Our 2-Year / 24,000-Mile Warranty

What does the Motronix warranty actually cover?

Coverage applies to the parts we supply and the labor we perform on a qualified repair, for 24 months or 24,000 miles from the date of service.

The distinction that matters most to owners is that our coverage includes labor. A parts-only warranty — which is what a parts manufacturer typically provides — may cover the replacement component while leaving you responsible for the labor to remove and reinstall it. On a European engine or transmission repair, labor is frequently the larger half of the bill. Ours covers both sides:

• The part itself: If a component we supplied experiences a covered failure within the coverage window, we replace it at no charge to you.
• The labor to install it: The full teardown and reinstallation time is covered, which on a timing chain or cooling system job is often the majority of the original invoice.
• Related diagnostic time: Confirming that a covered component is the cause is part of the claim, not a separate charge.
• Your documentation: Every repair is recorded with a digital inspection report and itemized invoice, so the coverage is provable years later without depending on anyone’s memory.

Coverage has clear limits, and we would rather state them here than surprise you with them later. Normal wear-and-tear items with service lives shorter than the coverage term — filters, wiper blades, brake pads, and similar consumables — are not warranted for the full two years, for the obvious reason that they are designed to be used up. Repairs built around customer-supplied parts, or aftermarket parts we have advised against, generally do not carry the warranty — and where that applies, we tell you clearly before any work begins, not after. Even then it is judged case by case on what actually caused a failure: if something fails in a way that is clearly our workmanship and not the part you supplied, we stand behind our work. Finally, the warranty is honored here at our shop, on work we performed — it is our own guarantee, not a nationwide or roadside program.

Will servicing at an independent shop void my factory warranty?

Properly performed independent service keeps your factory coverage intact — federal law protects your right to choose your shop, and a manufacturer can deny a claim only by showing that improper service or parts caused the failure.

This is the single most common worry we hear from owners of newer BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, and Tesla vehicles, and it is worth stating clearly: under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, a manufacturer cannot require you to use its dealer network for maintenance as a condition of honoring the factory warranty. It also cannot void your coverage simply because an independent shop performed the work. A manufacturer can deny a specific claim if it can show that a particular repair caused a particular failure — but that is a narrow, evidence-based test, not a blanket cancellation.

What actually protects you is documentation, and that is where an independent shop can either help or hurt. We service to factory specification, use OEM-quality parts, and record every service with the date, mileage, part numbers, and technician notes. If a dealer ever questions your maintenance history, you have a complete paper trail rather than a shoebox of receipts. Owners still inside their factory or CPO coverage window are among our most common customers for exactly this reason.

Our warranty vs. an extended warranty — two different things

The coverage on this page is our own repair guarantee. An “extended warranty” is a separate product you buy from a third party — and the two work very differently.

The word “warranty” gets attached to both, so it is worth separating them. What we describe above is a guarantee we stand behind directly: if a repair we performed fails within the term, you call us and we make it right, with no administrator in the middle. An extended warranty — more precisely a vehicle service contract — is something you purchase separately, often at a dealership or by mail, from a company that decides which claims it will pay and under what terms.

If you are weighing whether to buy one, we wrote a full guide to whether an extended warranty is worth it on a European car, and how to choose coverage that actually helps. It walks through reading the contract before you sign, the exclusions and labor-rate limits that catch people, and the questions to ask so a “covered” repair does not still leave you with most of the bill. (That guide is general information, not legal or financial advice.)

Do you work with extended warranty and vehicle service contracts?

Yes — when your specific contract permits a qualified independent shop and the administrator authorizes the claim, we handle the approvals and paperwork directly.

If your BMW, Mercedes, Audi, or Porsche is covered by a third-party service contract, the hardest part of using it is usually not the coverage — it is the process. Most contracts require the shop to diagnose the fault, contact the administrator, submit documentation, and wait for an adjuster to authorize the repair before any work begins. Shops that do not want to deal with that will quietly tell you they do not accept extended warranties. We work with them — on the terms the contract sets — and we handle that back-and-forth on your behalf.

• Tell us when you book: Mention your contract when you schedule so we can pull the coverage terms before the car is on the lift.
• We diagnose and document: Administrators approve claims based on evidence, and our digital inspection photos and fault-code records are exactly the evidence they ask for.
• We submit and follow up: We contact the administrator directly and chase the authorization so you are not sitting on hold between a shop and an adjuster.
• You approve what is left: We tell you exactly what the contract covers and what it does not before any work starts, so the out-of-pocket number is never a surprise at pickup.

One caveat worth knowing: coverage varies enormously between contracts, and some exclude the very components European cars most often need. We will read your specific contract and tell you honestly what it will and will not pay for — including when the answer is that it will not pay for much.

How do I make a warranty claim?

Call us, describe the symptom, and bring the car in — there is no form to file and no third party to convince.

Our warranty is ours. It is not administered by an insurer, so there is no claim number, no adjuster, and no waiting period. If something we repaired is not behaving right, the process is the one you would hope for:

That last step is the one we take seriously. A warranty is only worth something if the shop behind it will look at an ambiguous case honestly instead of reflexively calling it “unrelated.”

Why we can stand behind repairs for two years

A long warranty is only sustainable if the work rarely comes back. Three things make that possible here, and none of them are marketing.

We only service five brands. Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Porsche, and Tesla — nothing else. A shop that works on everything rarely builds the same pattern recognition. We see the same EA888 water pump, the same N20 timing chain, the same air suspension compressor repeatedly, which means our technicians already know which revision of the part to install and which adjacent component fails alongside it. Repeat exposure is what turns a repair from a procedure into a routine.

We use factory diagnostic equipment and OEM-quality parts. XENTRY, ISTA, PIWIS, and ODIS — the same software the dealer runs — so coding, adaptations, and calibrations are completed properly rather than skipped. Combined with parts built to original specification, that guards against two of the most common reasons a repair fails prematurely: the wrong part, or the right part installed without the electronic setup it needs. You can read more about how we approach fault isolation on our diagnostic methodology page.

We document everything. Digital inspection reports with photos and technician notes are attached to every job. That protects you when a dealer asks about service history, and it protects the integrity of the warranty itself — because two years later, nobody has to argue from memory about what was replaced or why.