Diff Situation finally solved....
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Diff Situation finally solved....
Well after about a month of fighting with HondaCare, Honda, my dealership and anyone else associated with them I ended up paying very little to get my diff replaced. Here is some background if you did not catch my earlier thread....
In December I took my car to Mueller Honda in Highland Park for a noise that I thought was coming from the Diff. I took the service manager on a ride and he could not hear anything. I left the car with them for the day and still they could not find anything. So they told me it was no big deal and that I could come back if the noise got worse. Anyways, I pick up the car and put it in the garage because I usually drive my truck in the winter. About 3-4 weeks later I pick the car up and take it for a quick spin while the weather was nice and leaving a railroad crossing without heavy acceleration the diff blows on me. I hear ratlling and some horrible sounds so I pull into a strip mall and call the tow truck. Took the tow truck 3.5 hours to show up which completely sucked but this was only the beginning of my headache.
So at this point I had the car dropped off by Muellers and in the morning stop in to let them know what happened. I was told that there should be no cost to replace the diff and that they will give me a call when it is ready. I think well thats perfect until about 3 hours later when my service advisor calls me back to tell me that my "Certified Honda Warranty" was really just a third party warranty(HondaCare) and that I would have to wait for an inspector to come look at the car but he said it should not be a big deal. A couple more hours pass by and I get a call from my advisor stating that they have rejected my claim because of my CAI which the bastard inspector claimed added 20hp to my car(I have the letter Hondacare sent stated "20hp"). Anyways I am pissed now because they say the bill will be over 4200 bucks. I said that there was not a snowballs chance in hell that I would pay for it because the CAI did not cause the diff to blow and I knew it. He suggested talking to Hondacare and getting things resolved....this just made things twenty times worse....
So I call hondacare and explain to them that when I bought my car I was told my car is "honda certified" and that was it. I got no contract from HondaCare, nothing that stated anything abotu mods voiding a warranty so I was under the impression that I was protected by the Magnusson Moss Act. He said that I should have got a contract from HondaCare when i bought my car and that it was Honda of Joliets fault(my purchasing dealer) that I did not receive it. I went on to tell him regardless that it is a horrible case of misrepresentation and that I would like to appeal on the basis that I was misrespresented and that the intake could not more than 1-3hp at the most. He tells me to write a letter to his manager and wait. So I write a letter, have it sent out and sit and wait. A week goes by and nothing. I call and get no responses. At this point I am gettign very angry and have contacted several lawyers each one saying that I have a good case on my hand(I work at the Daley Center and have access to thousands of Lawyers so I let the dealership and everyone know that I will sue if i have to). HondaCare's manager did not respond to me by phone, he sent me a mailed letter explaining that my 20hp gain caused the diff to blow. I call back irrate asking to speak to him and the rep on the phone says that he is busy and will not be able to speak to me and that basically their decision is final and for me to pound sand. Itold him that I will see them in court and hung up.
So now I call my dealership bitching that since I am going to have to make this legal I will be sueing everyone from my purchasing dealer, to American Honda(mis representation) to HondaCare and my servicing dealer. Mark Shwartz who happens to be a very nice guy(service manager) tells me that he will try to use some of his contacts in honda to get this resolved because he really felt that I was getting the short end of the stick and that he disagrees with Hondacare but can not really do much about it. So Mark being a nice guy tries what he can and puts me in contact with another helpful guy named Wayne and American Honda Customer Service. Wayne bent over backwards to fight with HondaCare and American Honda to get me some sort of deal. This in itself took 2 weeks and him and Mark kept in contact with me the entire time. Their first offer to go 50/50 with HondaCare still refusing to pay(me pay half and dealer/American Honda pick up the other). I rejected and said that I refuse to pay because I will not get cheated out of this. So wayne again bent over backwards for me and got Hondacare to pick up part of the tab and they got the parts to me for cheaper eventually. So in the end it took a lot of time and one month but I ended up paying about 10% of what it would have cost to fix my diff without the warranty. My total cost ended up at around 450 bucks and I took this because I was sick of dealing back and forth with everyone and just wanted to get my car back. I think i could have pushed even harder but Wayne and Mark were so nice throughout the whole thing that I wanted to just finish for all of our sakes....
Anyways the bottom line is that American Honda stood up and so did my dealer and helped me out. As for Hondacare they can PHUCK off....bunch of pricks and a-holes. They want to screw you. Actually at one point one of their guys said that since he could void my warranty for ANYTHING aftermarket he does not care if the intake took away hp he would void it anyways(just to be an a-hole). He was trying to get under my skin purposely. Guys if you are going to mod, do yourselves a favor and DO not get a honda certified warranty, it is crap. Mine came for free on the car when i bought it with 2900 miles, but I have never dealt with bigger pains in the arss than HondaCare. Finally got my baby back though!
In December I took my car to Mueller Honda in Highland Park for a noise that I thought was coming from the Diff. I took the service manager on a ride and he could not hear anything. I left the car with them for the day and still they could not find anything. So they told me it was no big deal and that I could come back if the noise got worse. Anyways, I pick up the car and put it in the garage because I usually drive my truck in the winter. About 3-4 weeks later I pick the car up and take it for a quick spin while the weather was nice and leaving a railroad crossing without heavy acceleration the diff blows on me. I hear ratlling and some horrible sounds so I pull into a strip mall and call the tow truck. Took the tow truck 3.5 hours to show up which completely sucked but this was only the beginning of my headache.
So at this point I had the car dropped off by Muellers and in the morning stop in to let them know what happened. I was told that there should be no cost to replace the diff and that they will give me a call when it is ready. I think well thats perfect until about 3 hours later when my service advisor calls me back to tell me that my "Certified Honda Warranty" was really just a third party warranty(HondaCare) and that I would have to wait for an inspector to come look at the car but he said it should not be a big deal. A couple more hours pass by and I get a call from my advisor stating that they have rejected my claim because of my CAI which the bastard inspector claimed added 20hp to my car(I have the letter Hondacare sent stated "20hp"). Anyways I am pissed now because they say the bill will be over 4200 bucks. I said that there was not a snowballs chance in hell that I would pay for it because the CAI did not cause the diff to blow and I knew it. He suggested talking to Hondacare and getting things resolved....this just made things twenty times worse....
So I call hondacare and explain to them that when I bought my car I was told my car is "honda certified" and that was it. I got no contract from HondaCare, nothing that stated anything abotu mods voiding a warranty so I was under the impression that I was protected by the Magnusson Moss Act. He said that I should have got a contract from HondaCare when i bought my car and that it was Honda of Joliets fault(my purchasing dealer) that I did not receive it. I went on to tell him regardless that it is a horrible case of misrepresentation and that I would like to appeal on the basis that I was misrespresented and that the intake could not more than 1-3hp at the most. He tells me to write a letter to his manager and wait. So I write a letter, have it sent out and sit and wait. A week goes by and nothing. I call and get no responses. At this point I am gettign very angry and have contacted several lawyers each one saying that I have a good case on my hand(I work at the Daley Center and have access to thousands of Lawyers so I let the dealership and everyone know that I will sue if i have to). HondaCare's manager did not respond to me by phone, he sent me a mailed letter explaining that my 20hp gain caused the diff to blow. I call back irrate asking to speak to him and the rep on the phone says that he is busy and will not be able to speak to me and that basically their decision is final and for me to pound sand. Itold him that I will see them in court and hung up.
So now I call my dealership bitching that since I am going to have to make this legal I will be sueing everyone from my purchasing dealer, to American Honda(mis representation) to HondaCare and my servicing dealer. Mark Shwartz who happens to be a very nice guy(service manager) tells me that he will try to use some of his contacts in honda to get this resolved because he really felt that I was getting the short end of the stick and that he disagrees with Hondacare but can not really do much about it. So Mark being a nice guy tries what he can and puts me in contact with another helpful guy named Wayne and American Honda Customer Service. Wayne bent over backwards to fight with HondaCare and American Honda to get me some sort of deal. This in itself took 2 weeks and him and Mark kept in contact with me the entire time. Their first offer to go 50/50 with HondaCare still refusing to pay(me pay half and dealer/American Honda pick up the other). I rejected and said that I refuse to pay because I will not get cheated out of this. So wayne again bent over backwards for me and got Hondacare to pick up part of the tab and they got the parts to me for cheaper eventually. So in the end it took a lot of time and one month but I ended up paying about 10% of what it would have cost to fix my diff without the warranty. My total cost ended up at around 450 bucks and I took this because I was sick of dealing back and forth with everyone and just wanted to get my car back. I think i could have pushed even harder but Wayne and Mark were so nice throughout the whole thing that I wanted to just finish for all of our sakes....
Anyways the bottom line is that American Honda stood up and so did my dealer and helped me out. As for Hondacare they can PHUCK off....bunch of pricks and a-holes. They want to screw you. Actually at one point one of their guys said that since he could void my warranty for ANYTHING aftermarket he does not care if the intake took away hp he would void it anyways(just to be an a-hole). He was trying to get under my skin purposely. Guys if you are going to mod, do yourselves a favor and DO not get a honda certified warranty, it is crap. Mine came for free on the car when i bought it with 2900 miles, but I have never dealt with bigger pains in the arss than HondaCare. Finally got my baby back though!
maybe when i awkae in the morning 
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 7,776
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From: Chicago (ex London UK)
why not get the last laugh....even thought you got if for "free" when you bought the car, the policy you hold must have some nominal value - cash it in and cancel it....its no use to you anyway
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Originally Posted by S2000GT,Feb 11 2006, 07:22 AM
why not get the last laugh....even thought you got if for "free" when you bought the car, the policy you hold must have some nominal value - cash it in and cancel it....its no use to you anyway
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Nelly
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Oct 20, 2003 02:16 PM