Loren, Renntech.org admin - October 31, 2012

Bentley Porsche 911 Carrera Service Manual (996) - Book Review

I bought the Porsche factory manuals (all 17 volumes in 3-ring binders) in 2000 for about $600. I then spend about $100/year each for the next 6 years to get updates. My factory manuals ended up about costing $1200. Porsche stopped printing manuals a few years ago and the set was well over $1200 at that time.

That does not really cover everything - you also need the OBD II manuals for DME 5.2.2. DME 7.2, and DME 7.8 depending on your model year. When I bought my OBD II manuals (again in 2000) they were about $200 each. So to cover all models it cost me about $600. Porsche also stopped printing these manuals a few years ago and at the time each was over $800.

So all totaled I likely spent over $2000 for the factory service and OBD II manuals for the 996.

For $138 (on Amazon) you get the Bentley Porsche 911 Carrera Service Manual (996) hardbound manual with photos that the factory manuals don't have - and from I can see so far 99% of the information that is in the factory manuals. BOTH service manuals and OBD II manuals.

The manual layout is excellent logically each section from General Information and Maintenance to Wiring Diagrams and OBD II. Roughly 11 sections with great detail and photos the factory manuals never had. 1024 pages (and over 7.6 pounds) the manual is well composed and covers even some of the more tricky tasks. The photos are certainly worth a thousand words many times over.

Clear, concise, detailed and from what I can see complete - this IS the service manual to have if you own or work on the 996 series cars. I highly recommend it.

Post from and courtesy of http://www.renntech.org/forums/topic/42866-bentley-porsche-911-carrera-service-manual-996-book-review/ - October 31, 2012