Looking for Repair Information in all the Wrong Places? Start Your Search with RTS!

06/10/2025 by I-CAR

There are days when your experience and training give you that “seen it done it” confidence, and you're fully prepared for every repair that comes your way. Then, there are days when you hit snags - and that's when I-CAR's Repairability Technical Support (RTS) steps in to help. Ever ordered a part that looks nothing like what's pictured in the service manual? Or spent hours searching for ADAS calibration procedures that aren't where you'd expect them to be, or anywhere else for that matter? You won't find OEM copyrighted information on this free online tool, but a quick search will let you know whether the necessary collision repair information is available and where to find it. If there's an information gap, then RTS intercedes through an OEM Linking Pin process to get the answers you and the entire industry need.

RTS has closed some major information gaps, including a collaboration with Hyundai Motor America and Kia Corp on the U.S. release of body repair manuals (BRM). The most recent example is a 2025 clarification on refinishing done near Genesis park assist sensors.

For a while, “RTS was the best-kept secret in the industry, and there's still some people who haven't heard of it,” says Scott Van Hulle, Manager of RTS and OEM Technical Relations at I-CAR. “But there's been some dramatic spikes in usage, especially since COVID when access was opened to all. I think a barrier has been that everyone is so busy that they haven't had the time to lift their head and see, 'Here's something to help me. RTS has done all this research for me.'"

Opening RTS to everyone in 2020, regardless of I-CAR training status, boosted the portal's visibility on Google. From its launch in 2014 through year-end 2024, there have been 44.3 million page views on RTS, with 22% of them made in 2024 alone. Once Google was able to index RTS's extensive library - currently over 18,000 pages of technical content on the site - the portal started to appear prominently in search results: “You'll find us even if you never heard of us,” Van Hulle explains. “It's important to reach and educate those who aren't training. They come to the realization that they need to learn something new.”

Van Hulle recounts a recent conversation with a shop that was “stuck 30 years in the past. It was a mom-and-pop shop, and the son was taking over and wanted to ensure they were training and educating their staff. The fact that he could find information from RTS on Google shows we're here for the inter-industry to help everyone we can and to raise awareness of what it takes to have a complete, safe, and quality repair.”

“With all the changes in repair procedures, our industry requires more access to information,” Van Hulle says. RTS is a logical extension of I-CAR technical services that was services that were developed to address emerging industry needs. Everything I-CAR offers - RTS, training, credentialing, Repairers Realm webinars, Repairability Summits, OEM roundtables - benefits from the inter-industry working together. “I-CAR could only build RTS because of our neutrality and strong partnerships with OEMs and key industry segments,” he adds.

In 2024, I-CAR introduced a mobile app with the same content as the RTS website, synced for simultaneous updates. The app is designed to better reach technicians who typically have access to a cell phone but not a laptop at work. “Techs need help in real-time,” Van Hulle asserts. “If they don't know how to repair the car in their stall, that's not something they can wait to learn during formal training.”

RTS is much more than a stopgap to support technicians between training, it's a powerful resource in its own right. Operating the portal is labor-intensive. It is not produced through artificial intelligence but rather by a team of technical experts. The RTS team listens to technician questions, vigilantly monitors new and changing collision repair information, and hunts down answers to Ask I-CAR questions through OEM websites, position statements, and direct collaboration with OEM engineers.

Content is added continuously and highlighted in Collision Repair News, published by RTS three times a week. (Sign up for email delivery here.) Information on RTS is organized into 11 searchable areas, including critical new databases like the OEM Calibration Requirements Search and the Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Disable Search, which are urgently needed by the industry.

What RTS Users Are Looking Up (from most to least amount of user searches)
Collision Repair News
OEM Information
OEM Partial Part Replacement Search
OEM Restraints System Part Replacement
OEM Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Disable Search
OEM Calibration Requirements Search
Ask I-CAR
I-CAR Best Practices
Quick Search by Vehicle
OEM Glass Replacement
Just In Time Videos

Initially, collision repairers had problems locating calibration information. “It was anybody's guess where to find it,” Van Hulle explains. “You'd have to go to 15 different places to look up calibration information; and sometimes there was a gap, and in some cases, it was missed in the service manual or wasn't clear to technicians.” He credits I-CAR for playing a pivotal role in helping vehicle makers recognize the importance of consolidating calibration requirements to improve accessibility for technicians.

To build the hybrid and EV disable search database, “we did a lot of research of what was needed to safely work on these vehicles and to properly make repairs. For example, more detailed refinish precautions are covered in 'Hybrid Refinishing and Baking' in Collision Repair News.”

Answering technician inquiries is a long-standing I-CAR service. Before “Ask I-CAR” debuted on RTS, there was an I-CAR help desk manned by I-CAR instructional designers. They assisted one caller at a time, answering routine to highly technical questions. Frequently asked questions might merit coverage in “Advantage” articles, formerly published on I-CAR's website and distributed via mail. Responding to questions that stump technicians helps I-CAR identify what training is needed in the industry. It's also one of the easiest ways to find information gaps. To date, I-CAR has resolved nearly 1,700 of these gaps which, Van Hulle states, “is essential to advancing I-CAR's vision of complete, quality, and safe collision repairs.”

Van Hulle is looking forward to more growth in the number of RTS users, with insurers, equipment makers, and other industry segments discovering the portal's value. He also looks forward to users needing RTS less often “because they will now know where to find the information they need. I would love it if the only Ask I-CAR inquiries we get turn into OEM Linking Pins because that would mean the information people want is already on the RTS website, and they're finding it.”

Of course, RTS will remain a trusted resource that users can always rely on. As innovations in vehicle design, construction, systems, and features continue to evolve, new information gaps will emerge. “That's where RTS steps in,” Van Hulle explains. “RTS is a vital tool to solve problems and drive change, so that every collision repair can be done properly and safely.”