Total Car Care is the most complete, step-by-step automotive repair manual you’ll ever use. All repair procedures are supported by detailed specifications, exploded views, and photographs. From the simplest repair procedure to the most complex, trust Chilton’s Total Car Care to give you everything you need to do the job. Save time and money by doing it yourself, with the confidence only a Chilton Repair Manual can provide. 
What can I say, the item seems made well and seems to function properly. I will get some use out of it and if I have any problems I will update my review.
I have recently acquired a 1996 Honda Accord. My problem is that the “climate control” panel isn’t working. The fan, A/C, defroster, and a couple of other controls seems to have lost power. So I buy Chilton’s “REPAIR manual”, as it says on the front. Instructions turned out to be VERY vague on specifics of location of key parts, fasteners, etc. 2 pictures showed the panel being taken out easily, but it wasn’t so. After trying to pry open the panel for 1/2 an hour, I bent/broke it at one place and dislocated the heater vents from the panel.
What would have helped is a diagram of the panel’s connections to the car’s front interior, which would show what the fasteners are and where they are.
Instead, Chilton decided to cut out the beneficial information and leave it to the readers to figure out the bigger part. What kind of a manual is this? In some parts it includes massive explanations about a single connector (example: SRS connections), but at most of places it covers too little repair info to be useful.
I WOULD NOT suggest this “manual” to an every-day driver because it isn’t user friendly and, just when it seems crucial, it doesn’t go in depth about parts. Mechanics probably have a more detailed manual, so they wouldn’t use this one.
So, a question remains. Who or what is this manual for? As the reviewer “A reader” previously noted, the manual “showed me all the ins and outs… …from bumper to bumper.” True. So I guess it’s good for knowing about your Honda’s specifications and part locations. But using this manual as a service/repair guide is a mistake.
Do one repair by yourself and you have paid for the book. I saved probably a few hundred dollars by replacing a broken side mirror. The details were great and helped me understand the complexity before deciding to do the job.
this book showed me all the ins and outs of the prelude from bumper to bumper. A deffinate buy if you wanna save money or just learn about your car. It has saved me some money on simple repairs and helped me modify the car as well.
I have a 1999 Honda Prelude. Previous to this, I had a Honda Civic. The book for the Civic was awesome with clear step by step instructions with pictures to accompany each step. This book, all the steps shown involve the Honda Accord which has a totally different body than the Prelude. Things that they mention in steps, more often than not, don’t pertain to the Prelude.
I purchased this book to learn how to replace my A/C filters on my Honda Accord Coupe, Year 2000 Model. Not a word about how to do this. It does not even cover how to remove the glove box for access to the filter plenum. A total waste of money for me. If it doesn’t even cover this simple task, I wonder what will happen when I try to use if for something complicated..?
I did not purchase the book from amazon, whish I had. O reillys does not allow returns once opened. I wanted a manuel to do the brakes just to make sure there wasn’t something special being a Honda. I will second all the comments on being very generic.
From the book It implied that the cyclinder just needed to be pressed back. It stated not to force it back and gave a list of possible causes none of those were the fact that it needed to be turned back in using a special tool.
Disapointed
i purchased this book used and love it have referenced this book on many repair and routine work such as brakes
I bought this manual for my 1998 Honda Accord Coupe (v6) and like others have stated, it’s horrible. It has generic photos that look nothing like my vehicle, locations of items in the engine bay are wrong. Might work for a prelude, but not for my Accord.
I recently bought this Chilton manual for my 2000 Honda Accord, and “disappointed” is an understatement. The manual was entirely generic procedures supplemented by poor quality photos and factory drawings. Worse, in two places where I have done the procedures in the past, the manual was flat out wrong. In one case, the procedure described to retract the disk brake calipers would actually damage the caliper if used. I returned the manual, and strongly recommend you stay away from the Chilton series. Hayes is better.