Haynes Manual

The Haynes manuals are named after John Harold Haynes (1938–2019) OBE. In 1956, when Haynes was attending school, he published a book on building a 'special' which was based on the Austin 7. Haynes also created and published two further books, while performing national service in the Royal Air Force.[8]Haynes was an Officer of Order of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours List 1995 for services to publishing.[9]Haynes died on 8 February 2019, aged 80.[10]

J. H. Haynes & Co. Limited was founded on 18 May 1960, and its first manual was entitled "Haynes Owners Workshop Manual". Following, Austin-Healey Sprite was published in 1965.[8][11]

Many Haynes Manuals bear a cover illustration of a cutaway view technical drawing of the vehicle, hand-drawn by Terry Davey, which 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.[12] In 2020, Haynes was acquired by Infopro Digital, a technical data company owned by TowerBrook Capital Partners, for £114.5 million.[13][14]

It was announced in December 2020 that Haynes would not produce any new repair manuals in the traditional style. All new repair content would be online only. Pre-existing titles remain available. [15]

The automotive vehicle manuals are based upon taking apart and putting together a vehicle. The cover of each manual states: "based on a complete strip-down and rebuild".[16] Each section has step-by-step instructions with diagrams and photographs of an actual strip-down or rebuild.

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

Haynes manuals are published in 15 languages: English (including British, American and Australian dialects), French, Swedish, Chinese, Japanese, German, Czech, Finnish, Polish, Bulgarian, Hebrew, Greek, Danish, Spanish (including American Spanish dialects), and Russian.

The company is based in Sparkford, a village near Yeovil in Somerset, England. The Haynes International Motor Museum is also in Sparkford and it is home to a large collection of both classic and modern cars, which are of a large variety of rarities.[17]

Haynes manuals are written by a pair of authors, a process which takes between 20 and 30 weeks.[18] The car or motorcycle is bought at the beginning of the project and sold at the end.[19]

Although the workshop phase of the project usually lasts for roughly four weeks,[18] the vehicle is usually retained for a couple of months to ensure it is functioning correctly.[19]

Haynes generally has the co-operation of the manufacturers to provide technical information such as mechanical tolerances and wiring diagrams. Haynes claims this provides customers with information that lets them fix their vehicle, to their ability, or at least diagnose the fault before taking it to a garage.[20]

Over the lifetime of a vehicle, the aftermarket is worth most likely as much as the new cost price of the vehicle, so the manufacturer still gets significant revenue from the spare parts, so the longer a vehicle lasts, the more spare parts and servicing can be sold to the owner.

Haynes also publishes manuals for fictional vehicles, such as the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) from Star Trek and the Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters.

• Chilton Company
• Clymer repair manual
• How-to
• G. T. Foulis

• Haynes web site
• Haynes US web site
• Haynes Australia web site