Is my car problem covered under warranty is one of the common questions I receive here at the auto repair information blog. In most cases this is a question that I can only shed some light on because ultimately whether it is covered under warranty or not is unfortunately a question that the dealership has to answer.

crankshaft position sensor

As an example let’s say the crankshaft position Sensor has failed on your vehicle and it wouldn’t start. Parts and labor including towing would be covered under the base factory warranty. But what if external damage is what caused the problem to the car part.

External damage is considered an accident and not covered under the base warranty. Example: The factory will not be responsible if the automobile fell into a sinkhole and this broke the crank sensor. It would be considered an accident. This means that it is really up to the dealership to determine what has caused the part to fail and whether it will be covered under warranty.

Although many dealerships are honest about this I have worked for a few that were not. I have seen service advisers more interested in how much money that particular customer has spent at the dealership in prior visits and use this to decide what failure code would be entered in the claim. Continue reading →