I purchased an after market heater core from FCP Groton July 2011, following the easy instructions on the Forum Website.I bought it to prepare for the winter season even though I live in Florida and rarely need heat. I used the heater one time in March and never paid any attention to it until the water light was coming on more frequently and carpet was wet. This November I asked my mechanic about the water levels and diagnosed that the heater was defective. After contacting Groton, was told it was my problem for not reporting the failure within the one year warranty period. Understanding a warranty period is important but this product is defective. It wasn't anything I inherently created nor broke. I think their rigid policy should be made known to everyone buying product so the same problem won't happen again and you aren't eating a defective product. Companies do have flexibility when it comes to an obvious part defect and can make good, but they won't bend!

 

While I agree with you that warranty time lines are typically put together assuming that a part has been received in good condition and not defective from the start. As a company we have no indication on how or who installed your part, or how your part was handled or stored from from the time it was received so when something is well outside the 1 year warranty it is hard for us to determine if it was defective from the start or defective for other reasons. We instruct our returns department to always put themselves in shoes of the customers when making a decision and the warranty policy we created we feel is very fair especially when compared to our competitors. If you feel that the decision of our returns department was not fair, please email our Vice President of Sales and Customer Relations Max Rossi (max@fcpgroton.com) with any issue and he will also look into further and respond.

Kind Regards,

 

Paul: Got any pics of the defective part? That might be helpful in determining how/why it failed.


Chris: I thought FCP introduced a lifetime warranty on all their parts awhile back; no?

 

FCP response seems fair & responsible. Let us know what results are obtained. Why it failed would be of interest to parts buyers. Heater cores can be a PITA to remove & replace and involve alot of labor, proper installation is required. Good luck & keep us appraised.

 

As with most warranties, you have the FINE PRINT. With the FCP lifetime warranty the part has to be installed "property" which means that a "professional mechanic" has to do the job which voids most of their warranties because 90% of mechanics will NOT let you supply parts.

I had a temp sensor go bad after about a week and could not get my money back. They did give me a credit but in my opinion that should not have been an issue after a 7 day failure.

I plan to open a business selling cheap light bulbs and give a lifetime warranty, sell hundreds of thousands of bulbs, then close the business down before the bulbs start blowing. Come to think of it, I may just keep it open because less then 5% of the people will be able to see the disappearing ink on the receipt they have if they can even find them.

I sent an e-mail to a company 3 days ago looking for a replacement part that I was/am willing to pay for (goes to my wife's coffee bean grinder), and they sent me a message asking for everything including a blood sample (some of the info was already in my initial message to them). You know how I can be so I sent back a nasty replay and demanded that they give me a "yes we will help or no we can't help" reply. The only warranty worth a dam is the Wal-Mart one.

 

The OP's post is full of assumptions. There's no way to say the cause of the leak is a defective heater core until the core is removed from the car. Even then it can be hard to tell the difference between a manufacturing defect and an installation error.

In my business I sell to distributors and end users. I dislike selling to end users because so many of them are clueless. I'm sure FCP Groton could tell a million stories about retail customers who are misinformed, deceptive or just downright epically stupid. There's often no way for FCP Groton to tell what really happened when a customer calls with a complaint.

Having said that, I only use OEM or OEM-equal parts on my car. No CRAP (Chinese Replacement Auto Parts). It's just not worth the hassle.

 

"Companies do have flexibility when it comes to an obvious part defect and can make good, but they won't bend!"

Yup, big company, flexibility and they could easily eat it to make you happy.

Did you give them any reason to make you happy? After all, it's been more than a year and a year is what they give you. I know you don't want to but look at their side. If it says a year do you do a year and three months ? Year and six, year and nine ... you get the idea.

Have you taken it out yet to see if it's the core that is in fact leaking and not one of the four seals at that junction ??

Who installed it?

The heater core once installed is used each time you start the engine as your coolant is flowing through it. Being in Florida you may have only switched the controls to heat once, but the core itself has been bathed in your coolant since installation.

Did you reuse your old coolant or put in fresh ??

First things first, when you say the mechanic diagnosed the core as defective did he actually pull the core or just find coolant in that area or in the drain ??

 

I wrote them recently to find out if the lifetime warranty covered DIY's who were ASE certified and they said it did. Makes a difference to me as I am ASE certified but it's something to consider if you are in a place to get at least one certification so you can do your own repairs with FCP parts and qualify for the lifetime warranty.

Just a thought.

 

The leak could be from a loose clamp, you never know. But a heater core should not itself spring a leak so soon; the OEM ones last around 20 years. A year is a decent time to use a part and see if it is defective. A part like a HC I'd spring for an OEM, considering what the labor hours for replacements are.