My understanding is that the service department pays the bills...and the largest percentage of service work is covered under warranty.
Void Warrenty
- Thread starter toofast4u
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My understanding is that the service department pays the bills...and the largest percentage of service work is covered under warranty.
Here’s my service department story:
I run a carpet and furniture cleaning business. We use GMC 1 ton vans that are modified by the cleaning equipment manufacture (The Butler Corp) http://www.butlersystem.com/mainframe.html . They run a drive shaft from the cargo bay to the engine and add one pulley to the front of the engine to power it. It is a very clean setup using GM parts to run the equipment. They have been around for over 20 years. We use GMC due to the good relationship Butler and GM have had over the years. Ford, which I get A-Plan, has a memo out that could be read to say “deny warranty” service on the vans so I pay the extra and buy GMC.
This May a technician calls me from his 2000 GMC van, 26000 miles old, and is broke down. We tow the van to the local dealer. I was thinking the alternator was bad since it was a “no crank”. The dealer calls me the next day and tells me the crankshaft is broken and that the engine has been modified. I tell him to slow down and call Butler. I take in all my maintenance records that show oil changes every 1500 miles. Next day he calls and says the “new” district manager was in to look at this. Conclusion: engine modified; warranty void! Cost to fix $5800.00, would you like to order that sir?
I called Butler. They say GM has had plenty of broken crankshafts and that they have never had one on a Butler system. They call there local GM representative. Back and forth, back and forth. Butler calls and says these things happen and the local dealer is banking that the one with the most interest in this vehicle (ME) will just buy a new engine. I do nothing. Except keep calling Butler Corp.
Two weeks pass the dealer insists that I am responsible; the pulley put stress on the bearings. And that the new district rep is very strict and doesn’t care about these Butler people in Massachusetts. That I can buy an engine and then get a metallurgist to diagnose the old one. If they conclude that the crank was defective I could recoup my money from GM later. I told they that’s what they should do.
Bottom line is you can’t fight these guys by yourself. Butler and the original selling dealership stepped in and said they were going to ship the van from Michigan back to Massachusetts where the selling dealer could or would get the work warranted by GM.
GM finally hears what is taking place and says that’s stupid. Shipping a van 800 miles just so they can pay for it anyway. They step in and stop the shipping of the van; and ship an engine to the local dealer who STILL INSISTS I JUST MADE THE RIGHT CALLS AND GOT A FREE ENGINE!
I run a carpet and furniture cleaning business. We use GMC 1 ton vans that are modified by the cleaning equipment manufacture (The Butler Corp) http://www.butlersystem.com/mainframe.html . They run a drive shaft from the cargo bay to the engine and add one pulley to the front of the engine to power it. It is a very clean setup using GM parts to run the equipment. They have been around for over 20 years. We use GMC due to the good relationship Butler and GM have had over the years. Ford, which I get A-Plan, has a memo out that could be read to say “deny warranty” service on the vans so I pay the extra and buy GMC.
This May a technician calls me from his 2000 GMC van, 26000 miles old, and is broke down. We tow the van to the local dealer. I was thinking the alternator was bad since it was a “no crank”. The dealer calls me the next day and tells me the crankshaft is broken and that the engine has been modified. I tell him to slow down and call Butler. I take in all my maintenance records that show oil changes every 1500 miles. Next day he calls and says the “new” district manager was in to look at this. Conclusion: engine modified; warranty void! Cost to fix $5800.00, would you like to order that sir?
I called Butler. They say GM has had plenty of broken crankshafts and that they have never had one on a Butler system. They call there local GM representative. Back and forth, back and forth. Butler calls and says these things happen and the local dealer is banking that the one with the most interest in this vehicle (ME) will just buy a new engine. I do nothing. Except keep calling Butler Corp.
Two weeks pass the dealer insists that I am responsible; the pulley put stress on the bearings. And that the new district rep is very strict and doesn’t care about these Butler people in Massachusetts. That I can buy an engine and then get a metallurgist to diagnose the old one. If they conclude that the crank was defective I could recoup my money from GM later. I told they that’s what they should do.
Bottom line is you can’t fight these guys by yourself. Butler and the original selling dealership stepped in and said they were going to ship the van from Michigan back to Massachusetts where the selling dealer could or would get the work warranted by GM.
GM finally hears what is taking place and says that’s stupid. Shipping a van 800 miles just so they can pay for it anyway. They step in and stop the shipping of the van; and ship an engine to the local dealer who STILL INSISTS I JUST MADE THE RIGHT CALLS AND GOT A FREE ENGINE!
I have done everything from Bring Donuts give the guy $$$ just to ask.. Do not mess my car up.. Every single time I got screwed. Scratchs, dents, one time they lifted my Lightning up from the fender and crushed it. Smashed in my oil pan by supporting the motor with a pole of some sort. Just a long list of upsetting stories. When you take your car to the dealer. 2 things I have seen that make me sick. I've seen them replace parts with a replacement ford part that was of far less quality than the origanal part installed from the plant. Either Ford could not get it in a box.. or they just made it cheaper. Down to just plain a simply not caring about your car. Not all dealerships are this way, but everyone I have ran into opperates this way. They get paid so little to work on your car and if they mess it up, sorry is about the best they can do. I wish I could say I'm wrong..
Im sorry but this local dealer is nuts. If GM steps in and say fix it under warranty then who are they to say that it still should not of been covered.
99CobraSupercharged I completely agree with you. Something needs to be serously wrong for me to bring my car in to the shop because it never come out the same. What I actually have done is stay at the dealership and stand as close as I can get and watch the work being done. My best friends use to work at dealerships and they were the only people I ever let touch my car.
Cobra03,
I think you are right regarding the 6spd... 450 lbs sounds about right... I do know it's not the Viper tranny - aside from the ratios being different, the Viper version has a higher torque rating...
I think you are right regarding the 6spd... 450 lbs sounds about right... I do know it's not the Viper tranny - aside from the ratios being different, the Viper version has a higher torque rating...
Getting warranty work from your dealer really depends on the dealer and how friendly they are with mods. Sure you can quote the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act of 1987 and throw it in their face all you want, but if they don't want to fix it, because of mods, you will go through hell getting them to do so.
All the dealers around here refused to replace my T-45 under warranty, for the famous 1-2 grind and popping out of reverse, because I had gears and springs. Those were my only mods. No cat-back, no x-pipe, no chip, just the gears and springs. They said I raced my car and that is what caused the trans to grind and pop out of reverse. They blamed "all of those racing modifications you put on". Every single tranny tech that drove my car refused to admit there was a problem. I went on test drives with them and they put it in reverse to back up and it popped out of gear and I yelled "there, see" and they would put it in reverse and say "what, I don't see anything". I lost enough money taking day's off from work, arguing with managers, techs and writers, that I could've purchaced a new T-45. In the end that's what I ended up doing. I couldn't afford to lose any more money fighting with those fu**ing morons so I called D&D and ordered one from them.
BTW, I used to work as a tech at a Ford dealer. They really don't like warranty work, there is more money in customer pay tickets than in warranty, and that's where they like to play.
Mod at your own risk. Caveat emptor.
All the dealers around here refused to replace my T-45 under warranty, for the famous 1-2 grind and popping out of reverse, because I had gears and springs. Those were my only mods. No cat-back, no x-pipe, no chip, just the gears and springs. They said I raced my car and that is what caused the trans to grind and pop out of reverse. They blamed "all of those racing modifications you put on". Every single tranny tech that drove my car refused to admit there was a problem. I went on test drives with them and they put it in reverse to back up and it popped out of gear and I yelled "there, see" and they would put it in reverse and say "what, I don't see anything". I lost enough money taking day's off from work, arguing with managers, techs and writers, that I could've purchaced a new T-45. In the end that's what I ended up doing. I couldn't afford to lose any more money fighting with those fu**ing morons so I called D&D and ordered one from them.
BTW, I used to work as a tech at a Ford dealer. They really don't like warranty work, there is more money in customer pay tickets than in warranty, and that's where they like to play.
Mod at your own risk. Caveat emptor.
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Thanks for the correction - I am defintely going to lube the box with Red Line - I want the best thermal and stress protection for a warmed up Cobra!
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