How to Escalate Extended Emissions Warranty Claim

Took the car in for a warranty service to remedy some codes (P0401, P0674, P2002, P1005, P1006) and they're stating that there is a poorly repaired harness affected by "outside influence" and as a result they won't warranty the repair. Not sure what to say, as I didn't do that repair and we bought the car used without any service records so it's most likely that was there from before.

My options are to pay over $500 to repair about 10 feet of harness to VW spec and then they'll continue to diagnose (force regen, etc) the EGR/DPF issues. The wiring goes to the exhaust flap (already replaced during recall). No word on the glow plug wiring or the detected torque differences in cylinder 2 and 3.

Couple questions.

Service advisor said on the phone that they noticed the wiring when the car was in for emissions recall and didn't say anything to me or VW. Say what? A) why not tell me at the time so I can fix it and ensure the car is compliant? B) isn't it their problem now, since they knew about the issue, didn't advise me, and carried forward with the emissions recall while aware of the issue?

I've already cashed the settlement cheque, and have documentation from VWoC stating I have a valid extended emissions warranty. Which now seems worth less than the paper said warranty is printed on...

What would you guys do? I want to try to work it out locally, without having to deal with VWoC if possible... but am not averse to escalating if required.

I would pay to have the non-warrantable item repaired. Not sure it could be any simpler. If you crash your car into a pole, set it on fire, or push it off a cliff, that is an outside influence and would not be under the warranty either, right?

I know it sucks, but you happened to buy a broken car. It happens. I would be just wanting it resolved right now, and continue on and hope they can get it repaired properly with a minimum of fuss.

That's fair, and I do understand your point. That's the reason I'm not hitting the panic button right away with an escalation...

However, what really confuses me is when she told me on the phone that they knew about the defect when it was in for the emissions recall. They turned me away before (twice) due to MILs related to glow plugs and then later due to the G450/451 sensors, which I replaced to ensure compliance. Why not tell me about the wiring at that time, before accepting it for recall? Don't they own it at that point?

No, they don't. I don't know if you work in healthcare, but this isn't like missing a wound on patient admission. It doesn't work that way.

The car was operating properly when they did the emissions recall. They installed the parts they were contracted to install. The car operated properly when they finished. Unless your problem involves some part of the emissions system, you're on your own unfortunately.

I'd be annoyed that they didn't mention it to me, too, but that doesn't make them responsible for it now.

So they noticed it was deficient, didn't tell me, or VW because it would have voided the warranty, and now they won't honour the warranty they commissioned? Doesn't make sense.

I am surprised they didn't tell you at the time that there was an issue. My VW garage did the emissions fix and then called to tell me the mechatronics unit needed replacing. I told them their timing sucked because if they would have found the mechatronics issue before the fix, I would have stopped them and changed to the turn in. Between that and the standard 120,000 miles service, there went about half of my VW money.

I feel for you but agree that it's probably on your dime to get the harness fixed.

PRY4SNO said:

So they noticed it was deficient, didn't tell me, or VW because it would have voided the warranty, and now they won't honour the warranty they commissioned? Doesn't make sense.

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One possible reason for not telling you is that they can charge you money to fix the non-warrantable issue. If they told you when you were leaving their shop, you could have went to another independent shop and had it fixed cheaper. Now that you are in their shop again, it would be a pain in the a$$ for you to take the car and fix the problem somewhere else and then bring it back for warranty work.

Seems straight forward to me.

cleaver said:

One possible reason for not telling you is that they can charge you money to fix the non-warrantable issue. If they told you when you were leaving their shop, you could have went to another independent shop and had it fixed cheaper. Now that you are in their shop again, it would be a pain in the a$$ for you to take the car and fix the problem somewhere else and then bring it back for warranty work.

Seems straight forward to me.

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If they hadn't previously sent me away to fix issues I would be more inclined to believe this, but since they didn't I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I've asked for clarification about the wiring, I'll post when I know more. Thanks everyone for the replies.

Long story short:

I capitulated and had VW fix the wiring harness, they charged me a touch less than quoted for that job and full value for diagnosis and a forced regen which nearly doubled the original quote. Not very happy about how this was handled, to say the least. At no point in time was any estimate provided for the other services, just the wiring repair so there was a large degree of sticker shock when it came time to retrieve the car. Stealership, indeed.

Waiting for the codes to reappear, which they will, because in all likelihood the DPF is cracked which has clogged the EGR filter which throws codes for P0401 & P0674 and has made the tailpipe sooty.

Interesting story. The cover over the wiring to my exhaust flap was in poor condition last I looked at it. I suppose should the wiring fail, and I fix it myself I might void the warranty on anything related to the flap, if the repair caused the flap to fail.

Similar to when the body shop replacing the front fenders of my MK IV ( under vw warranty) offered to fix a very minor ding in the rear quarter for a reasonable price. I now understand that repair resulted in VW denying me the perforation warranty on that panel, even though the perforation was nowhere near the repair.

Wait a second here, I am thinking slowly tonight.
How is the flap failure related to the rest of the problems you have/ had? My flap was stuck open for 6 months and nothing happened other than no NOx regens and better fuel economy. The low pressure EGR system isn’t related to the DPF. (Or wasn’t pre fix)

VW replaced the flap with the fix.