My car floorboards was flooded from a hurricane we had in Florida after the storm I drove my car around the block the check engine light came on. My car insurance had my car towed to a Hyundai dealership. The service advisor said he would need to do a diagnostic test to find out why the check engine light is on I said the insurance should pay for that so he went ahead and did the test. The insurance will not pay for the diagnostic test because the check engine light had nothing to do with the flooding of my car. So the dealership is saying I have to pay for the diagnostic test But I did not tell the service advisor I would pay for the test. I told him if he had told me the insurance won’t pay for the diagnostic test then I would of said don’t do the test and I would take it somewhere else to have it looked at. Should I be responsible for a test they did without my permission?
Yes , you are respnsible . You were told a diagnostic was needed and you said yes without verifying that insurance would pay for it.
Sorry to hear about your vehicle.
you did not exactly tell the dealer to only do the test if covered by the insurance. you said insurance should cover it.
so, you are responsible for the test.
I am surprised the insurance did not total the vehicle from the flood damage. you are likely to have all sorts of electrical problems from the water damage in your future.
sorry for more bad news. best of luck.
Seems like more a legal question than a car question. hmmm … I’m not a legal expert, but I’m guessing it depends upon the language in any documents you signed prior to the test being performed. If you didn’t sign anything, then it would depend on the exact language used in the conversations.
Another way to look at it. Irrespective of the flood, you need to have the car repaired right? So you can use it. If so, the diagnostic test is the first step in that process. Probably better to just proceed in the most efficient way that yields a repaired car.
I said the insurance should pay for the diagnostic test and he said HE would see if the insurance would cover it. Called me and said no the insurance won’t cover it. I told him I never said I would pay for it the diagnostic test is $400 . And I didn’t sign anything saying I would pay for it.
You may have a point legal-wise, but like I said above, make sure you are approaching this dispute based on your own best interest.
What exactly was done justifying the $400 fee? Was this all labor? How much time?
unfortunately, without anything in writing it becomes a he said / she said situation. if he does not agree with you about not paying, you should ask if he will split it with you. being you did not agree to pay if the insurance did not cover it.
Hmm, my dealership will not do an oil change without a signature.
So you implied insurance would pay and to do the test. And did this knowing full well you had no clue if insurance would pay or not.
You really expect that a service advisor would know what each individual insurance co. Will and won’t cover. That’s quite naïve.
Sorry but you’re on the hook for the charges, unless it’s determined the code was caused by flooding and the insurance covers flooding. Good luck.
The advisor is the one who said he would check if the insurance would cover it. He checked after my car was already tested.
He did check as he said he would. Look at this as a learning experience . Questions need to be asked and answered before, not after the fact. All of life is a learning experience.
The service advisor has informed me he is waiving my diagnostic fee. I’m very thankful he saw where I was coming from I do believe I will be his customer for a long time. Thank you to everyone who responded to me with your advice and opinions .
It’s a catch 22. You can’t determine it is from the flood without the diagnostics. Not the dealers fault it’s not from the flood. Dealers are usually pretty up front with things like this. I had my car in and they told me ahead of time if diagnostics showed it was a warranty item, they would pay, but if not I would have to pay. I ended up paying the $130. I don’t remember what it was for.
If water got into your car…wet floors, wet trunk… your discussions with the insurance and dealer are just beginning.
Floodwaters are essentially sewage. If you live near the coast, it is salt sewage. Both require every soft surface wetted to be removed and cleaned or replaced. Carpet, padding, door panels, seats…all of it needs to come out to be sanitized and dried. If left alone, the car will smell and be a hazard to your health.
Corrosion of electrical wiring parts has already begun. That will cause lots of future problems.
If it was coastal salt water, the corrosion is even faster and the problems worse.
Even if insurance would have covered it, I’m sure you have a deductible before their payment kicks in. I doubt $400 would have reached that limit. Insurance is for protection against major expenses, not smaller things.
It may come under your home insurance rather than car insurance.
Yes they will strip down the car everything will be taken out but it makes me sick to think how much damage could be to the wiring because they didn’t start working on the car until 3 weeks later. Called the shop told them they better start working on right now . Not liking how they were dragging their feet. Insurance told the shop to start working on the car two weeks ago.
??? In normal times a typical shop will have a backlog of about a week (at least around here). Meaning if you call me today and say your check engine light is on and your car is running rough, I’ll say I can look at it late next week.
If your car was damaged in a recent hurricane, so were thousands of other cars, and the shop is probably struggling to keep up with the workload. 3 weeks sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Maybe someone in that part of the country can chime in to confirm or refute?
When my transmission went out when we had a very cold snap in Minnesota, it took the dealer a week to even have space in their lot to be able to tow it in. Can’t imagine the backlog in Florida.
It took me getting on the phone and saying I want you to start working on my car right NOW for him to say I’m going to start on your car today .But I can’t get too angry with the shop he did waive my diagnostic fee. I’m concerned about the how long the water stayed in floorboard of my car.