Have a read of this article from the SOE website, proof that fitting a non genuine oil filter is not grounds for turning down a warranty claim.....case proven. Print this off and show your customers
Also highlights JW's point about garages fitting genuine parts to save any future hassle
<... 13 September 2004 Almost a year after revised European Union “block exemption” rules were supposed to herald more open competition in vehicle sales, parts supply and service (Transport Engineer February 2003) controversy continues over the practical effects.
The Automotive Distribution Federation (ADF), the trade body representing independent parts suppliers and distributors, points to a Land Rover warranty claim for head-gasket failure on a Freelander, rejected on the grounds that a “non-Land Rover” oil filter had been fitted by an independent garage during a routine service. The customer service centre at Ford-owned Land Rover also rejected the claim.
The revised block-exemption rules, which came into force in October 2003, in effect outlaw rejection of warranty claims purely on the basis of “nongenuine” parts having been fitted.
The ADF took this case to the Office of Fair Trading and was told by Steven Pukas, head of its competition enforcement division: “Provided the oil filter was not the cause of the failed gasket, I would expect Land Rover to honour its warranty.” Land Rover subsequently agreed to accept the claim. Had the oil filter been the cause of the failure, liability would have rested with the filter supplier, it seems.
ADF chief executive Brian Spratt thinks this case has wider implications. “I feel that the initial rejection of the warranty claim, purely on the basis that the Block exemption rules still not OK vehicle was fitted with a non- Land Rover-supplied part, could be a device to create dismay in the mind of the vehicle owner,” he says.
ADF president Russell Curtis, director of Sidcup, Kentbased SC Motor Factors, believes there are still many people in the business who do not understand block exemption rules. “Customers may think it easier to fit the vehicle assemblers’ own parts just to avoid all this sort of grief,” he says.
Germany’s federal competition authority has demanded changes to adverts for servicing by authorised Mercedes repairers because they emphasised that Mercedes-Benz original spare parts would be used. And in the UK a commercial vehicle supplier ran into trouble when it told a customer that replacement brake pads not supplied by the vehicle manufacturer would invalidate the warranty. Mr Spratt has written to the OFT urging it to take “prompt and determined action” against any dealer apparently trying to circumvent block-exemption rules...>