Just finished replacing the exhaust manual on my NA 1996 850. Aside from the usual screw-ups it went okay. But the Haynes manual on this procedure seemed to describe something different than what I was doing. Maybe it's a reading comprehension problem on my part, but to me it seemed more like a gross copy-editing error. I wonder if there are other parts of the sacred text that are known to be messed up.

 

Haynes manuals are often kind of screwy on European cars. They are a British company with offices in the US. Their manuals on American cars and on most Asian cars are great- but on European cars, they often just take the British manual, change all the different spellings to American English, and ship it. The problem is that they don't edit for differences in the North American- spec cars and the European spec cars. There's a few Asian cars that they did this with as well. The manuals are still serviceable, you just have to know that you might occasionally run in to some things that are different. European- spec cars often have different suspension, different exhaust parts, different bumpers and lighting, and sometimes, there will be options that they have that we don't, and ones that we have that they don't. I generally don't mess with repair manuals these days- that's what Alldata is for- but one positive about the Haynes manual for the 850 that I know of is that they actually show you how to fabricate homebrew versions of the special tools needed for working on the engine, specifically the cam lock tool for properly setting the timing belt, and the giant wing nut tools for clamping down the cam cover for installation.

 

for those of you who don't have it (just sharing)

Volvo 850 haynes,english Torrent - btjunkie

 

Haynes manuals sucks here in Europe too.

I'vre been lucky to find an alternative: Auto-Info.
I'. not sure if they have manuals in English, as mine is in Swedish.

No more Haynes for me.