(Not sure where to place this. Mods please move if needed.) It pains me that I have to subscribe to get information on a car that I own. Basically Rent it. Is there ANY other alternative to getting service / electrical, pretty much anything / everything other than owners manual for our Primes? I understand that method for security and things like key codes. I'll pay for like a CD or a download but I dont want to pay $20 for 2 days access just to look up something like a torque spec or wire diagram. Does such a thing exist? Paper, PDF, offline website CD, I dont care. OR if there was a way I could put in my VIN and pay a one time fee and could look up info on that VIN only for life that would be fine.
People have been known to pay the $20 to spend 2 days downloading a heap of documents. I just paid the rent. Only needed it once so far. You can get some info about your car by plugging in the VIN number on Toyota's website. Not sure specifically what you're looking for.
That is exactly an idea I've also wished they would take up. The full library access is cool; it's great that for your two days you've got access to everything technical ever written about every Toyota, Lexus, or Scion you and your friends ever owned, along with the whole library of technical guides and technician training courses. And the benefit of the repair manuals online is that if additions or corrections are made, you're always seeing the up-to-date version. But I would also really like an option to just download the stuff for my specific car, in a form I can access offline, in case I have a breakdown where data coverage is bad or nonexistent. But they still aren't consulting me about it .... Meanwhile, the wiki page that Elektroingenieur put together includes a number of alternatives that may be free, depending arrangements available through a public library, etc.
I miss the days when you could purchase the paper version of the factory service manual for your vehicle. It’s so much nicer flipping through the pages, not caring if you get grease smudges on it, compared to getting greasy fingerprints all over your laptop/table/etc. I haven’t come across an alternative to TIS for my Tacoma. I’m guessing it’s the same story for the Prime.
Between gen 2 and gen 4 Toyota went from a printable, concise well-presented tome, suitable for PDF, to…. something else. References became links, line drawings became screen-grabs from models, and any chance of a “book” was quashed. That’s “progress”. Over the years I’ve had a parade of paper Honda Shop Manuals, all about $100 through Helminc; think that’s a dying breed now.
In principle, PDFs can have hyperlinks. The manual could still be rendered into a PDF where the hyperlinks would work, which would be fantastic. That just isn't what happens in a PDF 'generated' by somebody clicking "print to file" umpteen hundred times.
