Doing Your Homework

Researching OEM procedures has become a necessary, thought not uncomplicated, step

By John Yoswick

Attend any collision repair industry event in recent years, and you’re likely to hear a repeated refrain: Shops and technicians need to review the OEM repair procedures every time, on every job.

“There’s absolutely no way you’re going to remember all this stuff,” Scott Kaboos, assistant manager for American Honda Motor Company’s collision division, has said the repair steps needed on increasingly complex vehicles. “Those days are way gone. You have to look up the procedure every time. Even in my position, where I get calls every day on our vehicles, if someone is asking me about a repair procedure, I look it up while they are on the phone. I don’t think, ‘Oh, I looked that up yesterday; I remember it.’ I’m not going to do that. Pulling this information every time you fix a car is paramount to getting the car fixed properly.”

“There are no two accidents that are alike,” John Eck of General Motors, concurs. “We change repair procedures often. I understand the cost and the process and the payment issues [related to looking up OEM procedures]. But we’re talking about a safe repair.”

A 2018 survey of nearly 500 shops nationally found that more than three-in-five say they research OEM repair procedure at least “most of the time,” but still, less than one-in-four say they do it every time.

“That’s scary,” Honda’s Kaboos said. “There’s a lot of shops that don’t even know they’re doing it wrong,” he said.

At least one reason some shops may not be doing the needed research is that it can be time-consuming.

“The manufacturers get better and better about sharing information with us, but often it’s hard to find it,” Darrell Amberson of LaMettry’s Collision in Minnesota said. “We’re constantly searching, continuing to find more and more avenues. Our mechanical management system recently came out with a program for helping us find calibration information. So we find ourselves looking in about a half-dozen sources to find the information.”

Many shop owners say Amberson is correct: There’s not a single best source for all the information shops need. So here’s a guide on where and how to best find the repair procedures and information you need.

OEM websites are go-to source

For the most complete and current information from the automakers, a good first stop is www.OEM1stop.com. The site was created by a coalition of automakers primarily as a quick way for users to connect to each car company’s information pages. Trainers like Mike Anderson of Collision Advice say those OEM pages are updated regularly, so they are the only way to know for sure you’re getting the latest information from the automaker.

(There is also a lot of other helpful information on the OEM1stop website, such as automakers’ position statements on scanning, parts, clearcoat blending and more.)

But there are some downsides to relying solely on the automaker websites. One can be the cost. While some of the sites offer free collision repair information, most charge a daily, monthly and annual subscription fee. Subscriptions for shops who need access to a variety of automakers’ information can add up to thousands of dollars each year.

Another issue: For new users in particular, finding what you are looking for on the automaker websites can also be a challenge. Each automaker designs and organizes its own site, which means terminologies differ, and while information about a particular procedure may be filed under one category at one automaker’s site, you may need to look in a different section of another automaker’s website to find that same type of information.

Getting help with the sites

But Anderson said that the unique structure of each automaker’s website becomes less of a challenge as you start to use them regularly. It’s with this in mind that he has posted free webinars on how to use some of the websites to find what you’re looking for.

“Once you understand the automakers’ websites and begin using them, it becomes a much faster and easier process,” Anderson said. “Repetition is key.”

In his webinar about Toyota’s “Technical Information System (TIS),” for example, Anderson points out that the VIN-based system will indicate whether the vehicle owner subscribes to “Safety Connect,” a telematics systems that allows live interaction between Toyota and the owners of its vehicles.

“This is very important to you as a collision repairer, because if this vehicle has ‘Safety Connect,’ you may need to disable that system before you actually begin to repair the vehicle,” Anderson said. “If you do not, Toyota may be notified when you start disassembling the vehicle and think there’s a problem, and they will contact the customer.”

A subscription to TIS also gives users access to Toyota’s “Collision Repair Information Bulletins (CRIBs),” such as CRIB #57 related to installing clamps on a vehicle’s pinchwelds.

“Toyota very clearly states that you must ‘remove all coatings at contact locations that may build up on clamps and reduce their gripping ability,’” Anderson said during the webinar. “If you’re putting a clamp over undercoating or seam-sealer on the pinchwelds on a Toyota or Lexus, they consider that an improper repair.”

All of the Collision Advice “Learn to Research, Research to Learn” webinars, which also cover the Nissan, Subaru, Fiat Chrysler and Volkswagen websites, can be viewed at http://tinyurl.com/OEMvideo.

Third-party sources available

The lack of consistent organization and layout of the different OEM websites gets solved to varying degrees by some of the third-party sources for OEM repair information. ALLDATA is perhaps the best known of these systems. The company acquires its information from the automakers, but repackages it in a way that makes finding a particular procedure more consistent, whether you’re conducting that procedure on a Honda, Toyota or Chevrolet.

The estimating system providers also are doing more to put automaker information closer to shops’ fingertips at the time they are assessing what will need to be done to the vehicle. Both Toyota and General Motors, for example, have teamed up with Mitchell International to automatically link OEM procedures to line items being added to estimates on those automakers’ vehicles.

“They’re going to be delivered to you,” GM’s Eck said about the repair procedures Mitchell has incorporated. “You won’t have to research them anymore.”

For repair information from the other automakers, Mitchell also offers a “Tech Advisor” package, and the other estimating systems offer a similar source of OEM information (CCC’s “Repair Methods” and AudaExplore’s “TechFocus”).

These third-party sources can make it easier and potentially less expensive than subscribing to and using multiple automaker information websites. But there’s one potential downside to such third-party sources: It may take weeks or months for the systems to incorporate changes made by an automaker to a procedure.

I-CAR offers helpful portal

No matter which of these more comprehensive sources of OEM repair procedures you use, many shops say I-CAR’s “Repairability Technical Support Portal” is one of the other key sources they rely on. In fact, 54 percent of the nearly 500 shops responding to an industry survey last year say they use the I-CAR portal to research OEM repair information; that’s about the same percentage who said they use the automaker technical information websites directly.

In some cases, the portal is designed more to help shops identify what they need to know and where and how to find it. There are pages and short videos, for example, on how to use each of the automaker’s information websites, and a guide to locating information on each automaker’s advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), information, which often is not included in each OEM’s body repair manuals.

There are also helpful tools like the “OEM Calibration Requirements” search page that allows users to identify which ADAS a vehicle may have, and what reset or calibration tools, equipment and processes may be necessary. The guide is not VIN-specific, but instead shows the names and locations of all cameras and sensors that are options on each make and model to assist shops in looking for the systems on a particular vehicle in their shop, as well as to more quickly find OEM calibration documentation.

The guide also indicates what types of events — such as glass removal or replacement — result in the need for recalibration, and indicates whether a scan tool, aiming targets or other special tools are needed for calibration.

“We spent thousands of hours on this calibration matrix to save the industry tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of hours on that research,” I-CAR’s Jason Bartanen said. “As you’re going through the damage analysis process, putting together a repair plan, you can identify, ‘Hey, we’re replacing a glass on this vehicle, so we’re going to have to calibrate.’”

More shops getting paid for research

No matter which source or combination of sources your shop uses to get the OEM repair information it needs, it likely will require a real investment in both time and money. The good news is more shops are charging — and getting paid — to conduct this important step. A “Who Pays for What?” survey, conducted last fall by Collision Advice and CRASH Network, found that 17 percent of the more than 500 shops responding said they are paid an administrative fee for researching OEM information “always” or “most of the time” by the top eight-largest auto insurers when it is necessary and done as part of the repair. That was up from 11 percent in 2017, and just 6 percent back in 2015. The percentage of shops that said they have never billed an administrative fee for OEM research also has declined from about 76 percent in 2015 to about 61 percent in the 2018 survey. 

“I’m seeing the typical amount of total sales a single estimator can handle decline, because the estimating process continues to become more complex, including research of OEM repair information,” Anderson of Collision Advice said.  •

John Yoswick, a freelance writer based in Portland, Ore., who has been writing about the automotive industry since 1988, is also the editor of the weekly CRASH Network bulletin (www.CrashNetwork.com). He can be contacted by email at john@CrashNetwork.com.