OT Sometimes you really wonder about people

[Bob Henson]

Life is a little like that, is it not?

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

I always have a good read of the manual, but only after having had a play first.

[NY]

I must admit that I use my passenger mirror mainly for parking: auto-angled downwards to see my nearside rear wheel so I turn into a parking space just before it touches the kerb, when parallel parking. Or when reversing into a gateway or parking bay, when I alternate between both mirrors to check that I am equidistant from the gateposts, hedges or white lines.

In normal driving I check it less often than the central rear-view mirror or the driver's-side mirror.

I suppose I'd use it more if I was on a dual-carriageway, when I'd use it to check that I was safely past the car that I'd just overtaken and could pull in again.

But I think I'd notice if it wasn't there, as soon as I got into the car and did the automatic "pre-flight" checks:

- waggle gear lever to prove it's in neutral

- ignition and oil lights come on, and then go out when engine is started

- oil *level* gauge (on my previous Pug 306s) shows full before starting engine

- fuel level

- mirrors set

- seat feels in the right place, especially after my wife has driven

I know I should do the all-round exterior light-bulb check as well. But that is a right faff to do. I do at least check their reflections in garage door or car in front (while stopped in a queue).

Having said that, I'd driven for several days - maybe as much as week, before discovering that my (tungsten) daylight running lights had failed, and I only learned that because the garage couldn't get the diagnostic port to work, and that was off the same fuse. I *should* have noticed the lack of their reflection off the car in front.

[Andrew]

Do modern cars still have printed manuals ?. My neighbour didn't get one with his new Toyota Corolla. He complained and it was months before one arrived in the post.

[Andy Burns]

My 67 plate did, but no service/log book, all digital.

[Tim Lamb]

I have one for my Passat but it is hugely complex as VW have covered several different models rather than it being specific to my car:-(

[Bob Eager]

I got a Quick Start one with my S-Max last December. The full one is in the FordPass app, which is a nuisance. And it has a bad user interface.

[nib]

2021 Renault still came with a substantial book.

nib

[SteveW]

MG 4 comes with a built in manual that can be displayed on its screen, but it can also be downloaded as a PDF from MG's website and then viewed or printed on a PC.

[JNugent]

A user manual, yes.

Workshop manuals are still produced by Haynes, as far as I am aware.

[Joe]

For popular cars, yes. For the rest, there's (for Ford, at least) a manufacturer's database, available as some kind of virtual machine running on Windows. Not the most convenient thing.

[charles]

They even do one for the starship Enterprise. I don't think they are manufacturer commissioned.

There was a rival firm in the 1960s from whom I bought a manual for my Anglia. "If the wipers fail to operate, Connect a 1-15v voltmeter across the motor terminals and check that a current of 5 amps is being drawn"

I ret my case,

[JNugent]

How would a voltmeter do that?

Did they mean a multimeter?

[Bob Eager]

Mostly.

[Bob Eager]

I have one of those. Looks a bit bootleg to me, but it's OK.

[charles]

My point exactly

If it was connected across the terminals, it could only measure voltage

[SteveW]

A friend told me that the Haynes manual for a classic Mini had a section on the rear brakes or suspension (I can't remember which), which ended with "Re-assembly is not necessarily the reverse of disassembly." How useless is that?

[JNugent]

:-)

They were always useful for guiding the non-expert through a decoke.

You could even borrow them out of the library.

[SteveW]

They could be very useful at times, but I also remember my dad needing to change the clutch on an Austin 1800. According to Haynes, it was an engine out job - my dad managed to prove that it could be done without and saved himself a fair bit of work.