I would be willing to pay for the new coolant not to have the old one reused.
As far as my experience, I have only had warranty work done by Ford and Hyundai and with both, it seems like they get authorization from the manufacturer prior to the repair being done. One assumes part of the “discussion” would be the cost.
In the medical business, the insurance companies have contracts with providers and the rate is set. You can look at any bill from your dentist, they charge XX amount but it is reduced to X by the insurance. A lot of times the benefit of having the insurance is that you pay the contracted rate rather than the inflated cash costumer rate. I assume car manufacturers should do something similar with the dealers.
There is no bill for warranty work. For retail work you will pay for coolant, it saves time for the technician. Warranty work on vehicles is generally performed at low miles/years.
When performing repairs on older vehicles I save the old coolant if it has recently been replaced. Other techs have no problem charging out $60 for two gallons of coolant.
Way back when the glaciers were still retreating I worked at a couple different new car dealers, Volkswagen and Mazda.
Mechanics were frequently “hosed” doing warranty work on cars and in fact, if a mechanic did too much of it they could actually have trouble earning enough to feed the family.
Sometimes, (Under the radar? A real no-no in some shops!) when a mechanic was given a nasty warranty job, he was also compensated with a “gravy job” customer pay job, like “brakes around.”
What I really thought was outstanding was when a mechanic found a work-around or shortcut to performing a warranty repair that would allow a job to be performed in considerably less than the book time.
Now, thanks to the internet, on occasion, I’ve done something similar, while working on my own cars. I will look up a repair or part replacement in my factory service manual set to see what steps need to be followed and then search the web for a work-around or shortcut. Example: Instead of taking apart a dashboard to replace a hazard switch, as the service manual requires, I did it in just a couple of minutes using photos/video from the internet.
Not often, but once in a while, a mechanic can figure out a way to “hose” the manufacturer back a bit on warranty repairs. Heck, we even had guys at the dealership who were creative enough to fashion a new tool that didn’t exist in order to cruise through frequently doled out, repetitive warranty operations. CSA
I would have no issue reusing coolant or even oil depending on condition. It’s a car not a rocket ship going to Mars. In the unlikely event any debris gets into it while the repair is underway, that can be dealt with by pouring it back in through a screened funnel. Even if the mech didn’t use a pristine container, it’s not going to cause any issues at all. Again, this isn’t like putting blood back into a human, it’s a car. I’m not saying they are all like this but I’ve had a number of friends that were dealer and independent mechanics and what goes on behind the curtain might unnerve you if you think this must be a pristine environment for your delicate engine. It’s like sausage, you do not want to know how that’s made…
There are numerous repair procedures that require draining fluids but have no connection to the failed part. Even then, the number of failures that would result in significant contamination of the fluid is very low IMO. Those can be managed by exception. I had a gasket fail on a truck I owned. Surprisingly, it allowed oil into the coolant. That truck ran around like that for quite a while before I noticed the coolant had oil in it. It never showed any ill effects of the oil either during or after the coolant was simply drained and refilled. Oil skim was present for the several years after that I owned it. 375k miles on that truck when I sold it to a guy and he used it for a couple of years doing deliveries. A little oil in the drain container isn’t going to do squat…as an example.
People that don’t have any relevant experience tend to operate on fear of the unknown or perceived problems. I get it. Engines are expensive for most people that can’t, or don’t want, to do the work. But to throw away perfectly good fluids out of mostly irrational fear…it’s a big waste.
When I was in the dealer, we always reused coolant for warranty work. That was the norm.
I vaguely recall frequently reusing it for customer pay work if it wasn’t contaminated.
