What isn't covered by a new-car warranty?

Tales of car companies and dealers refusing to ‘honour’ a new-car warranty are legendary.

You know the sort of thing... Fred’s son Johnny took his hot hatch to the track, the turbocharger exploded and the car company refused to pay the costs of repair and reinstatement.

Most car companies won’t pay out for a warranty claim if the vehicle is known to have competed in motorsport.

That’s not always the case, but it’s a safe bet most of the time, and it’s definitely something new-car buyers should know.

If you plan to use your car on a racetrack – and don’t know whether the warranty will cover that use – ask the service adviser at your dealership.

Motorsport competition is not the only exclusion applied in new-car warranties. The full range of exclusions applicable in the case of your car will be listed in the service and warranty schedule or logbook that shares the glovebox with the owner’s manual.

This service schedule is the booklet in which the dealer’s service department (or aftermarket workshop) records the date for each recommended service for your car. It may be an integral part of the owner’s manual, too.

It should be fairly obvious that consumable items are not covered by the warranty.

These are things like filters, for petrol, air and oil; spark plugs and leads; brake pads/shoes and rotors; timing belts, oil, transmission fluid and engine coolant – essentially, anything that could or should be changed as a matter of course during a scheduled service.

That said, big-ticket items such as clutches cannot be claimed under warranty if the service department can mount a convincing case that the clutch was long past its useful working life or had been subjected to some form of abuse.

The ‘convincing argument’ has to pass the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) test, which hinges on whether the clutch was of ‘acceptable quality’ and remained in service for ‘a reasonable time’.

Although it’s possible a clutch or a tyre could be replaced under warranty, if either shows signs of inexplicable wear or failure, in the main these items are not covered by the warranty.

A bubble in the sidewall of a tyre is likely to be a warrantable defect, but the tread worn down past the tread-wear indicators isn’t.

Heard the story about the tuner who melted a hole in the top of a Subaru STI piston while the car was on a dynamometer?

Car companies will deny warranty claims arising out of a modification that was not approved by the manufacturer.

It’s entirely possible that a chip to increase your engine’s performance could be grounds for denying a warranty claim, although some tuners, such as Alpina, do warrant their parts and the original equipment manufacturer in that case – BMW – will also honour the warranty, due to the close working relationship between the two companies.

Bolt an aftermarket turbocharger into your Corolla, however, and watch with bemusement just how fast the service adviser at your Toyota dealer can back away from offering a new engine, free of charge, after the original engine has destroyed itself at high revs.

So it’s not just the aftermarket part or modification that isn’t covered under the warranty, it’s also the car’s standard parts that have surrendered to their fate when you imposed upon them a modification that overstressed those parts.

Modifications that may be in contravention of your car’s warranty go beyond just changes to the powertrain.

Wheels and tyres that aren’t homologated for the car in accordance with Australian Design Rules (ADRs), or a two-inch lift kit for four-wheel drives, are also the sort of mods that can have an impact on the car’s warranty.

Structural modifications, like turning a coupe into a convertible, will present problems too.

Modifications can be the fitment of non-standard parts, or the reconfiguration of parts in a way not necessarily recommended by the manufacturer.

In the good old days, a modification like this might be something as simple as turning the lid of the air filter upside down to allow more air to be drawn into the carburettor. However, we’ve not heard that a warranty claim was ever denied for this sort of modification.

It’s not unknown for parents to buy their P-plate son or daughter a brand-new car, only to find two years down the track that the car hasn’t seen the inside of a workshop for servicing since it was pre-delivered.

And even letting the car’s service schedule fall behind by a few thousand kilometres can have drastic consequences down the track.

Car companies are pretty unequivocal on this point: You must have your car serviced in accordance with the logbook to stay within the terms and conditions of the warranty.

The car can still be serviced by an independent workshop (ie, not a dealer), as long as the car is serviced correctly.

But if the engine stops running one day, and after towing it to the nearest repairer it’s discovered that there’s no oil left in the sump, other than some sludge at the very bottom, don’t expect the car company that sold you the car to pick up the tab for the repair work.

Let’s say, for the sake of the argument, that you consider yourself to be pretty handy with a set of spanners and a Phillips-head screwdriver.

But if you unwittingly overtighten a wheel bearing, for instance, fit a thrust bearing the wrong way around or take the cheap route, using a smear of Silastic when you should be fitting a gasket, you have only yourself to blame when the part fails or leads to some other worse failure.

The car companies will exclude this type of unapproved mechanical work at home using an expression like “not in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations”.

That ‘Check engine’ light? Better see what the problem is.

Ignoring prolonged signs of a fault can result in denial of your warranty claim, particularly if the damage occurring could have been mitigated by taking the car straight to the local dealership or a workshop at the earliest convenience.

And it’s not just the check engine light. It’s also the temperature gauge reading unexpectedly high, or a protracted pinging noise from the engine or any sort of unusual sounds, particularly metal on metal grinding or screeching noises.

In other words, if there’s a sound or a visual tell-tale that is something you have never experienced before while driving the car, have it checked immediately.

That pinging noise from the engine mentioned above could be the sound of the engine attempting to combust fuel that is very poor quality.

It’s not fair to the consumer – since we have no way of knowing whether the fuel meets the required quality standard before we fill the tank with it – but it is specifically excluded as a basis for a warranty claim.

If you do fill the tank of your car with fuel that’s more water than petrol, you can sue the service station owner for all he’s worth – and you’ll likely have the full backing of consumer protection services, too.

Unfortunately, while you’re waiting for an outcome in court, your car is sitting in your driveway with a dead engine.

Your warranty obligations
• Don’t compete in any form of competitive motorsport
• Don’t conduct off-road torture tests beyond the vehicle’s capability
• Don’t modify the crap out of the car
• Don’t just cross your fingers and hope for the best when the car has an obvious problem
• Don’t DIY unless your day job actually is vehicle servicing and repair
• Don’t fill up at a service station with a shonky reputation for fuel quality
• Don’t tow too much or carry too much

A car that has endured a serious crash may have some unresolved mechanical problems that influence its long-term durability.

The car companies may resist paying for new CV joints or a leaking radiator if there’s clear evidence the car has left the road at high speed at some point in the past.

And if the car’s CV joints or radiator need replacing prior to the expiry date of the warranty, it’s practically certain that the lifespan of these parts has been diminished by the crash.

Abuse can mean essentially whatever the car company deems it to mean – as long as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is in agreement.

If you damage the exhaust system of an SUV, for example, and argue that it should be replaced under warranty on the grounds that it was not fit for purpose, the car company will likely have a counter response.

The exhaust system was not designed for that purpose, the manufacturer will argue, if you subjected the vehicle to a steep and rocky off-road climb that is only traversable with three diff locks, chunky tyres and a lift kit (and that may also void the warranty... see above).

On the other hand, what is ‘abuse’?

We’ve blown a rear diff in a soft-road SUV that should have been able to ascend one grade measuring a little over 25 degrees.

The car company accused us of ‘abuse’, but the vehicle was only being asked to climb a section of track that other SUVs had been able to climb – and those vehicles didn’t boast the same reputation for off-road ability.

Our view is that the vehicle concerned had endured frequent abuse from other media outlets before it reached us.

As we discussed at the beginning of this article, motorsport is one sure way to void the car’s warranty – in most cases, at least.

Overloading a vehicle is another, for obvious reasons.

Load a vehicle beyond its gross vehicle mass, and there will be ramifications.

It might be something as easily fixed as fatigued leaf springs, but it will still cost you, because the car company will note evidence that the vehicle has been overloaded, whether that’s scratches in the bump stops, for example, or high recorded temperatures for the transmission fluid.

If your car leaves you stranded in the middle of nowhere – whether or not that stranding is due to a warrantable defect – the car company will not pay for your hotel accommodation or car rental while you’re waiting for your vehicle to be repaired.

Some brands, especially prestige brands, may offer different warranty provisions. Spend big on a car with a desirable badge and the importer may stump up the cost of a night in the local motel.

For all the exclusions mentioned in this story, there will be exceptions. Some warranties may allow vehicle owners to indulge their passion for motorsport, and modifications may be permissible to some extent as well, particularly in the case of off-road machines.

Owners should always check with the dealer’s service adviser or the customer service hotline if there’s any doubt at all that the warranty will protect the consumer.