Haynes Manual


The Haynes Owner's Workshop Manuals are a series of practical manuals from the British publisher Haynes Publishing Group. The series primarily focuses upon the maintenance and repair of automotive vehicles, covering a wide range of makes and models ; the manuals are aimed mainly at DIY enthusiasts rather than professional garage mechanics, as they lack the depth of coverage on particular vehicles or problems. The series includes a range of 'practical lifestyle' manuals in the same style for a range of topics, including domestic appliances and personal computers, digital photography, model railways, sport, animal care, men,
babies,
sex, and women. They also now publish the iconic Bluffer's Guides collection.
Additionally, Haynes have released manuals based on popular fictional series including Star Trek and Thomas and Friends.

History

The Haynes manuals are named after John Harold Haynes. In 1956, when he was at school, he wrote and published a book on building a 'special' based on the Austin 7, and wrote two further books while performing national service in the Royal Air Force. J. H. Haynes & Co. Limited was founded on 18 May 1960 and the first manual actually entitled "Haynes Owners Workshop Manual", for the Austin-Healey Sprite, was published in 1965. Haynes was made an Officer of Order of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours List 1995 for services to publishing. He died on 8 February 2019, aged 80.
Many Haynes Manuals bear a cover illustration of a cutaway view technical drawing of the vehicle, hand-drawn by Terry Davey, and they bear his signature. Haynes also publishes a range of Chilton manuals under license from Cengage.
In 2013, Haynes acquired Clymer repair manuals from Penton Media. In 2020, Haynes was acquired by Infopro Digital, a technical data company owned by TowerBrook Capital Partners, for million.

Stripdown and rebuild

The automotive vehicle manuals are based upon taking apart and putting together a vehicle. The cover of each manual states: "based on a complete stripdown and rebuild". Each section has step-by-step instructions with diagrams and photographs of an actual stripdown or rebuild.

For professionals

Manuals for garage professionals include books such as the Automotive Diesel Engine Service Guide, the Automotive Air Conditioning TechBook, Citroën and Peugeot Engine Management Systems, and two Engine Management and Fuel Injection Systems Pin Tables and Wiring Diagrams TechBook volumes.

Distribution

Haynes manuals are published in 15 languages: English, French, Swedish, Chinese, Japanese, German, Czech, Finnish, Polish, Bulgarian, Hebrew, Greek, Danish, Spanish, and Russian.

Location

The company is based in Sparkford, a village near Yeovil in Somerset, England. The Haynes International Motor Museum, the largest motor museum in the UK, is also in Sparkford and it is home to a large collection of both classic and modern cars, and many rarities.

Authorship

Haynes manuals are written by a pair of authors, and take between 20 and 30 man-weeks.
A car or motorcycle is bought at the beginning of the project and sold at the end.
Although the workshop phase of the project usually lasts for roughly four weeks, the vehicle is usually retained for a couple of months to ensure it is functioning correctly.

Manufacturers

Haynes generally has the co-operation of the manufacturers to provide technical information such as mechanical tolerances and wiring diagrams. This may seem against their own interests since servicing can cost 40% of the cost of the vehicle over its lifetime, but manufacturers get loyalty by providing customers with information that lets them fix their vehicle, to their ability, or at least diagnose the fault before taking it to a garage.
Over the lifetime of a vehicle, the aftermarket is worth perhaps as much as the new cost price of the vehicle, so the manufacturer still gets a significant revenue from the spare parts, and the longer a vehicle lasts, the more so.