The Auto Channel
The Largest Independent Automotive Research Resource
The Largest Independent Automotive Research Resource
Official Website of the New Car Buyer

NHTSA Technical Service Bulletins 1962 - Present For All Cars Sold In United States


PHOTO

This Technical Service Bulletins Search Engine will allow searches of summaries of the Manufacturers' Technical Service Bulletins by single year, make and model. An optional item of Vehicle Component may be selected to help narrow the focus of the search. (The data does not contain all the service bulletins generated by a manufacturer. Bulletins for safety recalls in general are not included, and also bulletins which may not pertain to a defect may not be included.)

Find Service Bulletins (1962-Present) for Your Car, Truck, RV, Trailer!

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Technical Service Bulletins, or TSBs, are recommended procedures for repairing vehicles. They are a form of diagnosis. Not to be confused with recalls, a TSB is issued by a vehicle manufacturer when there are several occurrences of an unanticipated problem. TSBs can range from vehicle-specific to covering entire product lines and break down the specified repair into a step-by-step process. While sometimes written by engineers employed by OEMs, the majority are authored by the first automotive technician to come up with a repair procedure. Because certain problems may have more than one cause and there is sometimes more than one way to fix a problem, it's somewhat common for there to be more than one TSB for the same problem.

The technical Service Bulletin are emitted by the manufacturer.

One major difference between a recall and a TSB in the automotive industry is that a recall usually evolves out of safety issues at the behest of an organization like the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The ensuing recall maintenance/repair work is usually done at no charge to the car owner, regardless of the car's warranty status. Dealers are usually under no mandate to call in cars for which there are TSBs to do the related repairs. Nor is there an obligation to do the TSB repairs for free or at reduced charges to the owner, since the manufacture does not require the repair to be performed and does not reimburse the dealership for repairs. When the vehicle's manufacturer releases a recall, they not only require the dealership to perform the repair, but will reimburse them the recall's repair.

Some benefits of an automotive TSB are that by widely circulating among dealership service departments and mechanics an engineering-level description and solution for a problem common to type, year, make or model of car, a well-managed TSB process can save technicians troubleshooting time; provide organized, itemized repair procedures; and standardize the repair process. This can also enhance the quality of the maintenance since it tends to be supported by repair history and high-level diagnostic procedure decisions.