I have an Endurance extended warranty and the head gasket blew. The head bolt stripped when the dealer was repairing, and now Endurance is refusing to pay. Their contracts require binding arbitration. Has anyone done that before? Any suggestions?
Sorry , John but even if someone had Endurance they might not see your post . Just do the Arbitrations and remain calm but stress you did not break the head bolt . Also if you have service records have them with you .
Well, according to their arbitration process, I have to initiate the process. Hire my own arbitrator and pay those fees. They hire an arbitrator that they pay, and then the two arbitrators hire a third arbitrator and we split the fees. Seems like a scam when you dig into the details, so I was hoping to find someone who had been through the process. It doesn’t have to be with Endurance. Anyone is fine.
What a mess. Sorry, I don’t have any advice. Hire your own arbitrator? And half of the third?? YIKES! Another terrible example of how extended warranty companies create barriers to making a claim.
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Pretty much decribes all vehicle extended warranties .
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Reason for denial? Usually the service contract has a list of specific failures that are covered by the warranty. Stripped bolt treads in the engine block aren’t normally listed as a failure covered by an aftermarket warranty. Stripped threads are typically caused by improper assembly, but not always.
Is this an old Toyota four-cylinder engine?
6-cylinder kia. it is 8 years old. supposedly failures by fasteners are not covered. But the head gasket didn’t leak because of the fastener, they just couldn’t replace the head gasket because of it.
Maybe it would be easier to sue them for false advertising. They say:
“There’s no hassle and no runaround”.
“Unlike other providers, our stress-free claims process means you get approved in as little as 48 hours.”
We’ve been dealing with this for months now. All we get is runaround.
Do you know what caused the head gasket to leak? The leak was result of something other than head bolt threads pulled out of the block?
Your contract should have the reason they explained listed, shouldn’t have taken months to communicate this information to you;
“L. For any Breakdown caused by rust, residue, electrolysis or corrosion. For any mechanical Breakdown caused by the failure of any nuts, bolts or fasteners unless
internally lubricated.”
The warranty companies know what they are doing, they won’t pay for damaged threads cause by a reckless mechanic during this repair or a previous repair. The thread failure may not have been caused by a technician but these exclusions are in the contract.
Sorry to here this, but it might be cheaper to just put a used engine in it and chalk it to lesson learned and see if they will pay for part of it, the amount that they agreed to for the head gasket repair… Might be cheaper then paying for 1 1/2 Arbitrators… I have never had to deal with this so I really don’t know how I would really deal with it but if it causes loss off work due to court and tings of that nature it might not be worth it in the end… Another words does the means justify the end?? Again this really sucks you are having to go through this…
Head gasket leak just caused by normal wear and tear. They first claimed we drove the car after it overheated, which we didn’t. Then they finally approved the head gasket repair. Then the dealer had the bolt incident. Supposedly it is a fairly common problem with the engine.
Yeah, I’m sure that’s what they are counting on. One problem is, the dealer already charged them for the failed head gasket repair.
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Not all extended warranties are scams, just the aftermarket ones. The factory warranties are generally honored but not always. We had a poster here a while ago whose Ford’s engine was destroyed by a factory installed spark plug that came apart and destroyed his engine,
Ford denied the claim because spark [lugs are not covered by the warranty!!!
All warranties are negotiable in price and you do0n’t necessarily have to buy the factory extended waranty from the dealer you buy the car from. Many dealers sell factory warranties online to out of state customers much cheaper than the selling dealer.
The car dealer generally makes more money selling you the warranty than the car.
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I bought the car used for about $20,000 and got the warranty to mitigate the risk of a costly repair. Like replacing the motor for $10,000. But it seems like I get the warranty and the pleasure of doing the repair as well.
Why are you using the extended warranty? It seems like the dealer made an error and is the one that should make you whole by fixing or replacing the engine.
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If it was my car, I would try to get the repair place to split out the costs for repairing the stripped bolt, pay that myself and move on. The warranty company is paying the lion’s share of the repair cost. If they won’t cover the cost of installing an insert in the block, then pay for that out of pocket and continue with the rest of the repair. The repair place is probably going to have to attest to the fact the failure was not caused by the stripped bolt but that the bolt was a casualty of the repair process.
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What if the warranty company paid everything covered under the terms warranty, and you agree to pay for the stripped head bolt repair yourself? Seems vastly less complicated than the arbitration process.
Meaningless. It is like one of those radio adverts that says they will extract you from IRS entanglement saying “with our help, you’ll pay pennies on the dollar”. Yeah, 100 pennies for each dollar … lol …
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1 headbolt hole is stripped? Or 2? Or 3?
Motor is now junk?
A shop will not install insert?
Even if you pay?
Warranty will pay for headgasket job.
They will not pay for 1 insert?
My daughter is going through a similar situation. She got the oil changed and when she got it back the splash shield under the CRV was rattling. Turns out they are dedicated rednecks since they used my duct tape to attach the shield to the rest of the splash shield. Anyway, she talked to the shop and they admitted that they stripped the bolts when they reattached the splash shield. Still, they refused to fix it saying that she didn’t really need it anyway. I told her to kick it up a notch. She will contact this chain’s customer service group and see what they have to say.
lol … reminds me of the parked car I saw the other day, entire left-front fender was covered (possibly made of) duct tape. It actually looked pretty presentable, at least while riding a bicycle from 10 feet away. I expect you’ll advise her to not buy the argument that part isn’t needed.