Warranty responsibilities by owner


Purchsed new 2007 Hyunda Sonata GLS in December 2006. To do my part in living up to warranty should I do all recommended replacements by the manufacturer? How about dealer recommended actions at specified mileage time lines? Such as coolant, auto transaxle oils.

You only have to follow Hyunda’s recommended services…NOTHING ELSE. The dealer recommended services (if different then the manufacturers) are nothing more then profit generating services for the dealer and NOT NEEDED.

Agree with Mike. But make sure you DO follow the owner’s manual and all those items required. There are also a number of items called “owner’s responsibility” and cover checking the oil, tires, other fluid levels. If you neglect these you may find your warranty is void if that item develops a problem.

We get posts every now and then with such excuses as “I did not know I had to check the oil, coolant and transmission fluid”. They are all spelled out in the owner’s manual.

There is no such thing as VOID an entire warranty.

They can deny a specific claim if they have belief a service item was not performed AND it is related. Usually service receipts and correct level fluids if related are all that are needed.

There should be a maintenance schedule with the owner’s manual. Your responsibility is to follow it as written.

Dealers have a financial incentive to recommend “more,” or more frequent maintenance. You can take their recommendations or not, it’s up to you, but you MUST follow the factory maintenance schedule to keep the warranty in effect.

You don’t have to have the work performed by a Hyundai dealer, but you must keep accurate records with receipts to prove the work was done.

Agree Andrew, the entire warranty is not voided, but a specific claim might be, if required warranty items were ignored.

I’ll second mcparadise. A few years back my Mother-in-Law had a 2002 Accent. She was driving about 2k a years. The dealer refused a warranty repair because the maintenance (oil changes) wasn’t done at the dealer. She had kept all the maintenance receipts so the warranty was honored reluctantly by the dealer. Whether it is a Hyundai policy or a lousy dealer, I cannot say.

Just do the maintenance as required in the Owner’s Manual and save your receipts.

Ed B.

Originally Honda had some words in the owners manual that the routine maintenance had to be done by the dealer. This clearly violated US dept of Commerce regulations. The customer bought a Honda car, not a Honda maintenance contract.

Honda has now fallen in line with other manufcturers and merely states that the work has to be done (by someone capable).

I had an interesting warranty claim a few years ago. Our 1994 Nissan Sentra developed a radiator leak 200 miles before the power train warranty was up.

The local dealer asked me if the leak was in the FRONT or the REAR of the rad. It was in the rear of the radiator, and the rad and coolant was replaced and all hoses and clamps checked free of charge. The dealer did not ask to see proof of any coolant service or checks. I suspect they knew that the leak was something not caused by negligence. They did say, however, if the leak was in the FRONT of the rad, no warranty could apply since it could have been caused by a flying stone or other object. We live near the mountains and there are a lot of gravel roads.

Ed,this is important,what was the warranty repair that was denied due to a non-Dealer performed maintiance item? Could you provide as much detail as possible/ We need to get this info. out to our readers.

Thank you for your guidance.

Orlin

Thank you for your input.

Orlin

I’m sorry, it was 4 or 5 years ago and I don’t remember the details. I believe the only non-dealer maintenance performed were oil changes.

It stuck in my mind because the dealer went out of their way to deny the warranty to a 77 year old woman. I’ve never been required to show proof of maintenance in any warranty work I’ve had done (Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge, and Toyota). I think it was more of a dealer issue than a Hyundai issue.

Ed B.