Best Subscription for Automotive Diagnostic and Repair?

Question

What is the Best Subscription for Automotive Diagnostic and Repair service? I am not ASE certified, I learned how to fix cars by figuring them out myself. I am repairing a differnt car every two weeks, and It would help to have something to help. Haynes and chilton books help a little, but do not provide enought detail to dianose many problems. Alldata by autozone.com is one what others are out there, and which would be best for me? I can't afford to buy the OEM books for every car I work on? Thanks

Answer 1

Eautorepair.net is another site like alldata.com but cheaper...only 10.00 per subscription allthough I've never used it and can't vouch for it's being a good site or not. I would just tell your customers that you have to bill them the 10.00 as a fee as part of doing the repairs or diagnosis...most shops would charge a lot more as a minimum diagnosis fee. I would also check out what alldata charges for complete access to all vehicle subsriptions much like what a shop would have to do...if you could afford it and spread the cost over several jobs, it might be worth it...you would just have to charge your customers a fee to recoup the cost.
There are tons of books available at most parts stores, book stores or libraries on general auto repair information as well as online forums and websites like answers.com...you just have to sift through which ones are better at explaining repairs which can be time consuming.
Better figure on doing a lot of reading....short of going to trade school, it's the best way to educate yourself.
Good luck and hope this helps, Paul

Answer 2

go to any library they have mitchel manuals that are highly detailed, unfortunately they are reference books and cant be checked out but libraries are fine places to read.