would DIY maintenance void the warranty
 

Hi all, new here. I have just bought a 2014 FRS still under bumper to bumper and powertrain warranty. Before having this car, I've been doing 95% car maintenance myself. so when the dealership told me seriously to send the car in regularly (7.5k miles) to service and oil change, it's a bizarre feeling.

Well, I clearly don't want to spend 100+ dollars just to do oil change each time. I wonder if I do the oil change and other maintenance myself but keep the records (receipts and logs) the best i can, would dealership still give me a hard time when I want to use the warranty?

any experience on this? or should I just send it in and dealership steal money from me so to keep the warranty alive?

thanks a ton!

It's true that the only way to be 100% sure the dealership won't screw you is to have them do the work. However, if you keep receipts and records you should be fine.

I personally keep my receipts and take pics while I'm working, including a pic of the odometer.

In the USA, I understand that most dealerships will honor DIY maintenance such as oil and filter changes.

Just keep good records. I would suggest you have a dedicated notebook and each service that you do would contain receipts for oil and filter purchase, a picture of the recorded mileage, the page dated and brief description of what you did.


humfrz

Keep a log like mention as well as all you reciepts. @Tcoat gave good advice in a different thread about taking a picture of the reciept with the odometer so everything is matched up. I would still keep a paper log as well just to duplicate everything with the hardcopy of the recipet

Even that is only 99% sure from what I hear about some dealers!
If you have the ability to date and time stamp the pic it is even better.

In the US, if a dealer gives you shit about honoring the warranty, but you have met you maintenance responsibilities, you simply take them to arbitration or sue them. You'll pay for the repairs up front if you don't want to wait to get your car back on the road, but they'll end up reimbursing you for it when the judge or arbitrator rules against them. The Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act puts most of the power in the hands of the consumer.

Also, Carfax released this maintenance app: https://www.mycarfax.com/?s_id=INT_CFX_V13

You can input your DIY services on there and they should show up on your Carfax report. All other services at reporting dealers/shops will also show up, usually the day after you get your car back.

In addition to the app, I'll start keeping separate records as suggested by everyone else up top, pictures too.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

I went with Subaru factory 0w-20 for my first change at around 3500 miles. They gave billed me for 5w-20. I caught it and they switched the bottles out, but didn't give me a new receipt. It didn't occur to me until later that this could be a potential denial of warranty... Should I keep this one off the books? I considered taking a picture of the receipt and bottle, but it'd be way to easy to argue against that.

First off, there ain't that much difference between 0w-20 and 5w-20.

I'd suggest you just note what happened in your maintenance log.

If a dealership would try to deny warranty service over that small differences in the oil ....... tell them that you know this old, retired guy in Puyallup, WA, with lots of spare time on his hands, that would just love to make a "project" out of that dealership ...... :paddle:


humfrz

:lol: Sounds good to me, thanks!