Is the Haynes manual actually useful to anyone?
 

After reading a post about Haynes manual translations, I had one question. Does anyone actually find the Haynes manual useful (besides a catalyst for high blood pressure, that is)? It seems like anything that I need to do is not covered in the book. Front suspension-related anything?...hell no. Seems like it might be useful only to a 16 year old with his first car.

Once, I managed to fix a 1978 Jaguar V 12 (running only on about half its cylinders) with only a Haynes for information. I admit the part that I found most useful was the fuel injection wiring diagrams, and I didn't bother looking anywhere else.

I love the troubleshooting section
Loss of Power : check injection system; check ignition system;

Wow; really?

It certainly beats not having it. There are some procedures on the W201 that they did get "wrong", like being able to remove the rear sway bar without dropping the subframe . . . that one had me pondering if they meant you had to saw the bar in half first.

Heh. It's hardly limited to Haynes. I once wrote a scathing e-mail to a Mitchell On-Demand vp in which I pointed out that, while the offered 'shotgun' troubleshooting might well lead to a fix, anyone capable of affecting said fix with no more information than Mitchell provided probably didn't need Mitchell to tell which systems to look at.

I used it often prior to joining this forum.

The sepentine belt diagrams helped me figure out the routing pattern when replacing...and the wiring diagrams helped me rebuild some of the disentigrated harnesses found throughout the engine compartment.

And finally, the pics helped me with what I was supposed to see if I did the disassembly correctly.

With the vast wealth of information in this forum however, the book has sat unused on the shelf for years...

yup, use them all the time with all my cars.. sure they may not have enough or wrong here and there but i always find them useful.

I tried to use it.
 

I pulled the ignition lock and switch on my W123 Turbo this AM. I started with the haynes manual, got stuck, went back to the Factory CD, helped but still stuck, went back to the Mercedes Forumn and got good assistance on that ]"Sticky" DIY pages under Removing ignition. found the Haynes manual on page 181 very short and incomplete. It is a difficult part to get out. I'm glad I had the parts car to work on first - now I will not hesitate on pulling the part that is bad on my driver.

I don't mind getting the Haynes greasy looking up torque values. I mind getting the keyboard greasy :)

The Haynes wiring diagram is a heck of a lot easier to read than the MB CD.

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL