Hyundai won't honor my emissions warranty!!! Advice please.

[Smarmie Doofus]

OK... it's a Hyundai and I should have known better but a friend was selling it, so I bought it two years ago w. 30k miles.

The local H dealer diagnosed a bad catalytic converter and I approved the work. Later I discovered that the cc on this car is warrantied for 8 yrs and should be covered.

The dealer now says the cc was not defective, that the cc failed for other reasons and the warranty does not apply.

The bill was 1200 dollars. I called the Hyundai Corp and asked them for a copy of the warranty. Seems they are out of 'em.

Hmmm...


Any advice? Anyway to bring pressure to bear on these fiends?

[midnight armadillo]

1. Let me get this straight...

You brought the car to the dealer (for a check engine light?), they said the cc was dead, they replaced it, and now they claim that some other thing caused it to fail so the warranty does not apply. This may be an entirely legitimate claim, but it seems like you weren't given the information to investigate this for yourself. This means the replacement could also potentially fail...I'm sure they'd love to have you as a repeat customer at those rates. How did they diagnose the failed cc? Did they give you the failed part (some places do, if you ask)?

What was the cause for failure? Did they tell you about warranty work up front or did you try to get it covered after the work was done? I've only owned one car under warranty (my wife's saab 9-5 wagon) and they've always told me upfront if work was covered or not. There's always the possibility that the dealer is a scumbag who took you for $1200.

I'm sure you can get a copy of the warranty from Hyundai. Just don't take 'no' for an answer :-)

And a tip I'm sure you know: don't ever go to the dealer for non-warranty work! An aftermarket catalytic converter and an indie mechanic would have been much, much less.

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. Good questions. I'll back-up a bit. My local....

mechanic diagnosed a bad CC but recommended I take it to Hyundai... as the Federal Emissions Warranty ( he wasn't that specific; I learned the terminology later) might apply.

Hyundai diagnosed the same problem, gave me an estimate over the phone( roughly equivalent to what my mechanic had estimated), told me that no warranty applied and I approved the work.( I need the car and it has to be state-inspected this month.)

That night I went on the net and learned the specifics of the Federal Emissions Warranty ( cars sold after 1995 have to carry a *transferable* 80,000 - 8 yr. warranty against defective components in their emissions systems; my car is 2001 with 62k miles).

Called Hyundai Corp the next day and they agreed that it should be a warranty repair. Hyundai called the dealer who told them the cc was not defective but was "plugged-up" or some such terminology, in other words was not properly maintained. I called the dealer myself and heard the same spiel. No refund, the part was not defective, the warranty does not apply.

Called the EPA ( in charge of this stuff, apparently). Got someone who is supposed to have special knowledge of automotive issues. He told me the only recourse is thru small claims court and he thought I would lose there 'cause I couldn't vouch for the maintenance during the first three years the car was on the road. (I'm the third owner.)
Somehow he struck me as less than expert in this area.


That's where it stands now. Yes , I did ask about the part and the dealer told me he might not be able to find it ( it was a couple weeks after the fact by then). Later he left me a message saying , in response to a question I had asked that Hyundai Corp. was the manufacturer of the cc... as well as the car. Did not specifically say he still had the part.

Here's a question: is there any way to determine that the cc he might produce at this point is actually the cc that he took off the vehicle?

Thanks for the help, midnight.

[midnight armadillo]

3. Probably not

Here's a question: is there any way to determine that the cc he might produce at this point is actually the cc that he took off the vehicle?

I'd say probably not! If they're claiming the cat plugged, then they'll blame it on something like a too-rich fuel mixture, which can be caused by bad spark plugs. In a fuel-injected car, nothing else really comes to mind...maybe bad fuel injectors? But spark plugs would be more likely. Then they blame you (or one of the prev owners) for not replacing the spark plugs in a timely fashion.

From the sound of it, I hate to say it, but I think you're out of luck on this one. You should probably have your mechanic replace the spark plugs, wires, and distributor (if this car has one) as a safeguard.

I've been in the same boat. My old Subaru Legacy wagon was bought 2 years ago from the original owner at a good price, and 10 months it needed a $2400 transmission rebuild. My mechanic had even inspected it, and neither one of us caught it. Some bargain :-(

You may want to post over at www.bobistheoilguy.com. While primarily the internet's premier site for mechanical lubrication (seriously), the amount of mechanical knowledge amongst its members is quite staggering and they're a friendly bunch.

[Smarmie Doofus]

4. Thanks... I think I'm out of luck too but.....

I finally did get someone at Washington DC EPA to agree to write a letter to Hyundai. We'll see where that leads.

In the meantime I'll surf over to bob, et al and see if someone there can help me.

Thanks again.

[jayfish]

6. If You Can, Contact The Previous Owner...

and find out if, when and where they might have had the plugs changed. Once you find out, you can contact the location that did the work and request a service history. You should also call an H dealer other than the one who replaced your cat and request a service history from them. This is a good CYA move when having any possible warranty work done on your car. It's better if you request this stuff before you have your car looked at but hindsight is 20/20.

Jay

[LTR]

5. How long are the spark plugs warrantied for?

Some companies (notably GM) put long-life plugs in their cars that are warrantied for 100K (quite a long time).

I don't trust those monster Hyundai 10/100 warranties. There's always a catch. After all, any part not covered by warranty has got to cost a fortune.