Finally! The INEOS Grenadier has a Workshop Manual

And its good!

A few weeks ago I wrote to Lynn Calder the CEO of Ineos Automotive to enquire about the workshop manual which was promised when the 4x4 was launched. I published the letter on the INEOS forum where it gathered quite a lot of interest. I received a reply from Lynn which she was happy for me to publish on the forum too. Since then she has reached out and we have spoken on the phone a couple of times, she’s made a commitment to improving after sales at IA so this was a big step in the right direction. We talked about parts availability, customer service in general, access to 3rd party scan tools and of course the workshop manual.

The launch of the Grenadier caused a huge stir in 4x4 touring and overland circles, modern 4x4’s have become SUV’s and many overlanders want good old fashioned 4x4’s. If you want to know the difference between a 4X4 and an SUV here’s my definition: look underneath it. If you see a solid axle and a diff pumpkin it’s a 4x4. If you see two skinny driveshafts with rubber CV boots its an SUV. Feel free to argue that point in the comments! The older 4x4’s were just tougher, they could handle being overloaded, abused and drowned in river crossings. When they did break they could be repaired with simple tools, gaffer tape and fencing wire. The SUV’s on the other hand well they’ll likely need a laptop to fix them. The demand for old 4x4’s reached a fever pitch a few years ago with old Defenders and 70 series Toyotas making crazy prices, things have calmed down a bit recently but demand is still strong.

So when the Grenadier was first proposed it was like a breath of fresh air. It was promised to be an old school 4X4, ladder chassis, solid axles, triple locked, it ticked all the right boxes. In reality modern vehicle standards have resulted in some undesirable features finding their way onto the Grenadier but overall its still way more basic and bush repairable than most of its modern competitors.

Enter the Workshop Manual, knowing how to fix a vehicle is important if you are travelling in remote areas. The manual gives you that know how. But two years on from the launch of the Grenadier the manual has still not been released. Now its almost here, Lynn kindly offered me the chance to try it out prior to general release. I am impressed, I had imagined that it would be a simple book or PDF in fact it’s much more advanced than that! The manual is essentially a login to the INEOS portal that the dealerships use, this gives Grenadier owners access to the full Parts Catalogue, and of course the Workshop Manual itself. It’s a modern version of the old manuals you may have used in the past, remember Haynes?

The user interface is pretty easy to get to grips with, I figured it out pretty quickly and was able to identify parts and part numbers in seconds. The instructional sections come with 3D video walk throughs which light up the steps of the process in the sidebar as they play. Its clever stuff! It will be particularly useful for stripping trim and interior parts where the method of removal is not immediately obvious, no more broken plastic clips!

Finding part numbers is also easy, the 3D diagrams can be rotated touching the screen or using your mouse, click on the part you want and the corresponding part number lights up in the side bar. Its simple and straight forward. Another handy feature is that if the part you want to change requires the removal of a different part to gain access, the removal of that part is mentioned in the guide. If you click on that step it takes you to a video guide for that part too.

So if you needed to change a turbo oil feed pipe for example, the steps in that procedure would involve removing the air box, click on ‘remove air box’ and it takes you to a walk through of that process. This will be really useful for those wanting to fit after market accessories; inverters, compressors, etc. You’ll be able to take things apart in the right order and you’ll know where each bolt goes.

The next big step to make the Grenadier truly overland ready is a fault code reader. Being able to change a part is one thing, but if you can’t clear the corresponding code it’s not going to be all that much help. While the Grenadier is a lot simpler electronically than some of its competitors it is still a modern vehicle. There are still computers and CAN BUS systems to contend with, swapping out some parts may require access via the OBDII port to reset the control module or clear a DTC. Lynn is currently speaking to aftermarket suppliers of scan tools like AUTEL, she hopes to have something in place soon. Soon is a big word, but she is hopeful that a scan tool will be available for sale within a few months.

The manual is due to be released within a few weeks…