[ChrisK]

Does anyone know if MINI has released the shop manual yet?

[jmardy]

What about now?
Any word on a shop manual?

[karmuze]

The two car manufacturers that are highly protective of their servicing and technical information are BMW and HONDA. You will never see an official MINI service manual or parts manual. BMW and HONDA also don't participate in the Alldata™ program that makes recalls, technical service bulletins and maintenance instructions available to indvidual owners on a yearly subscription basis at a very reasonable cost.

An example of this happened when I ordered two COOPER side grills to send out to be chromed. The parts guy would only give me the last 6 digits (of 12 digits) of the part nos. when I asked for them. When I received them the bag had the first half of the part nos. blackened out.

I see the only hope is to get Haynes or Bentley on the ball. It will be at least a year after they start on a manual, and that will happen only if they get enough requests from everyone. So e-mail http://www.haynes.co.uk and http://www.bentleypublishers.com with your requests if you ever want to see manuals. Let's shove those T-bird and Focus SVT owners to the back burner.

[chiph]

You can get Honda manuals (& some other mfrs too) at Helm Inc.

I had the Bentley manual for my Jetta GLX, and it was incredibly useful. If Bentley were to produce a MINI manual, I'd buy one right now, even through I don't have the actual car yet.

Chip H.

[DITCH]

Quote:

Originally posted by karmuze
The two car manufacturers that are highly protective of their servicing and technical information are BMW and HONDA. You will never see an official MINI service manual or parts manual. BMW and HONDA also don't participate in the Alldata™ program that makes recalls, technical service bulletins and maintenance instructions available to indvidual owners on a yearly subscription basis at a very reasonable cost.

An example of this happened when I ordered two COOPER side grills to send out to be chromed. The parts guy would only give me the last 6 digits (of 12 digits) of the part nos. when I asked for them. When I received them the bag had the first half of the part nos. blackened out.

I see the only hope is to get Haynes or Bentley on the ball. It will be at least a year after they start on a manual, and that will happen only if they get enough requests from everyone. So e-mail http://www.haynes.co.uk and http://www.bentleypublishers.com with your requests if you ever want to see manuals. Let's shove those T-bird and Focus SVT owners to the back burner.

Man, that sucks! I bought a shop manual for my Miata last year and I have dome all my own work ever since, including timing belt, brakes and everything else.

It's doubtful that Haynes will produce a manual for the MINI, since they decide which manuals to write based on overall worldwide sales, and prospects for future sales. The MINI is probably too low-volume for them to make money at it.

Ditch

[Hank195]

I have also been watching the shop manual situation. (One more thing to pass the time while waiting). My dealer did not think a shop manual was available and none of the second source houses have one yet. While I have mixed feelings about it, there does seem to be another option.
If you do a search on Ebay for BMW TIS or BMW Technical Information System you will likely find people selling copies of the current BMW service CD which are used at the dealerships. This CD has all the service info for all recent BMW's as well as the MINI Cooper and MINI One (in several languages). A CD for the parts manual also is available. I don't like the idea of copied software/information but if there is no other choice.....
I am still hoping for a Bentleys since they do a fine job.

PS - I was able to buy a Honda factory manual (~$40) when I bought my Civic in 1990. However, since it was a Honda I only used it a few times while putting about 240,000 miles on the car. Hope the MINI is as reliable, probably won’t be, but it will be a lot more fun. Humm, guess I’d better get some kind of service manual.

[JohnnyBoy]

You can get Honda service manual from their parts department. I ordered one for my Integra no problem. BMW/MINI will never have a service manual for the public....mainly because everything is software now. All stored in the MODIC diagnostic computers in the shop....But they won't sell the software to you either(nor will they sell any special tools to the public). You would have to get a bootleg copy off E-Bay or wait for an aftermarket manual to come out.

[MCS1]

All,

I mailed Haynes last week and this is the response I got today


Dear Sir/Madam

Thank you for your email regarding the above.

Unfortunately we will not be producing a manual for the above for the next
2-3 years as this model has only been on the market for a year and we need
time to assess the sales of this car to determine the demand for a manual.

If you need any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us.

Assuring you of our best intentions at all times

Yours sincerely

Emma Parsons


Boo hoo

John

[rich]

Nice of Emma to reply to you in pink writing, though... I think you're in there mate