Get Your Car Fixed for (Almost) Free

Often, when an automaker initiates a service campaign, it sends a notification letter to all known owners. But the second or third owners of that car might not receive it. Even among those who do receive the communications, the letter may be mislaid or mistakenly thrown away. In other cases, though, there’s no advance notice, and car owners find out about it only if a dealer tells them about the service campaign or they discover it by doing their own research.

“A good service adviser should check any and all possible factory warranties at the time of the write-up,” says Michael Crossen, a mechanic at CR’s Auto Test Center who is also an ASE-certified master technician with years of experience working in dealership service departments. “When I was a service adviser, I would even mention them to the customer so they were aware, even if the warranty extension did not pertain to today’s visit, it was just good practice.”

All the warranty extensions we’ve found are included in technical service bulletins (TSBs) that automakers send to their dealers’ service departments. A TSB describes how a technician should determine if a problem is applicable to the service bulletin and then what should be done. It will list part numbers (which are often updated or redesigned parts) and the amount of labor the technician will be paid for. The TSB will also include the procedure for the work to be carried out.

A TSB usually doesn’t mean a free repair, but a small number of them also have information about special warranties related to the problem or other remedies the carmaker is offering to owners.

A benefit of TSBs is that they save money for the owner because the technician doesn’t need to spend time diagnosing a problem, which the owner would pay for in labor costs if the vehicle is out of warranty.

If your car develops a problem that’s not related to wear and tear or collision damage, it might be worth checking to see whether there’s a TSB related to it.

Even if no warranty extension is offered, a TSB tells you that the problem is known to the automaker. Talk with your service adviser to see if there are any coupons available that could be applied to the repair. It also doesn’t hurt to just ask if the dealership could help you out by discounting the repair. The dealer may need to talk with the manufacturer to determine who pays for the discount.