Technical service bulletins (TSBs): how to find one and use it at the dealer

A technical service bulletin, or TSB, is a document a manufacturer sends to its dealers about a condition in its vehicles: how to recognize it, what causes it when that is known, and how to repair it. One bulletin might describe a rattle and the bracket that stops it; another, a warning light and the software update that clears it, a leak and a revised seal, or a better way to diagnose a complaint that dealers keep seeing.

Many bulletins deal with noises, leaks, warning lights and drivability rather than safety, and the filing rule covers them either way. Filing a bulletin creates no duty to repair your car. The manufacturer has written down what it knows about a problem and how its dealers should handle it; whether anyone pays for the fix is a separate question, answered further down.

Bulletins are one kind of what NHTSA calls manufacturer communications. These are the communication types its public file uses:

• Service bulletin / repair instructions — the classic TSB: diagnosis and repair steps for dealers.
• Service campaign — the manufacturer asks dealers to inspect, repair or update a defined group of vehicles, sometimes under the name of a customer satisfaction campaign or program.
• Warranty program / extension — longer coverage for one part or condition. How warranty extensions work.
• Over the air — notices about software updates the manufacturer sends to the car remotely.
• Emissions — communications about emissions equipment and its repair.
• Other — anything that fits none of the above.

Communications filed with NHTSA for the vehicles on this site, by the kind each one is.

2,194 service campaigns are on file for the vehicles on this site. Because a campaign covers a defined group of vehicles, the question to put to a dealer for the brand is whether your VIN is in it.

Two federal rules put these documents in public view.

49 CFR 579.5 requires every manufacturer of vehicles or equipment to send NHTSA a copy of each notice, bulletin and other communication it sends to more than one dealer, distributor, owner or other party in the United States about any defect in its products — including any failure or malfunction beyond normal deterioration in use, any failure of performance, and any flaw or unintended deviation from design specifications — whether or not the defect is safety-related. The rule names warranty and policy extension communiqués and product improvement bulletins specifically. Copies are due no later than five working days after the end of the month in which each one was issued.

49 U.S.C. 30166(f) then requires NHTSA to make a copy of each communication about a defect available on a public website, with an index that identifies the make, model and model year it covers and gives a concise summary of what it is about, in a searchable format.

NHTSA’s file of these communications runs back to documents received from January 1, 1995. It is the source of every bulletin on this site.

Of the 32,500 communications on file for the vehicles on this site, 9,159 are dated within the last twelve months.

The makes with the most manufacturer communications filed for the vehicles on this site.

1. Start from the number if you have one.
   A technician, a repair order or an owner letter may cite a bulletin number. Search for it exactly as written in the bulletin lookup on this site. Manufacturers revise bulletins and replace old ones with new numbers, so check that you are reading the current version.
2. Or start from the vehicle.
   At nhtsa.gov/recalls, a search by year, make and model returns the model’s manufacturer communications alongside its recalls, investigations and complaints. Every model-year page on this site lists them too.
3. Narrow it down by symptom.
   Summaries describe the condition in plain words: the noise, the warning light, the leak, the message on the dash. Search for the words a technician would use, and for any diagnostic trouble code the car has stored; the trouble-code pages on this site list bulletins that mention each code.
4. Check that it fits your car.
   A bulletin applies only to the vehicles it names: model years, engines or transmissions, and often a production date range or a list of VINs. The same symptom on a car outside that range may have a different cause.

Layouts differ from one manufacturer to the next, but a full bulletin usually covers the same ground:

• Subject and condition. What the owner or technician notices: the symptom, when it happens, any trouble code or message.
• Affected vehicles. Models, model years, engines, and often a build-date or VIN range. If your car falls outside it, the bulletin does not apply, however familiar the symptom.
• Cause. Sometimes stated, sometimes left out.
• Correction. The service procedure: an inspection, a software update, a part replaced with a revised one.
• Parts. The part numbers to order, sometimes with the numbers they replace.
• Warranty information. The labor operation codes and time allowances a dealer uses to claim the repair from the manufacturer, and whether the work is covered under the vehicle’s warranty or a coverage program.

The last item is the one to read twice. A bulletin that ties the repair to a warranty or coverage program tells you who is expected to pay. A bulletin that says nothing about coverage is a repair procedure, and once the warranty has run out it is billed like any other repair.

NHTSA’s index gives a concise summary; a copy of the document itself is published too, and that is what the dealer works from. Print it, or keep it open on your phone.

To see the shape of a real one, Lexus bulletin L-SB-0054-25 has its own page here, with NHTSA’s summary and the model years it names.

1. Describe the symptom in the bulletin’s words, and give the number.
   The number tells the technician which procedure the manufacturer wrote for that condition.
2. Ask the service writer to confirm the bulletin applies to your VIN.
   Build ranges and VIN lists decide it, not the model name.
3. Ask what pays for the repair before it starts.
   The factory warranty, a warranty extension or coverage program, or you. Get the answer, and the estimate, in writing.
4. Keep the repair order, with the bulletin number on it.
   If the problem comes back, or a coverage program is announced later, that record connects your repair to it.

Inside the new-vehicle warranty, a repair a bulletin describes is normally covered when the part involved is. Under a warranty extension or special coverage program, the condition it names is covered for the program’s term, which can run years past the original warranty. Outside both, you pay, unless the manufacturer or the dealer agrees to help on a case-by-case basis.

Manufacturers do make such payments: NHTSA’s early-warning reporting counts claims a manufacturer pays “for good will” alongside ordinary warranty claims. But a goodwill payment is a decision, not an entitlement, and the state laws on coverage programs described below expressly leave case-by-case adjustments out.

Some states regulate manufacturer coverage programs directly. California, Connecticut and Virginia are three. Each defines an adjustment program in similar terms: a program under which the manufacturer extends coverage beyond the warranty or offers to pay for, or reimburse, all or part of the cost of repairing a condition that may substantially affect the vehicle’s durability, reliability or performance — other than service under a safety or emissions recall. Adjustments made case by case are excluded. Within that definition, all three require:

• A letter to owners. Within 90 days of adopting a program, the manufacturer must notify eligible owners by first-class mail of the condition and the program’s principal terms.
• Disclosure at the dealer. A dealer must tell a customer seeking repair of the covered condition about the program’s principal terms, once the dealer has been told of the program.
• Reimbursement. The manufacturer must have a procedure to reimburse eligible owners who paid for the repair before they knew of the program. The claim is made in writing within two years of paying, and the manufacturer must answer within 21 business days, with its reasons in writing if it says no.

The details differ. California requires dealers to give prospective buyers a notice — a showroom sign will do — explaining how to get copies of service bulletins and stating that bulletins are not recalls. Connecticut entitles an owner to a copy of any bulletin about an adjustment program on request, and Virginia requires the manufacturer to furnish such documents on request. Other states may have rules of their own; this is not a complete list, and the statute text is linked in the sources below.

• 49 CFR 579.5 — Notices, bulletins, customer satisfaction campaigns, consumer advisories, and other communications
• 49 U.S.C. 30166(f) — Copies of communications about defects, published by NHTSA
• NHTSA — Manufacturer communications file: fields and communication types
• NHTSA — Search recalls, investigations, complaints and manufacturer communications
• NHTSA — Risk-Based Processes for Safety Defect Analysis and Management of Recalls (DOT HS 812 984)
• California Civil Code 1795.90–1795.93 — Motor vehicle warranty adjustment programs
• Connecticut General Statutes 42-227 — Automobile manufacturers' warranty adjustment programs
• Code of Virginia 59.1-207.34 to 59.1-207.39 — Motor Vehicle Manufacturers' Warranty Adjustment Act