I built Dipstick Alerts because service bulletins helped me get real repairs covered on my own car.
When I bought that car, I also bought an extended warranty — and I was determined to get my money's worth out of it.
So I got into a habit: every so often, I'd go to NHTSA's website and dig through the manufacturer communications filed for my car. Any time a new service bulletin matched a symptom my car actually had — a noise, a shudder, a warning light — I'd bring it in and have the repair done under my warranty.
It worked. Repairs I might have shrugged off, or paid for out of pocket years later, got fixed while they were covered. But the process was tedious: the bulletins are scattered across thousands of dense, technical PDFs, there's no good way to search them by symptom, and nothing tells you when a new one appears for your car.
That routine became Dipstick Alerts. Each day, it checks NHTSA's manufacturer communication data, creates short plain-language summaries with automated tools, and reviews new records before sending matching email alerts. You can also search the records by year, make, and model.
My goal is simple: help you discover a repair program worth asking about or walk into the shop better informed. The source document and your vehicle’s warranty terms determine coverage.
Questions, feedback, or a bulletin that looks wrong? Email me at hello@dipstickalerts.com.