C400GT Shop/Repair Manual
- Thread starter mzflorida
- Start date
wspollack
Active member
Mike, I think you're going to be SOL on this.
It looks as if BMW doesn't sell these anymore, at least not to the motoring public. I first came across this last year, on the BMW LT forum (of which I'm also a member). Take a read through this thread (where I first read about this):
There's a similar thread, from about the same time, on the K1600 forum (of which I'm not a member):
And here's one of the MOA (used to be a member, when I owned an R850R) threads on this, which is probably the most authoritative source on this:
Repair DVD availability
Anyone have any idea why you can't buy the maintenance manual DVD for my '18 R1200RS? I've tried to order it from a couple of dealer parts departments and have ordered it online from a couple of dealerships. No stock worldwide and no estimate of availability. The online sources (A&S, Max's) show...
forums.bmwmoa.org
If this is the case -- and it certainly looks like it -- then I think the only way to get Beemer shop manuals these days is through less, um, official channels. And those sellers, reasonably enough, seem to prefer digital sales (such as the way I got my PDF copy last year).
BMW itself seems to distribute only DVDs to dealerships, i.e., no paper books even to them. This makes some sense, as those are easier to edit and revise. What is troublesome to many on those forums is that those DVDs are no longer -- for almost two years now, I gather -- available for purchase.
I feel your pain. I have purchased thick, bound, paper shop manuals with each new bike for a couple of decades now. And when I was doing my electrical farkles last year on the C 400 GT, I printed a couple of the bodywork-removal pages, and made even more trips back and forth, from the garage to the den, to look at diagrams on my big computer screen. Which sucks, and involves a lot of washing grease off hands.
You can always buy a PDF version, and take that to Staples or some other similar outfit, and have them print, and maybe bind, you a paper version. This is still not ideal, at least not with the version I have, because there will be watermarks on each page that are not part of what a real, factory-issued, manual would contain. OTOH, you would have a paper version, and even dealers apparently don't get that.
Good luck!
Well, that could certainly explain it! I felt like a total numbskull. I saw one reference on the web for a 2019 paper manual, and that’s it. Thanks Bill. I’ve been using paper shop manuals ( you and I are old enough to remember Haynes Repair Guides) since I was about 10. I guess I might be forced into the here and now.Mike, I think you're going to be SOL on this.
It looks as if BMW doesn't sell these anymore, at least not to the motoring public. I first came across this last year, on the BMW LT forum (of which I'm also a member). Take a read through this thread (where I first read about this):
There's a similar thread, from about the same time, on the K1600 forum (of which I'm not a member):
And here's one of the MOA (used to be a member, when I owned an R850R) threads on this, which is probably the most authoritative source on this:
Repair DVD availability
Anyone have any idea why you can't buy the maintenance manual DVD for my '18 R1200RS? I've tried to order it from a couple of dealer parts departments and have ordered it online from a couple of dealerships. No stock worldwide and no estimate of availability. The online sources (A&S, Max's) show...
If this is the case -- and it certainly looks like it -- then I think the only way to get Beemer shop manuals these days is through less, um, official channels. And those sellers, reasonably enough, seem to prefer digital sales (such as the way I got my PDF copy last year).
BMW itself seems to distribute only DVDs to dealerships, i.e., no paper books even to them. This makes some sense, as those are easier to edit and revise. What is troublesome to many on those forums is that those DVDs are no longer -- for almost two years now, I gather -- available for purchase.
I feel your pain. I have purchased thick, bound, paper shop manuals with each new bike for a couple of decades now. And when I was doing my electrical farkles last year on the C 400 GT, I printed a couple of the bodywork-removal pages, and made even more trips back and forth, from the garage to the den, to look at diagrams on my big computer screen. Which sucks, and involves a lot of washing grease off hands.
You can always buy a PDF version, and take that to Staples or some other similar outfit, and have them print, and maybe bind, you a paper version. This is still not ideal, at least not with the version I have, because there will be watermarks on each page that are not part of what a real, factory-issued, manual would contain. OTOH, you would have a paper version, and even dealers apparently don't get that.
Good luck!
wspollack
Active member
Yes, indeedy. I bought my first fat Haynes manual when I bought my first car. This was in 1970, when I bought a 1964 Beetle over in Germany (where I was stationed in the Army at the time). As with my former bikes and their shop manuals, I gave the Haynes to the person I sold that car to.
I followed your lead and ordered the PDF version. I guess I'll put it on my tablet. Who knows? Maybe I'll wonder how I ever got on without it.