Hope someone can help.

About 1 year ago I had my transmission fluid changed. My transmission blew this week and my car is only 3 yrs old. My dealership does not want to honor my warranty because I did not use their fluid and they say that if you use someone else's fluid it can cause a faulty transmission. My question is this....
How soon after a transmission change would your transmission blow if you didnt use the right stuff. I am thinking that one year after seems a little delayed to show the effects....Any comments on this? I own a 2005 Kia Rio with 62,000 miles on it and I used Valvoline Max Life with SP-111 - My book said to use SK ATF SP-111 (which apparently you can only get thru KIA)


(This post was edited by DWXR1209 on Apr 6, 2008, 8:29 PM)

Do you have the reciept for using the Valvoline fluid? Does that fluid claim to meet or exceed the OE requirements for you Kia? Warranty stuff is funky from state to state. Here in MA you do not have to go to the new car dealer for routine service but do (it's in some writing) have to use their parts.

An example was to replace spark plugs for a customer with a Hyundai something and if they weren't from the dealer it voided a 100k warranty! She got em as none near my shop and they were the identical NGK plugs I had but in a Hyundai box - no kidding.

Freqently the oil manufacturer will back you up. I'd be on Kia's hotline asap with as much info as you have and documentation available. Best I can say is good luck. You'd win here I think,

T
Tom Greenleaf - MetroWest Boston - USA
_________________________________________

http://www.autoacsystems.com/tomgreenleaf/

I read a post on those kia warranties, that they had a bad rap about not honoring legit claims....and the guy who posted it was trying to contact others too....f.y.i.

How soon after a transmission flush will your car start to have problems? Mine was 1 year ago.

I already know that I have a claim against Kia. Their warranties arent worth poo. And to answer your question about if I had receipts. Well a friend made a receipt after he changed the fluid but now the KIA dealership wants the receipts to prove we actually bought the fluid to change the fluid.. Talk about dotting I's and crossing T's. They make you jump thru hoops. I understand they want to be protected but I have already showed them that I have been somewhat responsible to the vehicle. They just do not want to pay for their crappy cheap cars. Please let me know about how soon after a change of fluid should you show problems. i think 1 year is bogus!

Thom Smith
Technical Director
Valvoline Brand
THE VALVOLINE COMPANY A DIVISION OF ASHLAND INC. P.O. BOX 14000 LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY 40512 (859) 357-7000


Amazing what you can find on the web. This was at the end of a long back and forth about a warranty and the use of Valvoline ATF. This was another vehicle - no matter. Essenially, Valvoline stood behind it's product's use but admitted some Manus had not yet approved or even tested to disapprove. The disertation went on forever.

None the less - here's the name, address and phone of the guy at Valvoline who handled it! There was noted an exception if you used the wrong fluid altogether which doesn't seem to be the case.

I think Kia is ducking but I'm not there reading labels or the writing of the warranty either. My best guess is Kia doesn't make a drop of any oil or fluid they use but put their name on another as mentioned in an above post.

There's all kinds of "barbed wire' with something like this. I seriously doubt the ATF you used was THE CAUSE of a failure by itself. Who knows what happened?

If you are up for this battle - fight. Good luck,

T


Tom Greenleaf - MetroWest Boston - USA
_________________________________________

http://www.autoacsystems.com/tomgreenleaf/