See Service Bulletins For Your Car Or Truck 1962 To Present Model Year
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How Technical Service Bulletins Can Help You
TSBs usually cover specific problems that are common to a particular model of vehicle, or problems that are tricky to repair and require specialized guidance. They often come about after the automaker receives a spate of similar complaints from customers or warranty claims from dealers.
They stand in sharp contrast to recalls, which deal with safety-related fixes, such as replacing defective Takata airbags that can kill or injure drivers and passengers. Automakers are required by law to inform owners within 60 days of a recall being issued, and repairs are performed at no cost to the vehicle owner. Most recalls are voluntary, but others are forced by NHTSA.
On February 4, 2016, the Center for Auto Safety (CAS) filed a lawsuit against Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx seeking to enforce the Congressional mandate in in the “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act” (MAP-21) enacted on July 6, 2012.
MAP-21 provided that “the Secretary shall make available on a publicly accessible Internet website, a true or representative copy of each communication to the manufacturer’s dealers or to owners or purchasers of a motor vehicle or replacement equipment produced by the manufacturer about a defect or noncompliance with a motor vehicle safety standard prescribed under this chapter in a vehicle or equipment that is sold or serviced.”
To make the Bulletins searchable by consumers, MAP-21 required: “an index to each communication, which– (A) identifies the make, model, and model year of the affected vehicles; (B) includes a concise summary of the subject matter of the communication; and (C) shall be made available by the Secretary to the public on the Internet in a searchable format.”
On March 25, DOT finally announced its intent to start obeying the law by issuing a Federal Register notice stating it would post all Technical Service Bulletins and communications to dealers on defects in vehicles, regardless of whether the defects were safety related. DOT also required manufacturers of vehicles and equipment to prepare indexes to TSBs and dealer communications, as a guide to consumers looking for information on potential vehicle problems.
Soon after, NHTSA began posting TSBs only to its website through the safety portal used for recalls, complaints, and related information. Electronic communications to dealers should begin to be posted in the summer of 2016. You can locate these communications by following searching the Center for Auto Safety’s Vehicle Safety Check window on this page, if you cannot find your vehicle's service bulletins in The Auto Chanel data base above click here to search NHTSA’s database.