I'd like a recommendation as to what books to buy for me to be
able to work on my 2000 Sonata.

I'm not going to rebuild my own engine -- no work of that type.
But I want to be able to do routine repairs and a mod here and
there to my electricals, door components, etc. I want to know how
the radio is connected to everything, where every relay and fuse
is located, and especially how to replace that lightbulb that's
out behind the heat control **** -- which panels have to be
removed to get to it and where the fasteners are located. Whether
a task is to be done by me or a professional mechanic, I want to
know what's involved.

The Hyundai parts manager quoted me $45 for the shop manual,
Volume 1. Volume 2 is $18 (electrical). He said that this is the
literature that they use themselves. I assume that these are the
same books that Helm is selling on their web site.

Another party offered to sell me the manual on CD for $165 (Helm
does not list this one).
Do these manuals cover the vehicle adequately, or do I need to
buy a "parts catalog" in order to get decent diagrams?

My experience with aftermarket books in recent years has not been
good, and they seem to be getting worse. These publications seem
schizophrenic, leaving out a lot of routine repairs and even
omitting some routine maintenance, but concentrating in intricate
detail on rebuilding every engine that was ever used in the
model. My purchase of Alldata/Popular Mechanics CD ROMs was even
worse; the disks contained very few diagrams, and all diagrams
and charts were rendered with such terrible resolution as to be
virtually worthless.

Advice?

Richard

 

Richard Steinfeld wrote:
> I'd like a recommendation as to what books to buy for me to be
> able to work on my 2000 Sonata.
>
> I'm not going to rebuild my own engine -- no work of that type.
> But I want to be able to do routine repairs and a mod here and
> there to my electricals, door components, etc. I want to know how
> the radio is connected to everything, where every relay and fuse
> is located, and especially how to replace that lightbulb that's
> out behind the heat control **** -- which panels have to be
> removed to get to it and where the fasteners are located. Whether
> a task is to be done by me or a professional mechanic, I want to
> know what's involved.
>
> The Hyundai parts manager quoted me $45 for the shop manual,
> Volume 1. Volume 2 is $18 (electrical). He said that this is the
> literature that they use themselves.

That sounds about right for service manuals. However, you can get the
same information on Hyundai's WebTech site for free. The only caveat is
that the site only works with Internet Explorer.

> I assume that these are the
> same books that Helm is selling on their web site.
>
> Another party offered to sell me the manual on CD for $165 (Helm
> does not list this one).

Nice guy! That's only almost 3 times the price of the printed manuals.

> Do these manuals cover the vehicle adequately, or do I need to
> buy a "parts catalog" in order to get decent diagrams?

You don't need to buy anything. You can print any of the online pages
you need as you need them.

> My experience with aftermarket books in recent years has not been
> good, and they seem to be getting worse. These publications seem
> schizophrenic, leaving out a lot of routine repairs and even
> omitting some routine maintenance, but concentrating in intricate
> detail on rebuilding every engine that was ever used in the
> model. My purchase of Alldata/Popular Mechanics CD ROMs was even
> worse; the disks contained very few diagrams, and all diagrams
> and charts were rendered with such terrible resolution as to be
> virtually worthless.

Yup, stay away from them unless you have a specific repair in mind and
the book has a section on it. Still, I would use the WebTech
instructions, since they come "right from the horse's mouth.