Owner denied warranty for being outside OCI by 600 miles and short tripping.

[Pew]

Nitpicking OCIs at a 600 mile difference is pretty petty. I'm thinking there's a bigger issue with their engines now. I already had mine in the cx5 replaced at 83k.

 

[Glenda W.]

I saw that too but I don't see anything wrong with that. It could have had an oil change done at 5300 and the next at 5900 to average 5600 which is a tight spread. I doubt he was doing a 3k interval and doing the next at 8200 miles averaging out to 5600. 30k in under 3 years is about 2 changes a year. in 2 years that's 3 a year so I wouldn't say that's neglect.

If this is the case he’ll certainly get the arbitrators to side with him.

 

[Brons2]

We need more details….

Like pictures from the inside of the engine and micrometer readings of piston to bore clearances? I agree.

 

[2005jettatdi]

I would like to hear from those who say my OCD 5,000 oil changes are a waste of money.

 

[Brons2]

I would like to hear from those who say my OCD 5,000 oil changes are a waste of money.

Well, if you're going to get the warranty denied if you go 1 mile over, maybe 4500 is a better idea.

 

[JTK]

This really sucks, but I'm not surprised by this. Over at a busy Nissan board I frequent, I've seen it time and time again, where owners with 2017-2020 Pathfinders had coverage denied for similar. The main one being, they bought the vehicle used and were suckered into a dealer extended warranty package. Even though they followed their maintenance per the owner's manual, if the previous owner(s) didn't per a carfax, or lack of records from previous owners, coverage was denied. Keep this in mind should you ever be enticed by a vehicle extended warranty package.

 

[Glenda W.]

A 2023 with 29600 miles. 5 mile commute. That’s just under 6000 trips in 2 years. Guess you can’t believe everything online.

 

[Rust_Belt_Pete]

I take a picture of my odometer and my oil, filter and supplies and the used oil after and uploaded it an album, time stamped and recorded and good enough for the judge when dealers decided to get stupid.
Easy to do until the warranty runs out.

 

[TiGeo]

Let's do a thought experiment just for laffs.

Suppose this had been BMW denying the claim instead of Mazda (or Hyundai/Kia, etc.). Would you still bash BMW as you are Mazda?

My suspicion is that some of you would instead say, "Well, this guy deserves the denial. That's what he gets for not following BMW's guidelines. After all, BMW has such top-notch engineering (yadda yadda)..."

I've seen a difference with some of you before when it came to engine-oil and transmission-fluid specifications. The expensive Euro vehicles are holy, but Asian stuff doesn't deserve the same consideration for their standards and specs. Well, I'll bet for some of you it's ditto for warranty issues and customers not following recommended schedules.

So what would you be saying about this denial if it were BMW or Mercedes-Benz?

For me? The same thing - I'm an equal opportunity rule follower when it comes to expectation of warranty coverage. Someone here saying it was out of warranty...I didn't see that in the first post so if that's the case, can't believe this is even a discussion.

 

[joekingcorvette]

Another customer getting the short end of the stick from a warranty. It happens all the time with many different auto makers but some are a lot better than others.

 

[Sumboodie]

This why I video my oil changes and keep receipts. Also why I won’t run an oil that hasn’t spent the money for approvals. “Trust me” it’s great oil that exceeds won’t mean squat to a paper pusher looking to save the company. Also why I do 5k intervals on an engine that says 10k is fine. Changing oil more than necessary may cause damage to those on here, but a manufacturer wouldn’t have a leg to stand on.

Don't buy new and don't have to worry about it

 

[nomas]

I would like to hear from those who say my OCD 5,000 oil changes are a waste of money.

5k is not ocd . My Nissan Titan oil change reminder is factory set for 5k .

 

[JTK]

5k is not ocd . My Nissan Titan oil change reminder is factory set for 5k .

What does the Nissan owner's manual say for your truck? Reason I say this is, if it is 5K miles and you go to ~5100 here and there, Nissan can say no go on warranty coverage. It is getting this ridiculous.

 

[wwillson]

Even though the owner didn't follow a severe service interval it is interesting. Cross Mazda off the list of vehicles I'd buy. Not that it ever was on that list. I wonder if others will follow suit. It also sends me a signal about extending drain intervals while under warranty, even with a premium product.

If the owner resets the oil life monitor when the message pops up that the oil is due for a change, is there any other say the manufacturer could tell if the oil was/wasn't changed?

 

[demarpaint]

If the owner resets the oil life monitor when the message pops up that the oil is due for a change, is there any other say the manufacturer could tell if the oil was/wasn't changed?

Nope, unfortunately the owner wasn't smart enough to do that. But in the case of an engine failure they might still want to see maintenance records, invoices etc. Having said that I'm sure there are plenty of savvy Bitog members that would have a work around.

 

[nomas]

What does the Nissan owner's manual say for your truck? Reason I say this is, if it is 5K miles and you go to ~5100 here and there, Nissan can say no go on warranty coverage. It is getting this ridiculous.

Manual says 5k. During the warranty period I stuck to that schedule and had the oil changes done at the dealer. No point risking it. I still use 4.5 - 5k. A lot of short trips so it's pretty dirty looking when I change it .

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Mazda is surprised they could have any problems before the car rusted out

 

[dnewton3]

Without knowing the failure mode and root cause of the engine demise, a lot of this is just supposition and guessing. We know what was claimed by the "victim"; that the rings wore out and the block was warped. (How is it that an engine which rarely reaches full temps has a block that is "warped" ????

It is possible that the (very slightly) delayed OCIs may have contributed to the problem. For example, if there were a serious coolant intrusion, the oil may have been compromised. But if the engine failed due to a potential machining/manufacturing defect, the OCI really has nothing to do with it. Most of us are smart enough to understand that some things are lube related and some things aren't. And because we don't know for sure, it's silly for us to guess.

I will say this ...
If this were my vehicle I'd be heading straight to arbitration, and demand a UOA. And if the evidence is gone (the oil has been drained and discarded) I'd then counter-claim that Mazda was hiding exculpatory evidence. No otherwise healthy engine should fail simply because an OCI was overrun by 10%; that's ridiculous.

 

[SC Maintenance]

A 2023 with 29600 miles. 5 mile commute. That’s just under 6000 trips in 2 years. Guess you can’t believe everything online.

So given that, they were obviously starting / stopping many times a day (delivery driver??). Should that count as short trip? If its off 5 minutes its still at operating temperature all day.

 

[Glenda W.]

So given that, they were obviously starting / stopping many times a day (delivery driver??). Should that count as short trip? If its off 5 minutes its still at operating temperature all day.

Something definitely doesn’t add up. I’d imagine it would be plenty hot. Also normally a warranty denial requires a much more official document delivered by the manufacturer’s warranty rep. Not “this isn’t what you want to hear” email.