West Haven man says extended auto warranty refuses to cover costly engine repair
Apr 18, 2024, 10:34 PM | Updated: 10:51 pm
WEST VALLEY CITY — Many drivers buy an extended auto warranty to help keep their car on the road after the factory warranty expires. These are optional vehicle service contracts that help cover repair costs.
But when the extended warranty a West Haven man bought refused to cover replacing an engine, he decided to Get Gephardt.
“The vehicle is in great shape,” Scott Dumas said of the Ford F150 pickup he recently bought for his son, Alexander. “If it got fixed, it’d still be a great vehicle to have.”
But it’s parked at a repair shop. Dumas said the engine’s timing chain broke, damaging pistons, cylinders, and valves. The repair bill is also catastrophic.
“New engine, $12,000 plus $5,000 for installation,” he said.
Dumas’s Ford F150 pickup that was bought for his son. (Courtesy: Scott Dumas)
Thankfully, Dumas bought a protection plan for the truck through the car warranty company CarShield. Unthankfully, CarShield has put its foot down on paying for an engine swap. Why? It turns out this was the truck’s second timing chain. Timing chain number one was replaced last summer before he bought the truck.
“Repairs resulting from improper or incomplete prior repairs or diagnosis,” read Dumas from CarShield’s denial.
He said the company told him that even though the replacement timing chain was an OEM part—not aftermarket—since the previous owner supplied it and not the repair shop, they denied the claim.
“It sounded promising from all the TV ads and positive testimonials,” Dumas said of CarShield’s marketing.
Matt Gephardt looking at the CarShield documents. (KSL TV)
He said he believes CarShield should have looked into the truck’s history before selling him their warranty at $110 a month.
“They just said, ‘It is the way it is,’” he said.
So, Dumas’ next call was to me. We reached out to CarShield to ask all about this. They didn’t answer our questions, but they emailed us this: “We have been in contact with the contract holder’s chosen repair facility and will be reaching out to the contract holder directly to get this resolved.”
We can’t say what the resolution is. We asked Dumas, but he declined to answer. Perhaps that is an indication that Car Shield told him they’d only pay if he agreed to stop talking about it.
