Taking the plunge. My journey as an O/O.

I said I would explain how I almost screwed myself over when I had a real keyboard, so I'll do that now.

I learned a *VERY* important fact about dealing with warrantee companies the other day..

So, here goes.

The Warrantee company, the shop, and I were all in the same email thread keeping each other informed and sharing data as requested.

The warrantee company asked whether or not there was a cause of failure, and the shop representative indicated that the cylinder head was not caused to fail by any other component.

The warrantee company did not acknowledge this response for nearly a full day.

I thought that no cause of failure might be grounds for rejecting the claim.

At that point, I screwed up. On Wednesday morning, I suggested a cause of failure.

*********NEVER EVER SUGGEST A CAUSE OF FAILURE TO A WARRANTEE COMPANY UNLESS YOU KNOW #### WELL WHAT YOU ARE DOING!**********

I suggested that the coolant level sensor failure a couple weeks ago, on the same day the truck lost coolant for the first time might have been the cause of failure.

Within 30 minutes the warrantee company came back indicating that only the EGR cooler would be covered.

I responded, asking for their reasoning, and they indicated that if the coolant level sensor failed, and led to the cylinder head cracking, then it would not be covered because the warrantee only covers failure due to cascading failure of other lubricated engine components OR failure during normal operation, provided, of course that my maintenance record and the electronic records did not indicate neglect.

I sat in my chair for about 30 minutes realizing that 200 words might have cost me $20,000 dollars.

Then I started to think about it again, and called the shop representative, (who had actually spoke up in support of me asking about the reasoning for not covering the cylinder head.)

I asked her to run the scenario I described to one of her engine techs. She agreed.

An hour later she responded to the common thread indicating that her engine technician had reviewed my offered cause of failure and rejected it as flatly impossible. There had never been an over temperature warning in the entire electronic record of the truck. They stood by their initial statement that no other component of the engine caused the cylinder head to crack.

((Thinking about it, my scenario was backwards. I( knew the truck had never overheated, but I didn't add that to my analysis. The cylinder head must have cracked first, and the coolant was exposed to small amounts of fuel and oil. Very small amounts, but enough to interfere with the coolant level sensor and keep it from registering low until it was very low, but NOT low enough to result in engine overheating.))

The warrantee company did not respond at all for many hours.

Wednesday night I sent another response, eating some crow. I clarified that I am not a trained diesel mechanic, and noted that if would probably make more sense for them to take the opinion of the professional, experienced diesel mechanic over a truck driver who used to be a steel mill maintenance worker. I also apologized to the shop and the warrantee company for confusing the process with my unprofessional opinion.

The next morning (this morning) the warrantee company indicated they would cover the EGR cooler and the cylinder head.

Sometimes "no cause of failure" **IS** a cause of failure in shop-speak.

The moral of the story?

Keep your mouth shut when dealing with the warrantee company. Their entire purpose in life is to reject your claim. The shop, on the other hand, wants the warrantee company's money more than they want to try and get you a loan, or wait for you to get a loan.

 

Mine wouldn't run either, when it failed. Had to be replaced on the side of the road.

 

I am hoping that they will be able to start work on Monday. The service writer I am working with took today off, and will be back Monday. Another service writer is looking at it, but I suspect they might choose to leave it alone since I almost screwed it up. I can't even complain (much) if that's how things happen. I did it to myself.

In the meantime, I am chilling in a hotel room, gaming, watching YouTube videos, and writing forum posts here and on TheDonald.win.

 

Update!

TruNorth has agreed that the EGR Cooler and the Cylinder head are both covered, but there are issues... They are attempting to authorize FAR less than they should.

I paid less than 6k for the warrantee, so I can understand why they are doing everything in their power to lowball me, and force as much of the cost onto me as possible, but it's more than a little annoying, and the adjusters are starting to play dirty pool to try and get me to accept what they are willing to authorize, rather than what they are legally obligated to pay per the warrantee.

They refuse to have anything to do with core charges, which is stupid, because core charges are part of the part cost, until the cores are verified good. There is absolutely nothing *anywhere* in the warrantee about core charges.

They are resisting covering the labor associated with step 2 of the testing for the coolant leak, where the injector cups tested good. They are attempting to indicate that this is because there was no fault with the injector cups. The problem is that the injector cups were simply part of the process to finding the coolant leak, which was eventually discovered in the cylinder head.

Now, because the warrantee company is being so painfully obstinate, I requested and received a new quote from Freightliner for a reman cylinder head with 12 month guarantee. This substantially dropped the cost of the cylinder head. It also removed shipping costs. The shop team also inspected the EGR cooler and cylinder head and they are in good enough condition that the shop is confident they will be accepted as cores, and were willing to remove the core charges from the itemization completely.

So, after all that, the cost for service, including tax and whatnot, is now a bit over 17,000, and their share of that should be in the range of 13.5k.

That cost on this estimate is only marginally higher than what they were willing to pay when they were unwilling to pay what they should on the much higher estimate.

Better yet, I have the funds to simply pay for 17k service myself. If they lowball the authorization again and offer much less than 13k, I'll simply pay for it myself and give a lawyer the email chain and a copy of the warrantee, and see how fast they settle.

The ball is in the warrantee company's court now.

The more I deal with this, the more tempted I am to never own another truck that does not have a factory warrantee on it.