I bought an '07 manual Sport (125K miles) a few weeks ago and have been poking around this forum w/ search tools. I do all my own work on my "fleet" of 8 cars, including engine and tranny rebuilding, alignments, tire mounting and balancing, you name it. Perish the thought of paying someone to be less meticulous/careful than I am!

I cannot find any aftermarket shop manuals for Fits (Haynes, Chilton, Clymer, etc). Did learn that Helm, Inc. from whom I've bought shop manuals B4 for American iron, publishes the factory Honda manuals. Great so far, but the manuals are a bit pricey, and there are some choices, so I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who's familiar with the Helm lineup before I dust my wallet off.

They sell the '07 Fit service manual for $56.50, and one for '07-'08 for $125. Anything new and useful in the second one to justify the hefty extra price if mine is a very early USDM 2007 build (mfg'd 03/2006)?

Next question: Helm offers an Electrical Troubleshooting Manual for $44. I plan to keep this car 'til it rusts apart and the wheels fall off. Is the electrical manual necessary or would the service manual be sufficient?

Question 3: What about CD-ROM manuals, are the copies decent quality, and are they from the Helm manuals? I see them on eBay for about $30 which isn't bad. If I got CD-ROM, would I just be duplicating what's in the paper manuals? I need paper to have it on trips for emergency repairs. Thoughts on the usefulness of the search features on the discs? If it's well laid out, that might make the CD worth getting in addition to hard copy?

Last question: I don't find it on Helm's website, but I found a factory Fit Parts Catalog, 2nd Edition on eBay for $65 plus $10 shipping. I have found factory Parts Catalogs to be very helpful with most other cars I've owned, can anyone tell me if this would be a good investment?

As I learn about this great little car, I'll be happy to share my growing knowledge for those who do their own work. My specialty is dealing with rust frozen fasteners living here in western NY where small snowfalls of 4 or 5 inches are salted away(ouch).

Appreciate any input from fellow wrench twisters out there.

 

Sooner or later one of the Helms manuals will pop up for sale here.. That's how I acquired mine.

 

I downloaded the cd-rom version using bittorrent and I think it's substandard and NOT equal to the "real" manual. I got my 07 manual from another FitFreak member for $40 which I think is a deal. Although My fit is an 08 I got the 07 manual because, I believe, the only changes were slight windshield wiper changes and the TPMS addition to the 08. I'm not saying the manual is worth $125 but It's the most extensive manual I've ever seen. I had Honda's official manual for my Integra and the Fit's manual dwarfs if by comparison. If you watch ebay or even here you can do better than $70! If you download the bittorrent program and then search for the Honda fit manual you can download it for free and see what you think. I'm not sure what extra the Honda electrical troubleshooting manual offers but if I could get it for $20 or so I'd probably pick one up. I, like you, will probably drive the fit till it turns to dust. Good luck on your search.

 

Thanks for the quick replies guys. You may have misunderstood, I'm not afraid to spend $56.50 on a new Helm's manual I'll probably use for 10-15 years. I was more interested in finding if the $125 version for '07-'08 was worth the extra bucks. Sounds like for my '07 it ain't!

TX for the comments on the CD feddup, I'll take a look.

I'll keep my eyes open for a good deal on the Electrical Troubleshooting manual here. And I'm thinking real hard about springing for the $65 Parts Manual on eBay. Once I get my manuals, I'll let people know what I think. IMHO Parts Manuals are like a 2nd version service manual backup. The exploded diagrams can be real helpful and using parts manuals to get part numbers can prevent error headaches with dyslexic parts guys who transpose numbers