Welcome to the Subaru Technical Information System (STIS) Web Site

Though there are many help features throughout the STIS web site, this short tutorial has been developed to bring new users quickly up to speed on use of the web site, as well as offer a resource for more experienced us-ers who would like to simplify their searches and use all of the capabilities of this web site. The following pages can be printed out and referred to when using the web site. This publication contains overview information as well as information on advanced search functions, information locations, and useful short-cuts.

The following is an explanation of the information you can find directly off of the STIS home page:

1 - What’s New (A listing of newly added announcements.)

5 - Reference Publications (PDF based Service Info.)

9 - SPX Kent Moore (Special Service Tools; web link)

13 - View Cart (a review of items in your shopping cart)

2 - Special Tool Information (How and where to get them.)

6 - AYES (Automotive Youth Education Systems; web link)

10 - Home Page (link back to this page)

14 - Privacy Policy (How, why and Cookies info)

3 - Online Shopping (Hard-Copy Publications Only)

7 - End Wrench Magazine (au-tomotive technician publication)

11 - Contact Us (Various Con-tact information)

15 - Terms and Conditions (Information on site usage, limits of publication usage and subscription terms.)

4 - Diagnostic Service Informa-tion (HTML-based Info.)

8 - SPT (Subaru Performance Tuning; Parts & Merchandise)

12 - FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

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When accessing the site, you may use one of two routes: Diagnostics Service Information or Reference Pub-lications. Both sets of information will assist you in locating repair information for specific vehicles, but each has their own advantages and disadvantages.

Please be aware that Reference Publications is the only area where you will be able to search/access other non-Service Manual types of information, such as Service Bulletins, Accessory Installation Guides, etc.

Accessing Information Quickly (Reference Publications)

One of the faster ways to search for information is to use the fly-out menu that appears when you mouse-over a section tab, off of the home page. By doing this, you pre-populate the Model Year and Vehicle line information in the Reference Publications area (it is mandatory that you choose Model Year and Vehicle Line through the same process, when entering the Diag-nostics Service Information area).

You can also go directly to the first page of the Reference Publications area by clicking on the Reference Publications tab link, without selecting Model Year and Vehicle Line.

CONSUMER TIP: You do not need to buy a subscription to perform a document search in the Reference Publications area! Navigate into the STIS web site’s Reference Publications area, perform all you searches you require, to ensure that the information you are looking for is available, and then purchase a subscription. This cuts down on search time used during your subscription time, and ensures that you’re not spending money when the information isn’t available.

When using the fly-out menu that appears when you move your mouse over the Refer-ence tab on the home page, or when you use the “All Publications” publication type with any search features, you will see a result set that looks like the screen to the right.

This is showing all of the possible search op-tions you have, based on the information you provided (Vehicle Line and Model Year). Keep in mind that there may be no result for the possible search available (for example, there may be no “Warranty Bulletins” for the 2007 B9 Tribeca, but the search link is available, since the search itself is available). By following one of these links, a search will be performed for the information that’s been

entered and the publication type that is listed in the link. A results page will be displayed.

If you don’t use the fly-out menus to enter the Reference Publications area, you will notice a navigation panel on the left of your screen. Depending on the “Publication Type” that you select, additional drop-down selectors will appear. Always present is the “Text” (optional) field, where you can type additional text modifiers to pin-point your searches. There are also the following fields (based on the publication type chosen): Transmission, Engine Size, and Drive Train.

Expert Search Tips for the Reference Publications Area

There are a few search modifiers that you can use to improve your search results when using the Reference Publications area. These search modifiers (operators) must be added to any optional Text search. You can find a listing of these search modifiers by clicking on the “Help” button under the search navigation area.

Search Operator Description

AND [&] Use the AND operator to search for documents that contain at least one occurrence of each of the query terms

OR [|] Use the OR operator to search for documents that contain at least one occurrence of any of the query terms.

NOT [~] Use the NOT operator to search for documents that contain one query term and not another.

ACCUM [,] Use the ACCUM operator to search for documents that contain at least one occurrence of any of the query terms. The ac-cumulate operator ranks documents according to the total term weight of a document.

EQUIV [=] Use the EQUIV operator to specify an acceptable substitution for a word in a query.

Search example: Let’s say you are looking for the removal procedure for an engine coolant Sensor in a 2006 Legacy. If you typed in “engine cool-ant Sensor” in the Optional Text search area (after selecting Service Manual in Publication Type and the appropriate Model Year and Vehicle Line criteria), and clicked “Search” you would get a message saying that your search resulted in no available documents. Why? Because the EXACT phrase “engine coolant Sensor” NEVER appears in that particular Service Manual. This is where a search modifier is useful. If you use the “AND” (or “&”) modifier between each individual word (“engine & coolant & Sensor”) you will get a few resulting PDF documents, one of which is entitled “engine coolant Temperature Sensor”. You could have also added the word “& removal”, but in this particular case, it was not necessary.

Additional fields available are the Vehicle ID (VIN) search field, which will allow you to search for specific Subaru Campaigns that may apply to your specific Subaru vehicle, as well as allow you to pre-populate fields like Transmission, Drive Train, and Engine Size, based solely on the VIN that you enter.

Also available at this point is a specific Literature/Bulletin # search field. This is where, if you know the specific Literature Number or Bulletin Number of the document that you are looking for, you may enter that number and search to see if it’s available on the sys-tem. (SHORT CUT TIP: If you only know the first few numbers of a bulletin or publica-tion, enter those here and click on “search”. A list of all publications starting with those numbers/letters will show in the result set. For example, if you are looking for a #12 type bulletin, simply type in “12-” and click on “search”; you’ll see all of the #12 bulletins!)

You will see that there are many different types of publications available in the Reference Publications area, including (but not limited to): Service Manuals, OBD-II Informa-tion sheets, Subaru Service Bulletins, Subaru Campaign Bulletins, Accessory Installation Guides (in Free Publications), as well as much more.

Diagnostic Service Information Area

The Diagnostic Service Information area is an HTML-based representation of the information found in the Service Manuals found in the Reference Publications area. Being HTML-based, instead of PDF-based, gives this version of the information some searching advantages over the other. Firstly, the information is “inter-linked”, meaning that you can “jump” from one section of information to another by various links placed throughout the HTML pages. This can be especially helpful when needing to perform an optional side-task, when performing a larger repair procedure. Secondly, this information is also linked to its “trouble code” or DTC. By using the DTC search, a code can be taken from a vehicle’s ECM and used to access a diagnostic trouble shooting tree, which can lead to a final repair procedure.

“Visual Contents” Screen

The most intuitive way to access information in this area is through the Visual Contents navigation window (shown below). You simply mouse-over the general vehicle section (Engine, Suspension, Driveline, Brakes,

etc.) and a pop-up window appears that shows the various sub-section titles avail-able. By selecting one of the sub-section titles, you are taken to a page that allows you to navigate to various sub-sub sec-tions. This can be quite time consuming, but is helpful if you are not sure of what specific information you are looking for.

A better approach, if you are aware of the information you are looking for, is to use the Search feature. The Search feature is much like the search function avail-able in the Reference Publications area, although the available search modifiers are less: and, or, not.

Text Searching Methods for the Diagnostic Service Information Area

As mentioned in the last section, using the Search feature in the Diagnostic Service Information area is a very useful feature when you know exactly the type of information you are looking for, or are relatively sure what subject matter you are looking for. It can be found at the top of the screen, to the right.

For example, let’s say that you are looking for the procedure to remove a “Steering Sensor” on a 2007 B9 Tribeca. You could type in “Steering and Sensor” (note the use of “and” as a search modifier). This results in 52 possible results. The results (unlike in the Reference Publications area) are “scored”, with 100 being the highest score, and 1 being the lowest (a partial list is shown below).

A better-structured search “phrase” would have been the addition of the word “removal”, so the entire search term would have looked something like this: “Steering and Sensor and Removal”. By doing this, we wind up with a result set with only 5 links, the top one (scoring 100) containing the procedure that was being sought.

Keep in mind that you can use the search modifiers “and” “or” “not” in any text search in this section.

“DTC Search” Screen

A powerful feature of the Diagnostic Service Information area is the DTC Search function, where you can take a Diagnostic Trouble Code (DTC) and type it into the text entry box, and click on “OK”. The resulting list of possible diagnostic trouble-shooting trees will assist you in deducing what the exact vehicle issue may be, and the required repair. The example shown below was for a DTC code of “P0463” for the 2007 B9 Tribeca.

Ending Notes and Tips

Here are a few ending notes and tips to assist you when using the STIS web site: • Spelling is important when using text searches. • “Shop Terms” are not always the terms used in Service Manuals, and will not result in successful searches. • Unless the exact phrase that you are trying to search for appears in the Service Manual the way you are typing it, you MUST use a search modifier to create a successful text search. • When looking for a Service Bulletin, and you only know the subject code (which run from 01 to 18), you can use the “Bulletin/Literature #” search to find a series of bulletins. By typing in just the subject code and a dash (for example: 03-) you will be able to generate a result set of documents that start with “03-”, which in effect, are all of the “03” Service Bulletins. • You can find Accessory Installation Instructions under the Free Publications publication type, in the “Reference Publications” area. • Click on the PDF icon when looking at an HTML Service Manual in the Diagnostics Information area, and you will have access to a high-resolution, printer friendly version of the wiring diagram that is represented in the content. From there, print or “zoom in” to view hard to read details.