My Water Pump Warranty Experience

[bundiar]

Hello, new member here searching for advice and if others have ran into similar situation.

I have a 2017 VW GTI. Recently I started the car and it flashed a low coolant warning. I topped it off and took it to a local VW service department. A day later they called and said that the water pump was leaking coolant and it will be replaced under warranty. A day after that they called again and said that the thermostat housing also needed to be replaced...to which I agreed.

I go to pick up the car and find they charged $700 for the parts and labor for the thermostat housing replacement. I asked why exactly did it need to be replaced, and they said it was because of wear and tear and the mounting screws were rusty and damaged. It really sounded fishy but I didn't press anymore and paid the bill.

Later that same day I found the warranty document and it specifies that the water pump, thermostat and/or thermostat housing are eligible to be replaced under warranty if conditions are met.

I later went back to the dealership and asked why they did not also replace the the thermostat housing under warranty, and they said "VW only lets us replace the water pump or thermostat housing under warranty, it can't be both." They also said "the coolant leak was only coming from the water pump, so telling VW the thermostat housing also needed to be warranty would be lying."
They showed me the old thermostat housing and pointed out a couple rusty mounting screws which were also completely obliterated and stripped. The technician said that he had to use an air hammer to get the screws loose and that the mounting screws go into plastic threading, making it ultimately a one time use. They said that if they wouldn't have had to remove the thermostat housing from the water pump, it would have still been a good part. They said there was nothing more they could do.

At that point I was even more confused so I contacted VW corporate. I told them the story and they investigated and later wrote me "the warranty decision is up to the dealership service. If they could have replaced the thermostat housing under warranty, they would have done it."

I could be completely wrong on this but I feel as if I was taken advantage of. By the service department and by corporate VW.
I appreciate that they did cover the water pump under warranty, but it really sucks that it lead to them having to remove the thermostat housing from the old water pump, leading to the damaging of the thermostat housing mounting screws.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

 

[kevinkar]

I guess you'll have to read through the warranty booklet that came with your car and see what it says. I don't recall mine saying they will only do one warranty repair at a time on any particular item. But, as the water pump and thermostat housing are an assembly and removed at the same time, I can't see any reason they'd charge you $700 for unscrewing the housing and popping on a new one in spite of a couple bad screws. After all, at whatever they are charging these days per hour, $700 implies at least 2 hours to do the job if not 3 and, since they already had the water pump out of the car to replace it (and would have had to have taken your thermostat housing off and put it on the new water pump which is MORE work than simply bolting on a new one off the shelf) I call BS on this.

They get reimbursed for the water pump replacement anyway so to charge you an extra $700 for an item that's already out of the car and would have had to move over to the new pump and ultimately replace the assembly back in the car anyway, they are simply soaking you for $700 and somehow VW Corporate is allowing this to happen.

Besides, the warranty booklet I just grabbed online says "This New Vehicle Limited Warranty is issued by Volkswagen Group of America, Inc." NOT the dealer. Sure, the dealer can determine what qualifies as a warranty repair but to deny it based on the dealer not being able to remove it from the water pump is ridiculous.

That plus if they did not provide an estimate of the thermostat replacement and didn't tell you it wasn't covered BEFORE you authorized it, that sounds like some unfair business practice that might be admissible in small claims court. You ASSUMED it was covered and approved it and they charged you after the fact without providing a proper estimate. That's wrong. Don't know if it's illegal but it's definitely unethical.

So, never go back to that dealer again and never buy a VW product again.

 

[bundiar]

@kevinkar I really appreciate you taking the time to look at this and provide your insight!
The $700 was for an entirely new thermostat housing assembly and the labor to install it. Since a couple screws and hole threads from the old thermostat housing were toast, they said they wouldn't be able to mount it on the new water pump.
You are right, I assumed that it was all covered under warranty because they did not say how much the estimate would increase for the thermostat housing replacement. It is a lesson learned for me to make sure to get an updated estimate (in writing) whenever additional things pop up during the service.

 

[Diggs24]

dealer gonna dealer

 

[StockblockGLI]

That’s not even that bad. My Acura dealer is borderline criminal.

 

[berserker6]

Not surprised the dealer hosed you but I am surprised VWoA allowed it to happen. Unless I'm being naive