# Who has the highest warranty repair costs?



## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

I was talking with a friend the other day about my car repairs, and we spent some time adding up what the warranty repair costs for my car were for my current length of ownership. I'm easily past $5,000 and probably close to $6,000. 

That got me thinking to ask a question: Does anyone here have more? Who here can hold the record for highest warranty costs?


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## TheGingaBread (Jun 19, 2021)

A couple months ago when Georgia was getting all that hurricane rain, my younger brother hydroplaned my moms 2018 Cruze into a guard rail. The shop estimated to be around $8600-9000. The air bags deployed which I guess is why the price was so high. 

Edit: I also didn’t read the last bit of your message. 😅 this obviously didn’t fall under warranty stuff. My bad.


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## Snipesy (Dec 7, 2015)

I’ve had engine replacements before which can go into the $20,000 to $30,000 on a big old diesel.

On the Cruze my only warranty claim was an issue with the EGT2 sensor coming out and smacking the fan. I don’t have the papers but this was only like $700ish.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Snipesy said:


> I’ve had engine replacements before which can go into the $20,000 to $30,000 on a big old diesel.


Depending on the value of the vehicle, they'd probably just buy you out instead of replacing the engine.


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

I mean...we're at probably $10k in body damage from the most recent incident, but that's different...


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## boraz (Aug 29, 2013)

Barry Allen said:


> Depending on the value of the vehicle, they'd probably just buy you out instead of replacing the engine.


yeah

we had engine, transmission, aftertreatment warranties on all our western stars at work

12 of em....each one got at least 1 engine, each one got a transmission (allison 6speed auto) and each one got a new one box (all in one dpf/scr)

price of warranty was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay cheaper than any of those costs, except in downtime, it was always weeks for each 

it was cheaper for us to pay for an engine and swap it out ourselves and be back to work, making money sooner.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Most of my invoices don't have costs so we had to ballpark it.

My first CEL was for the EGR cooler bypass valve and that ended with the technician saying GM technical at HQ told him to replace the EGR cooler assembly. We guessed that was $1,000 minimum since the part was pretty costly and it involved a coolant flush and other labor.

Another CEL was an exhaust gas temperature sensor. The technician stripped the threads when removing it (it was bound up tight even when heated with a torch) and they had to replace the entire DPF under warranty. We guessed that was $2,500 minimum since the DPF is expensive and the labor for that and the sensor.

Then the whole clutch slave cylinder debacle involved removing the transmission to change a cheap part. With everything involved, we guessed $2,000.

On top of the clutch, GM paid me $500 for the TSB on the clutch hydraulic pipework. I had to go to small claims court for that, but they paid.

Last item was a NOx sensor that the cost was maybe $250, so we guessed $350-400 with diagnosis and labor.

I'm past $6,000 with all that stuff above.


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## phil1734 (Aug 30, 2019)

Parts only, and based on the "list price" of various online GM parts databases.
Manual Trans: $2,000**
Battery: $170 (x2)
Def pump: $250
NOx sensor: $280 (x2)
Clock Spring: $70
EGR Cooler: $410

Sub-total: $3,360

My local dealer bills at $135, so if we estimate 20 hours total, labor adds another $2,700.

Estimated grand total: $6,060, and this still doesn't include shop supplies/fluids/gaskets/single use fasteners/etc.

If we want to add in dealer loaners for ~70 days, (60 for the trans debacle alone,) at $35/day = another $2,450 submitted to GM on my behalf.

Oh, and they never were able to diagnose or repair the heated steering wheel and the bluetooth mic that both worked intermittently.

**Trans was actually replaced twice - sort of. They had the first replacement 90% installed before they realized it was the wrong one.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

phil1734 said:


> Manual Trans: $2,000**
> 
> **Trans was actually replaced twice - sort of. They had the first replacement 90% installed before they realized it was the wrong one.


I must have missed the story - why did you need the transmission replaced?

And how do you order the wrong one? Was it a gasoline/diesel mixup and they transmissions have different gear ratios?


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## phil1734 (Aug 30, 2019)

It had a fluid leak and there was no service procedure to open it and replace only whatever was leaky, so the whole unit got replaced.

I'm not entirely sure what happened, but they had the replacement trans in the car, lowered the lift to put in the final mount on top of the trans and realized that the bolt pattern for that mount didn't line up with my mount, and was clearly different from the original trans they took out. Called around and every trans they could find in the country had the "wrong" bolt pattern machined in it somehow. So GM had to collect all ~12 of them and send them to be reworked, then redistributed back to my dealer and back into my car. Start to finish was two days short of two months, and I actually hit the maximum number of miles you're allowed on a dealer loaner and had to take that one in so they could swap it for another (if they go over 3,000 miles on the odometer they aren't allowed to sell them as "new.")


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

phil1734 said:


> I actually hit the maximum number of miles you're allowed on a dealer loaner and had to take that one in so they could swap it for another (if they go over 3,000 miles on the odometer they aren't allowed to sell them as "new.")


That must be a state law thing, or an internal GM policy. My parents bought a left-over 2014 Hyundai Sonata with 4,800 miles on it. Had been used as a loaner, shuttle, runaround, etc. but never titled. It was sold to them at a substantial discount (last 2014 left on their lot) so they paid about $14,000. It was still sold as "new" because it hadn't been titled, so in the computer the powertrain warranty was valid through 104,800 miles.

Then, their car was part of the engine recall to check for metal shavings and the powertrain warranty on the engine was extended to 120,000 miles regardless of age.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

phil1734 said:


> It had a fluid leak and there was no service procedure to open it and replace only whatever was leaky, so the whole unit got replaced.


Wonderful. I wonder how that's going to impact owners in the future who need their transmission fixed and the repair, by the book, is "replace it."


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## phil1734 (Aug 30, 2019)

Barry Allen said:


> Wonderful. I wonder how that's going to impact owners in the future who need their transmission fixed and the repair, by the book, is "replace it."


Honestly it's probably not that big of a deal. Even a re-man from GM is only $2,000. A junkyard is probably selling it for half that, and in a few more years they'll be half that again, to the point it's not even worth your own labor trying to crack one open.

For perspective, one of my other cars is an old Pontiac Solstice. It shares its rear differential with the CTS, STS, and SRX of the era, and they all have a slew of problems with the diff. Back in the day there were no service procedures or service parts available to the techs and GM said the same thing - replace, don't repair. It seems wasteful, but it's just cheaper. And now that all those cars are getting to be 15+ years old, the service parts are finally available, but a used unit is $200 from the junkyard. No way am I going to spend $450 on a rebuild kit that I have to assemble and set pinion depths and risk forgetting a shim and botching the whole thing when I can get one plug and play from a yard and swap it in 45 minutes.

I'd actually be curious if anyone knows if suppliers get those units back and turn them into re-mans, or if there's something in those supplier contracts about GM not diagnosing or repairing those parts under warranty, similar to what's going on with LG and the Bolt batteries.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

phil1734 said:


> It had a fluid leak and there was no service procedure to open it and replace only whatever was leaky


That seems really odd because there are literally millions of cars that use the M32 gearbox. It's so widespread in Europe that some repair shops specialize in it:









M32 Guy - Gearbox Specialist for Vauxhall, Fiat & Alfa Romeo


M32 gearbox specialist for Vauxhall, Fiat & Alfa Romeo. Exchange gearboxes & courier service available. We also specialise in diagnostic and repair of Vauxhalls. General repairs, MOT's & servicing undertaken on most makes & models. Email - [email protected] Call - 0754647 32 32



m32guy.co.uk





I guess the USA is just terrible about manual transmission repair/rebuild.


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## Cruz15 (Mar 17, 2016)

Barry Allen said:


> I was talking with a friend the other day about my car repairs, and we spent some time adding up what the warranty repair costs for my car were for my current length of ownership. I'm easily past $5,000 and probably close to $6,000.
> 
> That got me thinking to ask a question: Does anyone here have more? Who here can hold the record for highest warranty costs?


I can talk about my 2015 repairs but not my 2018 which has only had a EGR cooler. I should have kept my 2015 it was awesome!!


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## MRO1791 (Sep 2, 2016)

I'd have to do some digging, but the DMF failure that led to pulling the transmission at 12,000 miles and replacement of the clutch system, flywheel, etc. certainly was not cheap.


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