Customer Reviews

Volkswagen Jetta, Golf, GTI, Cabrio Service Manual: 1993-1999

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an excellent repair and maintenance book. However, when attempting to service my brakes, it fell short of giving a full explanation of what needed to be done. All I really wanted to do was to was replace my brake pads, but the caliper drawings were confusing and it referenced one-time-only use on the bolts holding the caliper, which is not true. A little lock tite on the bolt and you're good to go. The replacement bolts are just new bolts with lock tite already applied, and, as long as the bolt is in good shape, there is no need to replace. This should have been referenced. It also did not reference the requirement to use a special caliper piston tool on the rear calipers, since the rears need to be twisted because of the e-brake.

Overall, however, this is a great book and a must-have for any 1993-99 Jetta, Golf, or Cabrio owner.

I've heard that Bently manuals were the best. Since buying one and putting it to practical use, I can now confirm that it is. Owning it has made my garage life alot easier and less time consuming. I will purchase one everytime I buy a new car.

Just purchased this book and WOW! Incredible detail and clear diagrams and explaniations. Everything from torque specs (in Nm and ft.lb)to suggestions on when you might be in over your head.

Not a clue as to why such negative reviews. Maybe if you need someone to hold your hand while you turn a wrench, you should stick to a Haynes manual.

But if you really want to know what makes a VW tick Bentleys do it best. Well worth the money especially when you start in on some more in depth repairs. Can't say enough good about it.

Like the Haynes manual this book also does not cover the later 1999 Cabrio models.
The engine is simalar but the interior, lighting and more are all very different, this is mainly because there was a big mid-year change but they are all 1999 models.

This book is the bible for third generation Jetta, Golf and Cabrio maintenance and repairs. With hundreds of pages covering a wide variety of topics, it is definitely well worth the money. It has already saved me big $$$ since I got it. If you use this manual and buy your parts online (from auction sites for example), I'm sure that you will be able to save a lot of money as well!

i have seen alot of my friends using it, it's a great help for VW drivers.

I've got this book today,the content is very detailed and easy to read it! I'll begin to repair my mal-functioned A/C lights on Saturday.this book gave me great helps.

The only pity is this book only cover 2.0L 8v engine in code ABA(This is for North America only) (My engine code is 2E)

But I also bought a Haynes book"Volkswagen Golf & Vento (Feb '92 to '95)" from Amazon.co.uk. With cross-reference, I think this will do to me! which contains european models!

I am not an "auto mechanic" by any means, so I was pleasantly surprised when I recently ordered this book and used it to remove and replace the exhaust manifold gasket on my '94 Jetta. The book gave very detailed and easy to understand instructions to aid me in my task. The book has also helped me with other various tasks, including a complete front and back brake job and a complete tune-up. The book has already saved me hundreds of dollars & I would recommend it to anyone who is thinking about working on their own water cooled Volkswagen.

As the title says, the book cover looks nice and the book is thick, however, I bought it for a problem on the airco system and before I started out, I thought I was backed by the book until I started working on the car. It gives explanations for instance in general how the airco (and besides, all the other systems)work, but the in-depth technical help is not there. So, I did not like the book, it is too general.

This manual is typically useless for real auto repair. I purchased this hoping to see some improvement in the information but was disappointed again. My car has a manifold over top of the spark plugs. I thought there might be some helpful information on what to do. Fat chance. The manual contains only cursory information on that.

I looked at the rest of the manual and found the same satellite view on most repairs. Volkswagen cars were orginally built to be repaired by their owners but increasingly this is not true. One might blame the dealers. They don't profit enough from the original purchase so they create helpless customers dependent on the service garage with the manufacturer's support.

I purchased the '82 manual for my Rabbit. Same thing there. What the manual lacks in detail can be very costly and time consuming. In my case it was the water pump. The manual was completely oblivious of that major differences I encountered with my car which had air conditioning. I could tell you a lot more about how poor this manual was but I'll save that for another review.

Summary: Don't buy this manual unless you are very experienced in auto repair yourself. You will be seriously dissapointed by the lack of details and frustrated by the poor quality of the information. Robert Benley should be ashamed to charge so much for so little. But then, I was the sucker, eh?