The Difference between Factory Service Manual and Aftermarket Service Manual

If you are coming from the automobile industry and have even the slightest idea about the commonly used terms over there, you would know what “Factory Service Manual” and “Aftermarket service manual” stands for. Factory basically stands for the unit where automobile parts or devices are manufactured and supplied as the product of a branded company. The word “Aftermarket” indicates the parts and devices that are available separately from other brands or sources and they are used for repairing or modifying the machinery and automobile. These two types of manuals are available for almost all types of machinery which can include a CD Changer that you recently installed in your car, a video screen or the latest GPS system to guide you on roads.

Here we would be talking about the difference between a factory service manual and an aftermarket service manual. Well, when it comes to factory service or aftermarket service, we can surely guess what they are referring at. You are sure to get a detailed manual from the car manufacturing company when you bought the automobile. At the same time you can also get a similar manual later on from an external company. But it might be filled with several flaws which can be in turn harmful for the machinery.

The main difference between the two manuals is where they come from and how much information they provide to the customer. You would normally find a detailed and specific tone in the factory service manuals in contrast to the general tone in the aftermarket service manuals.

One comes from the OEM’s end while another one from any other company that is working in collaboration with the original manufacturer. Moreover the other fact to be noted is that most of the factory service manuals endorse better quality both in terms of paper and representation, in comparison to the aftermarket ones. The factory service manual or the aftermarket service manual may be referring to a single product but we must always remember that they ultimately have a different source of origin and thus, they differ a lot in their contents and all.

So, it is always best to go for the specific factory service manuals, when you always have the easy option of getting them in forms of CDs and books.