Techinal Service Bulletins
 

The subject of TSBs came up and the fact that some makes and models of vehicles have very few, and some quite a large number. So, my question is (1) is this a valid indicator of overall quality, or of a makes engineering culture, or? (2) do any Pelicans know of a website that this data would be presented on?

Porsche 911 TSB - Read About Porsche 911 Technical Service Bulletins | AutoMD

Don't know how complete it is.....

Since TSB's are a voluntary attempt to provide guidance to dealerships on repairing a common problem I would guess that "higher quality" manufacturers would actually issue more TSB's, since they actually care that their customers issues are addressed. I guess if they were excessive then you could conclude they have a lot of problems to write TSB's about and hence more design/build quality issues.

Yeah, that was pretty much what was concluded around the morning coffee discussion. I think the number of bulletins issued are probably not a good general indicator of quality until scrutinized for content. This discussion was started with a comment that a vehicle with higher numbers of TSBs would be a lower quality product than a low TSB vehicle. It would be great to find a chart with all the general data, make and model with number of bulletins issued in a easily compared format.

These days what used to be a TSB is now a Recall, with all the congressional and media attention to safety defects.

At Honda, there are three levels, and all are typically triggered by a team of engineers who monitor and investigate warranty claims and service records. If a particular problem starts to spike or increase, it gets under a microscope. If a real defect is found, the questions start: safety related or not? How many? Any other related issues, etc. A serial number range is determined and as needed, and one of three documents are issued:

Service Bulletin: A non-safety issue. May require a revision to a part design and replacement, or non-part repair procedure. Affected units with the described problem are repaired under warranty.

Product Update: Identical to Service Bulletin, but to ensure customer satisfaction, units out of warranty are frequently repaired at no or reduced cost to the customer. Subject to age of the affected unit and how long out of warranty.

Safety Recall: A safety issue. All units in the affected range are to be repaired at no cost, regardless of the age. Manufacturer must mail notices to all affected customers, publish notices in print, distribute notices to dealers, and report all progress to the Feds.

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Caveat: I work for Honda, but the preceding was my opinion alone.