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Workshop Manual

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At the Porsche Festival last weekend I saw a Boxster workshop manual on a CD. It was home made and carried a handwritten description. I enquired and was assured that it was kosher. Costs £20 and they said that it covers all Boxster models up to 2004 (I guess this aka 986). The content was said to be from genuine Posrche manuals. Similar CDs were on show for other recent models. The seller was 'Porsheshop'. They have been around for some time and advertise widely and have a well produced catalogue that does not include the CDs. I could not see how this was a genuine buy and so moved on.

Has anybody bought one of these and if so what do they think of it?

Thanks
Lawrence Moss
 
Naughty Porscheshop!

Yes the CONTENT is kosher I'm sure, but as the workshop manuals cost a few hundred pounds I don't think it's a genuine CD!

Porsche (obviously) own the copywright to the content, I can't see it being given away so cheap...
 
This is something of a delicate subject due to copyright law. But there are many copies of the factory manual set "doing the rounds". Lets put it this way, until someone tells me different the manuals are available from the factory (actually you can even get them from Porsche's own website) the last time I looked Porsche wanted to charge 499 euro's per chapter of the manual ,there are around six or so chapters. Now for the average Joe that's going to be be pretty hard to justify. I suspect that when/ if Porsche ever start to charge a more "affordable" price for these manuals on cd then these copies will become less prevalent. I believe that Porsche America offer the parts manuals on cd for a more realistic fee. But not afaik the workshop manual.
One would imagine that the copies are taken from whats genuinely availiable from Porsche so would be of good quality. But of course it would be very naughty to purchase such a thing and I could'nt possibly condone it. Besides Porsche themselves sometimes frequent this forum!
 
As an add on to my question. These CDs were on sale less than 100 yards from the Porsche GB complex.
 
last time I checked the fine print, the official manuals were not available for sale to consumers. In order to be eligible to purchase a workshop manual from Porsche you must effectively warrant that you are in the motor trade and will use these to for business purposes. Porsche will not sell them to private individuals for personal use.
 
I once saw one of these for sale on eBay and the seller lost his eBay account (and therefore the ability to list the item) before the auction ended. So eBay obviously took a pretty dim view of it too.
I also saw another Porsche service book on eBay this week - it may still be there. This one was completely unused ie no service stamps or entries (I wonder if that makes a difference?).
 
Exactly. When your options are either 1. Go without 2. Misrepresent your status to Porsche AG (definitely not recommended) or 3. Pick up a bootleg version for £10, then it's not surprising that there are so many bootleg copies around.
 
Surely Haynes or some such publishers sell a workshop manual by now?

They seem to sell one for virtually every car that I have ever heard of; or is a Boxster an exception?
 
if you have ever seen a genuine workshop manual you will realise that the haynes equivilent is quite limited by comparison. Haynes tends to be cautious about what it prints (understandably as it's aimed at diy) The Porsche factory manuals are aimed at Porsche OPC service pesonnel specifically and therefore contain detailed specific info. Assuming you are a skilled competant diy'er with the correct tools and equipment they are an essential tool.
 
Laurence

Fair enough; I am very strictly a car non-techie by nature. Presumably, however, such a manual would help sort out very basic problems rather than anything really complex.
 
yes indeed haynes , Bentley and the like certainly have and deserve there place in the market, for the specific audience they are aimed at. In fact some of the Bently tombs are very very good indeed.
 
ORIGINAL: juliany27

Laurence

Fair enough; I am very strictly a car non-techie by nature. Presumably, however, such a manual would help sort out very basic problems rather than anything really complex.
Click to expand...


Julian, I've seen the manuals and IMHO I don't think they're much use for those of us with little or no experience. They're aimed (obviously) at Porsche and other technical staff who know the 'basics' off by heart. The diagrams all look simple until you come to try it yourself - then you realise what a klutz you are with a spanner.
 
The original workshop manuals were scanned and indexed to pdf files by Lexcom Informationssysteme GmbH, who also produce the Porsche PET parts CD (and other manufacturers systems). They are pretty good quality, but bear in mind that they won't have the annual supplements and updates. However, I reckon they are excellent for the kind of DIY jobs most of us are likely to tackle. There are a few people copying these, obviously flaunting the copyright issue. I have a copy of the original Lexcom 2-CD set for the 996 I found on eBay, and a copy of the 1-CD Boxster manual I got from www.workshopmanuals.co.uk (which cost £10). I figure that if these guys advertise on their web site, then it's their problem. The Boxster manual is obviously from the same source as my 996 original, but several of the index files were missing. If anyone has (or gets) one of these, I have the files and instructions how to fix the annoying "index missing" error message.
 
The 996 download is only 600 Mb or so on that site: 1 CD. Any idea of the difference between this and the set you have Richard. This is on my wants list but I don't want to get the wrong one. Cheers.
 
Paul

On my 996 set, everything except the Electrics and Wiring Diagrams sections are on disk 1. As I said, it is properly indexed, and I expect workshopmanuals.co.uk strip out everything but the bare essentials to get it on one CD. I have sent you a PM.
 
My advice would be save your money then click this link below and download the FACTORY Porsche Manual

http://www.cannell.co.uk/Manuals.htm
 
You know what - I've got that too, but the Bentley one explains things and shows you how - the Porsche one doesn't do this so well.
 
Fair play, really depends how detailed you need the instruction to be :) I had a bently for my mx5 and indeed was a cracking manual :)
 
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