Most liked posts in thread: MINI Shop Manual - R56

If there's a Bentley Manual available, I'd get that. I have one for my old Jag and it's indespensible.

Edit: I think the CD's you listed is electrical stuff only, and mostly programming stuff - not sure.

I like having a paper book to work out of, it's not that the CD's aren't helpful, and in many cases they work better - but I guess I'm old skool

 

I believe what you see on eBay are cracked copies of the DVD that BMW sends to dealers for their Parts and Service listings. I used to use one supplied to me by a dealer a few years ago and it when setting it up one had to input certain unique attributes to allow it to phone home for the latest updates. I'd be wary of these disks.

 

I'd like to know more about the CD set as well, too bad it doesn't have a narrower scope, I don't think I'll be getting any of those other vehicles.

I have been consistently disappointed in the Haynes repair manuals. I have a few of them because they are better than nothing, but barely.

I am eagerly waiting for the Bentley manuals for 2007 to 20011 MINI Coopers.

MINI Cooper Service Manual: 2007-2011  -  Bentley Publishers - Repair Manuals and Automotive Books

I have a few Bentley manuals for other cars, they are very thorough and have much more detail than the abysmal Haynes manuals.

I collect factory shop manuals for British cars, some were published by Bentely.

Dave

 

If there is a choice Bentley for sure. I had the Haynes for my R53. When I got my Bentley I gave the Haynes away.

It seems pretty widespread that mfr's do not want folks other than their own dealers having the information to fix their cars.

 

Awesome! Thanks guys! I am now on the notification list too.

 

Me too! Thanks.

 

x3

 

X4

 

I've been bitching on the Bentley forums about the lack of an R56 manual for years. Since the Bentley manuals are little more than printed and slightly edited versions of the EKT-TIS, I don't get it...In the meantime, they've published an E90 manual... which really burns me... seriously, how many E90 owners are actually going to work on their cars? :mad5:

We have an old copy (2004) of one of those ETK-TIS CD's which we got to work on Jerseygirl's old E36 M3 but it covered the early MINI's as well. It's actually very similar to the info you'll find in the Bentley manuals.

We had a similar CD for some old B3/B4 VW's as well - which is also nearly exactly the same as the respective paper books.

The interface on both CD's was very similar to the interface on RealOEM.com.

edit: after posting, I looked at the Ebay link... what the hell... w/ shipping it's only $21.39... so I bought it. I'll post back after it arrives and I get it installed.

 

I've bought those CD's and they are pretty worthless

Waitng for Haynes with ya'

 

That's interesting. In my experience, the TIS has way more technical info than any Haynes manual. However, I'll admit navigating it and finding what you want takes some practice. At least the old '04 version was useful. We'll see...

 

I have all 3 manuals for working on my R52 -- TIS, Haynes, and Bentley.

The TIS is what I always turn to first, and I use it by far the most. It is the most complete of the three and I prefer using a computer over flipping through a book. However the user interface is abysmal (looks like it was created in the 1990's). I also use a copy of the WDS wiring diagrams on my computer.

For all practical purposes, the Bentley is a printout of the TIS. They use their own photos and reworded the text (probably copyright reasons), but it's clear that their approach was to take the TIS disc and publish it in a book form. I largely stopped using the Bentley because it is so similar to the TIS and doesn't have additional material.

I like the Haynes manual quite a bit (so does Ian Cull, GBMINI). It is much lighter and more compact than the Bentley yet provides about the same amount of information. The Bentley deceives with its bulk because it is printed on thick heavy paper with a lot of white space. The Haynes is all original material and offers a different viewpoint from TIS/Bentley. The wiring diagrams in the Haynes are especially good (but not complete like the WDS).

I purchased my TIS DVD disc from eBay for under $10. The newest version on eBay is 12/2007 which covers R56 and Clubman R55. Considering the low price of these pirated discs and the lack of any printed manual for the R56, I think it's a no brainer to get it if you plan to work on an R56. I heard that BMW switched to online service manuals (like http://www.minitechinfo.com), so a newer version of the TIS on DVD may not be possible.

 

From MiniMania, pre-order info

MINI Cooper - BENTLEY MINI SERVICE MANUAL 2007-2011 R55/56/57 HA - new.MiniMania.com

 

Or save about 30 bucks and pre-order from Amazon

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/MINI-Cooper-R55-Service-Manual/dp/0837616719/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1310038342&sr=1-1"]Amazon.com: MINI Cooper (R55, R56, R57) Service Manual: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 (9780837616711): Bentley Publishers: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51sF763THiL.@@AMEPARAM@@51sF763THiL[/ame]

 

Way is selling them also.

 

I have a TIS disk too, covers all up to and including 2007, but the diagrams are really small and barely legible when zoomed in (at least in the version I have - maybe they're not all like that). Hard to navigate, but the info is good and the torque values are very handy to have. I will definitely buy the Bently when/if it comes out though.

 

Amazon's preorder price seems to vary just like most of the products. Was $103 yesterday, back to $94 today.

I have a TIS disc set as well that covers my 07. Pictures aren't that great but since it's designed for factory trained technicians pictures are probably not all that important. For a DIYer they are.

If Amazon could get this in their kindle format that would be great. Flipping through a doc on an ipad is much easier than locating information in the TIS.

Edit: $88.17 as of tonight.