Hi all,

Just wanna share my experience buying service manual if anyone is interested. I searched quite a bit online and found getting a service manual very complicated. Manual from Piwis TSI is kinda intimidating with the registration and pricing from what I read.

I just wanted to find a place that would give me a proper service manual after payment like so many other manuals (cars and motorcycles, etc) I got before.

2017 Panamera 4S (971.1)

I tried:

- Repair Surge
Very cheap 29US, subscription based and can only be accessed online. The information inside is very disappointing. I wasn't able to find anything I was looking for. Based on just browsing around in the portal, I think the available information would be maybe 5% of a real manual from experience; if not less, at least for my specific vehicle. The available illustration and steps are very basic and not even worth looking at. I had better luck just winging it.

I read somewhere they are supposed to have great support so I requested a refund. In their automated email it says they typically respond around 24hrs. It's been 5 days and still counting...

- FactoryManuals.net
Expensive pricing wise among 3rd party websites that supposedly offered service manuals. But the price is in line with what I would expect for a OEM manual would be from experience, so I took a chance and bought it for 300US. Supposedly still peanuts compared to the official route via Porsche. Thank goodness luck was on my side!

1st, the automated email asked for my vehicle's VIN and Engine capacity in order to get the best available manual to me, which just felt right. 2nd, Alan from FactoryManuals.net got back to me morning 7:45am PST with the manuals to download (order placed earlier same day at 12:24am. I know I should sleep earlier, but working on the car is just so exciting ).

2 manuals were available for download and to keep forever. The service manual was over 5k pages, and electrical wiring manual was over 9k pages! I later emailed him on pointers about indexing the manual for easier access and the reply email was nearly instantaneous. Great experience all around.

Obviously I haven't read through all 14k pages, but just randomly browsing some pages, illustrations, steps, specs, torque values, warnings, etc all seemed to be OEM manual standard, if not exactly the OEM manual.

At least for my exact model year 2017 P4S, the manual quality surpassed my expectations in every way.

Hopefully this will help someone out there in the same boat. Let me know if you have any questions. Cheers


Working on fixing aftermarket active exhaust control system, plus the previous owner dumped something very sticky round the battery area.

-Edited to fix formatting

 

I was able to purchase a 1 day pass for Porsche PPN and was able to download all the manuals and images for 57 USD -- not sure what the pricing is today as I haven't needed it since.

I would be interested to compare a specific workshop manual between your copy and my copy to see how close to OEM it is!

 

Great idea for a thread and thanks for posting.

I used Easymanuals and it was $75.00 for the download (970.1).

I'd say that the experience was spotty as it took 2 weeks to get the download link for some reason but in the end it was exactly what I was looking for (about 12k pages).

 

I might have to purchase a manual, great info shared with the group. I need to remove the rear panel in the hatch. I really don't know where to start

 

Hi Chimuel, would you mind to share the manual? I'd be more than happy to pay for it. If so, I can send you a pm. I'm also from New England. Thanks!