Warranties and Maintenance Schedules

I'm interested in anyone's experience having warranty-covered service done to their vehicle and having service records (or intervals) questioned.

What do I mean by this?

There's a lot of fear-based warnings all over the web about deviating from a car's prescribed maintenance schedule and how doing so will void its warranty (default factory warranties, extended warranties, etc.). It's all based on the fine print of these warranties explicitly requiring regular maintenance for the warranties to apply. But, has anyone actually been asked to verify service records before receiving warranty-covered service (and possibly been denied covered service due to lack of records or required maintenance)?

This question came out of a desire to lengthen oil change intervals, switching to a high-grade oil (Amsoil, for example) and running it thousands of miles past recommended factory intervals. We're all enthusiasts here, and we do the proper research on what works best for our vehicles, reading through sites like bobistheoilguy.com and sending in our used oil for analysis to make sure we're treating our engines well. There are many services which we can decide to come up with our own schedules; engine oil is only one example.

So, is all of this fear across internet forums and articles justified or completely bogus? Has deviating from the prescribed maintenance schedule actually denied anyone warranty coverage? I'm not interested in word-of-mouth stories, assumptions, or guesses: I'm looking for first-hand experience.

I'm interested in anyone's experience having warranty-covered service done to their vehicle and having service records (or intervals) questioned.

 

What do I mean by this?

 

There's a lot of fear-based warnings all over the web about deviating from a car's prescribed maintenance schedule and how doing so will void its warranty (default factory warranties, extended warranties, etc.). It's all based on the fine print of these warranties explicitly requiring regular maintenance for the warranties to apply. But, has anyone actually been asked to verify service records before receiving warranty-covered service (and possibly been denied covered service due to lack of records or required maintenance)?

 

This question came out of a desire to lengthen oil change intervals, switching to a high-grade oil (Amsoil, for example) and running it thousands of miles past recommended factory intervals. We're all enthusiasts here, and we do the proper research on what works best for our vehicles, reading through sites like bobistheoilguy.com and sending in our used oil for analysis to make sure we're treating our engines well. There are many services which we can decide to come up with our own schedules; engine oil is only one example.

 

So, is all of this fear across internet forums and articles justified or completely bogus? Has deviating from the prescribed maintenance schedule actually denied anyone warranty coverage? I'm not interested in word-of-mouth stories, assumptions, or guesses: I'm looking for first-hand experience.

Having been in this business, specifically with Subarus since 2001, also knowing a lot of the folks inside Subaru that approve/disapprove the warranty claims here is our take.

If your car is in warranty, follow the prescribed intervals to the letter of the law because and this again is from experience, they WILL ask for those records in the event of an engine failure. I had my 2011 STi get a new shortblock, bone stock car, and they asked for the maintenance records. Same with my 05 Legacy GT.

On a new car the interval for oil changes is 7500 miles already using synthetic, so I would stick with that.

-mike

We've provided documentation for a few of our customers over the years and never had any issue from SOA disapproving their warranty work.

-mike