BMWSections.com Archived Manuals, Documents & Resources for BMW Motor Vehicles
What this website is about
This website is an ongoing archiving project to keep access to BMW owner manuals and related documents that have been dropped from general circulation or are difficult to locate from original sources. The archive lists some newer documents too, but will always focus on out-of-circulation items of interest to BMW vehicle owners. The website was established in 2008. We also run a vehicle data tools site XVEA.com, which has a Universal Vin Decoder.
All documents are genuine and unaltered
All documents archived are exact, genuine and unaltered versions from BMW themselves (unless otherwise stated). There are no differences from those had directly from BMW. For convenience of download, the manuals are compressed in a standard ZIP file along with a small text file stating their origin and a copyright notice.
About copyright
This archive makes available the BMW manuals as a convenience for the BMW enthusiast community. Unless otherwise stated, the manuals will be Copyright BMW AG.
Q. You don't have the manual I want, what do I do?
Please understand that BMW issued only a limited number of downloadable manuals over the years, so not every model will be covered. We have most, if not all, that were once listed with BMW on this website. For newer BMW and slightly older models you can check the BMW Owner's Area. You will need your vehicle VIN code to download such documents from there.
Q. Do you have Country or language specific documents?
BMW generally only offer English language manuals for download and those are based upon north American vehicles. Specifications and details might be similar for world-wide models, but certain safety features specific for individual countries will be different. If you need a specific country version, you should contact your local BMW dealer.
Q. Do you archive BMW motorcycle manuals?
Only motor vehicle related documents are listed. By that definition, this excludes commercial vehicles, motorcycles and motorsport type BMWs. See here for possible access to BMW Motorcycle manuals.
Q. Can you obtain a manual for my XYZ BMW?
Unfortunately, I cannot source documents upon request as all the manuals I have are archived on this website. Additional manuals may be available from the main BMW website.
Q. On clicking a manual download link, a time-out message shows
The links to documents have a set time from first viewing the page. This duration allows you to download the file in good time, but will not work if a long delay is had, passed to someone via email, or saved for another time for instance. Just return and refresh the page to download again.
Q. How do I open and view the downloaded manual?
The manuals are archived inside a standard ZIP file. The manual itself is a PDF-format file. For most operating systems, just double click the .zip file and extract the filename.pdf to a location on your computer. To view the manual (filename.pdf), double clicking the file will open it for viewing in the Firefox or Chrome browser (if these are installed). Otherwise, you need a PDF reader application such as Evince or Adobe Reader.
Colin C
My BMW 3-Series E46 & E90
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Downloadable Content
Most documents listed on this website are sourced from the official vehicle manufactures and should be regarded as the copyright holders. These documents are not chargeable in the digital medium but can be acquired in paper format at cost from the vehicle manufacturers outlet. All documents are offered as a convenience to its visitors only.
Purpose Summary & Terms of Use
This website presents carefully researched information and services for the usefulness of its visitors. No guarantee of suitability or accuracy can be implied for any given use.
Rev: 19102019
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