The Engaged Driver

If you want to achieve something special you have to, ultimately, take things into your own hands, educate yourself and put it into praxis.  Despite the fact that a whole variety of car tech literature is out there, much of the cutting edge knowledge that is needed to solve a concrete problem successfully - and possibly even better than the official company support network ever could - is located in an "insider" field only.  Some of it is acquired on the job and passed on orally, never written up or published.  This experience and routine knowledge is just floating around like an "unspoken law".  Other stuff is out there, but often in obscure or proprietary sites. 

I will be posting periodically with niche sources and gathered info, to help bridge the knowledge gap. The list below provides prime links to fundamental OEM tech info for VW/Audi, which for me is closest to home (with other makes to follow):

• ERWIN (www.erwin.volkswagen.de) is VW/Audis’s own Electronic Repair and Workshop INformation service. It’s basically an online subscription and non-proprietary: you only have to register. The material that is available is essentially identical with what the dealerships are getting for their staff training (online and in seminars). It’s especially the first choice if information for a brand new model is needed. Publishers like Robert Bentley are obviously much slower, if they cover the model at all. ERWIN’s homepage is in English, their documents— well..it depends. Many things are self explanatory, though, cutting through language barriers, like exploded view pictures/drawings, diagrams, torque data etc. What I found rather wanting was their search/index function lacks some clarity and logic--sometimes you have to look into intentionally wrong places to find the right stuff.

• ETKA (Elektronischer Teile KAtalog – electronic parts catalogue) is also VW/Audi’s own, but (still) proprietary--i.e. for their dealerships only and permanently updated online. It is produced by LexCom (lex-com.net). Now there are ways around that if you can accept the lack of updates and being not quite up to date. Some guys with their head office in Casablanca are selling the complete catalogue on CD for 49 euros. Their version is ETKA 6V.6.31 Audi + VW 02.2005 update:529. Their website is www.manualsoft.com. If you don’t want to own the CD you can go to www.vagcat.com, a car part online catalogue which is free. You just have to register.