Service/repair manuals - recommendations?

Hi all,

I don't have any mechanical skills and am pretty proud of myself just for being able to change the oil/oil filter/coolant etc on my 95 Micra! However, I'm now thinking I should stop being lazy and do more of the relatively simple maintenance on my own car that I'm currently paying for someone else to do.

I've briefly looked around for servicing/repair manuals and there's a huge disparity in pricing and format! For example, a quick search on eBay brought up 3 manuals; one as a CD-ROM for "Nissan approved mechanics" apparently for $20, a Haynes book for $60, and another Factory Service Repair manual that appears to be in 2 volumes for $130!

For a complete beginner would anyone have any recommendations for what I should be looking for in terms of technicality/readability? I'd prefer a book, but could probably put up with a CD-ROM if I had to.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Haynes hands down!
I got a copy on eBay for $25 delivered. It's all about the timing.

this one is cheap :) http://www.micra.org.uk/threads/detailed-k11-manual-for-download.55421/

Manuals on cd are so much of a hassle unless you print the section you need each time you do a job.

Factory service/repair manuals are typically very in depth and technical.

Haynes is by far the best for a diy'er... very clear and simple instructions plus they state the relative difficulty of each job so you can decide before you start whether you want to tackle the challenge or leave it to a professional. They are well worth the money but if you can shop around for one cheaper it'll be a bonus.

I think my Haynes came out of the UK, locally they are stupid money, often you can find a copy though from a UK ebay seller dirt cheap.

Thanks very much everyone for your insights! Much appreciated. I will try to find myself a copy of a Haynes manual.

Cheers guys!

I should add that I am DEFINITELY going to buy one ASAP now or your adivce. On Friday I paid a local mechanic to replace my front bumper. I had a temporary one on it while I was getting the old one re-sprayed (the "temo" bit turned out to be 3 years long!).

They have done a s#@!-house job of it : the LHS headlight is loose, there's a 2 inch gap between the grille and the bumper, the grille appears to be missing at least two attachment screws and when I looked underneath the bumper there was a nut and bolt screwed together just hanging from between some plastic bits!! Clearly uninstalled and then just left sitting somewhere and it's fallen down almost to the ground. GREAT! Now I am missing god knows how many bits and pieces. And I won't know until I redo the entire bloody job.

I managed to actually get the bumpers off and on by myself previously with next to no idea what I was doing and next to no tooling. The only reason I didn't do it myself this time is because it took me aaaages. Stupidly I thought pros would know how to change something as simple as a front bumper on an old Micra.

From now on it's me and Mr Haynes only!! Mechanics only if I'm desperate...