New Car Warranties

[ericthepig]

I'm sure this has been pointed out many times before, and I've thought of it before - but it just dawned on me anew -

There's all these cautionary statements about voiding the warranty if OEM OCI guidelines are not followed. And many folks do all their oil chges at the dealer during the warranty period to insure their insurance. Well, note, you can do any OCI you want and your warranty is still FULLY in place for everything except engine failure due to oil failure. So then I'd ask myself - "I've got a top shelf synthetic in there, I'm keeping it topped off, watching the dipstick for anything weird, and I'm taking it to (eg) 10k - what are the chances of me sludging".

I'd rather spend $20 on a Blackstone UOA at each OC (which would also give a nice written record) to chk for coolant leaks, etc, than - drive to the dealership, sit at the dealership and wait, pay a premium for the oil change in which I'll likely get a mid-shelf oil, drive home." (Probably easier said than done - if I just spent serious bucks on a brand new vehicle, I might be at the dealer too.)

If I remember correctly - when all the dust settled on the Toyota 1MZ-FE sludge issue - you only had to show proof of one OC per year (even though the manual stated 6mo 7.5k)

Bottom line - you can any OCI you want, and EVERYTHING on your warranty is just fine except oil failure issues. I know this is obvious, but it goes to the back of my brain sometimes.

 

[Quest]

Think Magnuson-Moss warranty act.

Q.

 

[Bill in Utah]

As someone who had a MFG REPAIR an engine OUT of warranty DUE to me FOLLOWING (or better) their recommended OCI with approved oils I'll FOLLOW the manual and not have to worry about proving anything.

No need to spend $$ for expensive oils plus used oil analysis. Just follow the simple manual.

Change the oil your self, keep receipts and life goes on.

Quote:
Think Magnuson-Moss warranty act.


Love to see the quote where it states you can ignore factory oci.

I think you will find it states the factory/dealer can not MAKE you use ONLY them or their parts. If so, they HAVE to provide them. (ie BMW)

Take care, bill

 

[stubbakatt]

Originally Posted By: Bill in Utah


Love to see the quote where it states you can ignore factory oci.



In effect, what the Magnuson-Moss Act says is that unless the oil caused the problem, the warranty can't be voided. This is regardless of OCI.

 

[ericthepig]

Well, perhaps there-in lies the problem. There's probably plenty of play room for the lawyers in "oil caused the problem". Perhaps anything happening inside that gets oil on it could be blamed on failed oil - thus they want to see the receipts.

But away from the lawyers, and back to reality - you're putting a top shelf synthetic in and keeping it topped off for (eg) 10k - your oil surely didn't cause the problem.

(but that I suppose is besides the pt.)

 

[stubbakatt]

I'll leave that to the lawyers. I would just use syn and the "normal schedule", which is probably 7500-10000 for mos cars.

 

[Andrew]

The reason you follow the manufacturer's service schedule is so that if the car fails due to a manufacturing fault, you can get it repaired.

Besides, if you enter into a an agreement with the manufacturer (the warranty agreement) you should be bound by the terms of the agreement. That is only fair.

In Australia, unlike in the USA, we have few if any rights against the manufacturer in a dispute, so we tend to be more careful.

 

[csandste]

I have a Malibu Maxx (out of 36K warranty) that I change according to the OCI, use Pennzoil 5w30 and change at about 7-8000 depending on the season.

I have a Kia Optima that I try to follow factory oil change recommendations for severe service. I use Super Tech 5w20 and stay close to 3000 oil changes, although I'm sure the car could easily do 5000 without any problems, especially with a more robust oil. How much extra is that 100K warranty going to cost me? I think HyunKia tries to get back a lot of the value of the extended warranty in extra, useless service. They also call for transmission fluids to be changed at 18K if memory serves me right. I've seen and heard things from Kia corporate, including their then American CEO in a radio call-in, that clearly were in violation of Magnusson-Moss.

 

[fendertweed]

what this comes down to IMO is what you may be technically and legally entitled to (but may have to engage in a long fight with the manufacturer to get under warranty) v. giving the manufacturer an easy way to "get to yes" for you, even, as one poster notes, after warranty coverage has technically expired.

The cost/benefit analysis of those two approaches is a subjective thing for each owner to consider. I recently had an Audi 2.8 V6 drop a valve at 88k miles. Cost to replace, over $9,000. The extended service contract company saw my receipts for Mobil 1 oil changes every 5k miles since new and didn't hesitate to agree the failure was covered (I didn't get full reimbursement but that's an entirely different subject relating to how ext. svc. contracts can both help you and screw you) and on that one claim paid of twice the price of the service contract (in addition to other things already covered in the past).

So ... my own calculus is while under warranty or an ext. svc. contract requiring certain intervals (5k in the case of mine), I follow the specs. Doing that helped me recover over $7,500 on the last contract, which cost me less than a third of that.

Jon