Chilton's worth having?

Z

ZeeFore

Active member
 Miyagi Pref., Japan
Been looking around for books that might provide useful info on the Z4, and found: "Chilton's Bmw 3-series/ Z4, 1999-05 (Chilton's Total Car Care Repair Manual)."

Anyone have it? Worth having? Does it include info that might be of value to a relative noob?
 
I don't have it, have never looked at it, but have used other Chilton's in the past. I think most people use the BMW TIS, available on e-bay and now online. The problem with TIS is it's light on procedure and heavy on special tools, and assumes you're experienced working on BMWs. Chilton's can have better procedural info and work-arounds for special tools, assumes you're mechanically inclined, but not necessarily experienced. It tends to have a fair bit of general info that would be useful to the inexperienced. OTOH, the info can be too generic so they can cover a range of vehicles, and the overall quality seems pretty variable due to the cut and paste character of the book. Sometimes (rarely) the info is wrong, or conflicts with a related section. Also, a large part of the book is dedicated to procedures you'll never do, like rebuild the transmission. Some manuals had no electrical diagrams, but that may not be feasible with modern cars anyway. I can't imagine how to put the WDS in print!

My opinion is more information is better, I would consider Chilton's myself once it covers my car, even though I have the TIS.
 
Thanks Bcworkz,

That sounds pretty positive, so I think I'll go ahead and order. It's not an expensive book by any means, so what the heck (it's just that I have waaaay too many books lying around, so I'm getting a bit careful about adding new ones to the piles).
 
I was just having a look on Amazon and also saw this book. I would be interested in your opinion once you get it.
 
The book has arrived.

I've only given it a quick glance-through, but it's clear that it will be quite useful. There's lots of content that is way beyond my capabilities, but at the very least it'll give me a deeper understating of my Z and allow me to have a semi-intelligent conversation with the people who actually fix these things. Very interesting stuff. Basic routine maintenance is covered in detail, and that's about as far as I'll be taking the personal involvement.

It is probably worth noting, however, that this is by no means a glossy picture book. The paper stock is of fairly low quality, which tends to reduce the clarity of the B&W photos used to illustrate details and procedures.

The conclusion for me is that, for the price, it was a worthwhile purchase.
 
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