workshop manual

Hello Everybody

may i ask your opinions as to the best way to obtain a good workshop manual, should i buy one already in cd format? or try to download RAVE, i am of the generation that is not fully converse in all things computer(personally speaking of course) and may find that route a little daunting or any other sugestions welcome

go for a real book mate if i were you ,i tried the cd rom thing and couldn't get used to not being able to browse properly like with a book and you can leave a book on top of your engine or wheelarch for reference while you work without worrying about knackering it up.

Which book are you on about? Haynes manual is as much use as tits on a Mars bar.

I have the official P38 workshop manual from Brookland Books bought for me by SWMBO, my ever lovin' It is a good, useful book but it is exactly the same info as RAVE except it does not contain the electrical trouble shooting or the owners handbooks. Plus, with RAVE you can print out the bits you are working on a chuck 'em when your done.

enery8 said:

I have the official P38 workshop manual from Brookland Books bought for me by SWMBO, my ever lovin' It is a good, useful book but it is exactly the same info as RAVE except it does not contain the electrical trouble shooting or the owners handbooks. Plus, with RAVE you can print out the bits you are working on a chuck 'em when your done.

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Yep RAVE on a lappy it your garage is a lot better than anything else.

wammers said:

Yep RAVE on a lappy it your garage is a lot better than anything else.

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I have both the Brooklands manual and Rave. I think, from memory, that the Brooklands cost around £60 new a few years ago. It just covers the mechanical aspects and is nowhere near as comprehensive as RAVE which even has the owners handbook on it.
My Brooklands got filthy in the first few months of ownership and if I had known then what I know now, I would not have bought it !!!
Forget loading the RAVE download on to your PC/Laptop if you are not that computer literate, go for RAVE on CD. I am sure that one of your kids or a friend would show you how to find your way around it. As stated, the advantage of RAVE is that you can print whatever individual/multiple pages off, get them covered in ****e and throw them away when you have finished.
Haynes do not do a manual for the P38.
There are people on here (Myself included) who will send you a CD copy of RAVE for little or no cost....all I ask is that you make a small donation to the forum in lieu of my postage costs.

You could ask datatek to make you an EAS cable and he would provide the EAS software and a copy of RAVE on CD at a very reasonable price. You might be glad of the EAS cable and software if you have air suspension! Postage shouldn't be bad as he is also in France.

thank you all for your advice, i will certainley take the cd route as advised, as you rightly say my 12yr old grandaughter is with us for the holidays, i sure that she wil put me right on the pc ps can i contact datatex direct from the forum?

muddylane said:

thank you all for your advice, i will certainley take the cd route as advised, as you rightly say my 12yr old grandaughter is with us for the holidays, i sure that she wil put me right on the pc ps can i contact datatex direct from the forum?

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Hi ID is datatek not datatex and yes you can contact him direct from the forum. Just find one of his posts and click on his name. You will be given a number of options one of which is send a private message.

Just send me a Private Message (PM) from the forum to datatek