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 users 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 - Whats New (A listing of
newly added announcements.)

5 - Reference Publications (PDF 9 - SPX Kent Moore (Special

based Service Info.)
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)

14 - Privacy Policy (How, why

and Cookies info)

10 - Home Page (link back to

this page)

3 - Online Shopping (Hard-Copy 7 - End Wrench Magazine (au11 - Contact Us (Various ConPublications Only)
tomotive technician publication) tact information)
4 - Diagnostic Service Information (HTML-based Info.)

8 - SPT (Subaru Performance

Tuning; Parts & Merchandise)

10

12 - FAQ (Frequently Asked

Questions)

6
10

11

12

15 - Terms and Conditions

(Information on site usage,
limits of publication usage and
subscription terms.)

9
13

14

When accessing the site, you may use one of two routes: Diagnostics Service Information or Reference Publications. 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 nonService 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 Diagnostics 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 sites 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 youre not spending money when
the information isnt available.
When using the fly-out menu that appears
when you move your mouse over the Reference 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 options 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 thats been
entered and the publication type that is listed in the link. A results page will be displayed.
If you dont 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.

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 its available on the system. (SHORT CUT TIP: If you only know the first few numbers of a bulletin or publication, 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; youll 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 Information sheets, Subaru Service Bulletins, Subaru Campaign Bulletins, Accessory Installation
Guides (in Free Publications), as well as much more.

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 Example: Lets say you are looking for the removal procedure for
an Engine Coolant Sensor in a 2006 Legacy. If you typed in Engine Coolant 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.

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 accumulate 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.

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 interlinked, 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 vehicles 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 available. By selecting one of the sub-section
titles, you are taken to a page that allows
you to navigate to various sub-sub sections. 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 available 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, lets 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.