patrons rather than sending them away completely empty-handed. Have your users been asking about Auto Repair Reference Center? What kinds of car repair questions do you tend to get at your library? Can you recommend any other online resources I might have missed?
The cost of repairing your vehicle continues to increase – as does the price of purchasing auto repair manuals for the library collection. These physical books also tend to be quite heavy and unwieldy. The EBSCO database, Auto Repair Reference Center , is a terrific resource as it gives your patron online 24/7 access to repair information and content that has been created by ASE certified technicians. The step-by-step procedures are written specifically for the do-it-yourselfer, but comprehensive enough for professional technicians.
Every major manufacturer for domestic and imported vehicles is represented including auto repair manuals for most vintage makes starting as far back as 1945. New repair procedures/updates are added continuously, and technical service bulletins are added on a monthly or quarterly basis.
Content includes:
• Coverage of more than 37,000 vehicles from 1945 to present
• Millions of drawings and step-by-step photographs
• Approximately 110,000 technical service bulletins & recalls issued by the original equipment vehicle manufacturer
• Over 180,000 enhanced wiring diagrams for easy viewing and printing – (for those who can read schematics – I applaud you!)
• Specifications & maintenance schedules
• Labor Time Guide & Estimator
• Video overviews of auto systems with AutoIQ – (how cool is this?!)
• Quick Tips (a complete guide to vehicle ownership & maintenance)
