QuestionI have a dilemna. I am trying to get my head gasket paid by the dealer, that is covered for 100,000 miles. I was driving on freeway and car overheated, light came on, above hot, pulled over right away and had car towed to Hyundai dealer. My car has about 85,000 miles. They told me that it needed a radiator and thermastat. I said ok, they put them in, and water shot up from car. Then they said it needed a Head Gasket, and didn't know what else till they worked on car.
I was told since I am original owner, that it would be covered with my 100,000 mile warranty from a guy in service dept. When I was there less then 2 weeks ago, they recommended thermastat & coolant fluid exchange. A lot of times Dealers recommend something, but don't say it is urgent, necessary.
So now they are trying to say that because I didn't replace the thermastat, that I am responsible for engine? They did write on my invoice because I asked them, there was a valve cover gasket seaping they cleaned it off, I want to know if this could cause the head gasket to blow?
Please help, I've been without my car since last Thursday, and don't think I should have to pay for the head gasket, it should be covered under my warranty.
Thank you.
AnswerThe valve cover gasket leaking or seeping will not cause a head gasket failure, but this leak is covered by your 10 year/100,000 mile warranty if you're the original owner.
The important piece of information in regard to whether the head gasket will be covered is what caused the failure in the first place. Your warranty, much like most warranties, covers repairs based on the component that was defective that caused your problem in the first place. In my experience, that's rarely the head gasket with this engine. Most frequently, head gasket failure is caused by severe overheating of the engine. This leads us then to what caused the overheating. For example, if your coolant were low because the water pump was leaking, which in turn caused the overheating and subsequent head gasket failure, the necessary repairs would be covered because the water pump is a powertrain (10 year/100,000 mile) warranty item. On the other hand, if the thermostat stuck shut, causing the engine to overheat and damage the head gasket, this would not be covered, as the thermostat is a bumper-to-bumper (5 year/60,000 mile) item.
As to whether the coolant flush and thermostat replacement were necessary at the time they were recommended, I have no way of knowing. The reason for the recommendation should be documented on the dealership's records of the repair visit when they were recommended. And a good service advisor would have informed you of the reason for the recommendation.
If the dealership is saying the repairs aren't covered because the thermostat was the failed component and you didn't replace it, well that leaves something of the wrong impression. In such a case, the repairs are not covered because the theremostat is presumably the original one that came with the vehicle and the warranty is expired on that part (like much of the rest of the vehicle). While it's true that if you'd replaced the thermostat, you would have a one year/12,000 warranty on that part from the purchase date (just like any other part you purchase and have installed at the Hyundai dealer), but in such a case the failure would be unlikely (but not impossible) to have happened in the first place since it would be a relatively new component.
