by Joshua Bova
The EPA mandates a warranty on all vehicles sold in the US from 1995 which
covers certain emissions related components. This warranty covers various
parts for various lengths of time. The best part of the warranty is the
coverage of "Specified Major Emission Control Components" which are the ECU
(electronic emissions control unit), the OBD (on board diagnostics) and the
catalytic converters. These are high ticket items, for example, my local
dealer quoted me over $1,400 just for parts, not tax or labor for the y-pipe
that includes the two catalytic converters.
Links to the FAQ page and the full text warranty are listed below.
The requirements for the warranty are pretty straight forward, your
car needs to be model year 1995 or newer, with fewer than 80,000 miles.
If the catalytic converters or OBD system are diagnosed as faulty, then you
are entitled to replacement free of charge. There are two places on the
internet that you can look for more details.
There is a contact person listed at the bottom of the FAQ page. Her name is
Holly Pugliese, I asked her a few questions via e-mail, and she was very helpful.
As far as the LR dealer, I mentioned that I had found a warranty that looked like it
should cover the repairs. The service writer said he would contact the LR rep and get
back to me. I gave him my cell phone number, and by the time I was 5 miles from the
dealership he called me and told me it was covered. I don't have a long standing
relationship with this dealer, but he was still happy to help me. The thing
to remember is that the dealer is actually going to be on your side for the most
part. They only sell Land Rovers, they will not be paying for the repair, in
fact they are going to get paid to do the work by LRNA. So keep the service
dept as your ally and it should be no problem.
There is a section in the full text version that talks about reasons why a
dealership can deny a claim. One of the reasons listed is excessive abuse
such as off-road driving. Don't let this scare you. If your dealer tells
you that driving a Land Rover off-road is abuse, he'll be selling Aztecs
after LRNA is done with him . My truck has spent a lot of time off-road,
and it is pretty obvious just looking at it. They didn't even blink.
This one is an FAQ page from the EPA, it covers the basics and will answer a lot of
your questions.
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/obd-faq.htm
This one is the full text of the warranty, it has every detail.
http://www.epa.gov/OMS/consumer/warr95fs.txt
E-mail the info to us and we'll post.