I have been checking ebay and have not come across anyone selling original or copies of the factory 960 or S/V-90 manual lately (My car is a '96). Even a wrong-year manual would be better than nothing, BTW.

Anyone willing to make/sell me a copy please drop me an email at:

bobinyelm@aol.com

Thanks,
Bob

An alternative to cd or hard copy manuals would be an alldata subscription. They charge about 25 a year but the info is current. Finding aftermarket repair manuals for s90/960 volvos is a joke. The dealer service manuals are muy expensive. I have been happy with the alldata subscription and will probably renew it again this year.

www.alldatadiy.com

I work for an independant repair shop and we pay plenty big money for manuals and manual services (Manuals, CD Roms and Online Serices). About $3500/year, actually.

If you are thinking of buying a copy of a manual on CD made by someone selling them on ebay (or anyone else), BEWARE that if any text or illustration is copyrighted material you are breaking a FEDERAL LAW and just as subject to prosecution as the person who is making the copies.

Simply by offering to buy copies (as you have done on this site) you are already GUILTY of INTENT TO VIOLATE COPYRIGHT LAWS, as well as CONSPIRACY to do so. Since you did so over a public medium and across state lines, there are also other FEDERAL charges you have already broken. All of these are serious offenses.

Our shop pays lots of money for LEGAL copies of these manuals, and if you buy illegal copies, you are RIPPING US OFF and STEALING from legal repair shops.

I know it's tempting to slip someone a few bucks to "burn a copy" of copyrighted materials, but in doing so you become a criminal.

Believe me, it is cheaper to take your car to a qualified shop to have the wsork done, or buy the Factory Manuals. $500 for legal manuals beats 3 years in Federal Prison.

With all due respect to 960Lover's essay on the lawbreaking of copying copyrighted subject matter, I'd like to make a couple observations.
Given that his shop pays a great deal of money for literature,isn't that overhead that all businesses pay for one aid or another---phones, rent , tools, advertising, law books, medical devices,etc.
Why else do we pay upwards of ninety dollars an hour for his company's services?
The premise is that it's stealing from his company. Manuals and parts lists and maintenance instructions come with virtually every device we buy.
Having said that, I agree with what he says about the law. But in reality I doubt that many of us, a very, very minute number of ill educated (in repairs)have any significant impact on the industry.

I'll just point out two things here:

1.) Most of the Volvo manuals I have do not have any copyright printed on
them (this does not include the preliminary WDM I've got, which obviously
lacks a copyright). Actually, out of the six bound ones, a whopping one
(1) has a copyright.

2.) Volvo has zero intention of putting out electronic versions of the
earlier manuals (240, 740, 760, anything before 95 or so, etc).

Now in an attempt to prevent me from loosing or destroying the entire
manual, I'm digitizing the (unbound) Wiring Diagram Manual that I have.
This is puerly to benefit me (see-also: fair use), and besides I like
adding pretty colors. Would I distribute it to the public? Doubtful.
Would I feel bad about doing such a thing? No.

- alex

'85 244 Turbo
'84 245 Turbo

Alex,

A work need not have a "copyright" affixed to it to be protected by copyright laws. All works created after 1989 are automatically copyrighted at the time of their inception. If you take a pen and doodle on a bar napkin, that "doodle" is now protected by US copyright laws and is your legal property.

Prior to '89, that ubiquitous copyright symbol was necessary to ensure protection. But there were always ways to circumvent this.

I can't believe that you might be put out because somebody has given out information on a product that is sold to the public. The only reason it cost independent repair shops that much is the fact that we are constantly getting updated material, TSB information and factory recall info. Plus the discs we pay for have a live person on the end of the line when ever we get in a jam. I suppose you have never downloaded a music cd either. Most of the cars that we on the brick are talking about are usally out of warranty and have upwards of 100,000 miles on them. They have allready paid thier dues. It is getting out of control the way manufactures have practicly made it manditory to go back to the dealer to get a maintenance reminder light shut off. Why should a dealer tell me when to service my car! More power to those who want to fix there own cars, and those who just want to be informed on what they drive. I repair G M products all day long and don't even own one. I now have 4 Volvos sitting in my driveway that all have over 110k on them, and they still drive better than some of the new crap that is out there. Sorry to rant but I have been in that situation where information has been difficult to find to repair a car. Most of the time ask 4 mechanics the same question get 4 different answers.

You're absolutely right about federal laws being broken. But in my humble opinion, for Volvo to charge $500 for a copy of a CD of their manual is criminal in and of itself! There's nothing in those manuals to justify that kind of price. They haven't spent a dime on R & D for the manual. (they already charged me for the R & D on the car) They just write down what they know about a car that THEY built! Don't forget, Haynes and Chilton can sell manuals for $15 and still make a handsome profit -- and they have to BUY a car to tear apart. (I know, Haynes and Chilton are no where near as comprehensive a manual -- but you get my point)
Don't get me wrong -- I love my Volvo. But this is just blatant greed. As a comparison, I can get a legal/sealed copy of the Mercedes CD manual for my car for $129. That's still ridiculously overpriced, but it's only 1/4 the cost of the Volvo manual.
At $129, I'd consider doing the right thing. But at $500, Volvo will not be getting my business. And frankly, it wouldn't bother me one bit to know that someone is distributing bootleg copies of their CD on Ebay. I'm not saying I'm going to buy a copy. I'm just saying it warms my heart to know Volvo is not being rewarded for their greed!

Halleluiah, holy crap... where's the Tylenol? (And so ends today's rant.)

Jeff Pierce

--
'92 Mercedes 190E (my daily driver), '93 945 Turbo (a kickass family car), '53 Willys-Overland Pickup (my snow-plow truck/conversation piece)

You wouldn't say stealing a $Million dollar diamond ring is OK because it is overpriced, so how can you justify stealing from Volvo just because they might charge $500 for their manual?

Crime is crime, and just because you don't like thinking of yourself as a crook doesn't mean you are not one.

That is why we pay whatever it costs to subscribe or buy the proper information. It means we have to charge $80/hour for labor, but there are plenty of people who will pay it, and none of us are getting rich turning wrenches, either.

First of all, I'm not a crook -- I don't own bootleg copies of any manuals. And for the record, I am a proponent of people being paid a reasonable royalty for their intelectual property. For instance, I do not burn copies of music CDs for other people. But those music CDs are not selling for $500.
Can you explain to me what makes those Volvo CD manuals worth $500?

Jeff Pierce
--
'92 Mercedes 190E (my daily driver), '93 945 Turbo (a kickass family car), '53 Willys-Overland Pickup (my snow-plow truck/conversation piece)

Agreed, sorta. Insert big long rant about intellectual property here.

What say you about the Volvo material without a stated copyright?

- alex

'85 244 Turbo
'84 245 Turbo

NT

I haven't bought one yet. But they are available here:

http://www.thebenzbin.com/mercedes-repair-manual.html

(and I stand corrected -- they're $119, not $129!)

Everything I've encountered so far was either covered by my Haynes manual, or I was able to get expert advice at www.mercedesshop.com

Jeff Pierce
--
'92 Mercedes 190E (my daily driver), '93 945 Turbo (a kickass family car), '53 Willys-Overland Pickup (my snow-plow truck/conversation piece)

Run, don't walkfrom king tranny on e-bay. I know people who bought and the CD is not the Volvo material, it is after market trash that does not apply directly to a given car. check the feedback, lots of pissed off customers. Get the Volvo ones, and save yourself the headaches, I did.

I have a manual from King tranny, as far as I can tell most of the charts diagrams and other info is from a volvo source. There is some non specific generic info on the disc that is for other cars, but so far I have not been let down. For 30.00 it is far cheaper than to get segments from volvotechinfo.com. It did take about 3 weeks to get the cd from king tranny. Good luck.

Ditto!
--
John Shatzer, '97 V90 @ 94K

I have one too from that particular seller. He's very flaky and I had to threaten him with negative feedback until I finally got my CD a month late. I still gave him negative feedback. On the other hand the CD is invaluable. I find it more useful than I could have hoped for. You can tell the original manufacturer and not some outsider tearing down the car wrote the information.

94 960

They do not come as CD ROMs. Try Volvo NA.
--
George Holmer, Belgium, Europe, 1987 745 GLE Turbo Diesel Intercooler (D24TIC/ZF22) 200k; 1988 745 Turbo Intercooler (B230ET/M46) 290k; 1988 745 GL (B200E/M47) 190k

I second Jbowers! Once I saw on ebay a complete set of CD's - about 9 of them if I remember correctly. Based on the CD labels, they were published by Volvo North America and used for repair of all Volvo cars up to that point in time. I think that they were a dealership item for the shop but they were put up for auction. I think they called it VADIS (Volvo Advanced Diagnostic Info System??) only problem was it was too price for my liking since as you might expect, the bids skyrocketed for this item.

Tim

My Volvo mechanic/friend in Illinois purchased that 9 CD set for his work in his home garage. He thought it was a great deal and plenty accurate for him. Of course he make his living at a Volvo dealer...
--
John Shatzer, '97 V90 @ 94K

I have seen a copy of the S/V90 ones on e-bay and they are very close to the factory manuals. The one I saw looks like the pictures were direct copies of the factory manual pictures and the text was "paraphrased" and shortened. (I have a full set of the factory manuals.)
--
'96 965 with 16' wheels at 102K. Had '85 745 Turbo Diesel for 200K.