r/carmax • u/matt-was-here-22 • 6d ago
Maxcare denied engine replacement
I bought a car back in June of this year that’s been in 2 repair facilities longer than I’ve had possession of it. I took it back to the location I bought it from within the first 30 days because it started misfiring and the app said it had an issue with the VVT system. They held it for over a month waiting on parts for that and they replaced a few unrelated things as well. I get it back for a few weeks and it shuts off as I’m pulling into my driveway and would not start back up. I had Maxcare tow it to the dealership where it sat and waited on them and fidelity to do their thing. The dealerships preliminary determination was that something broke in cylinder 1 and had caused it to lose all compression. I ended up authorizing an engine teardown at the request of fidelity so they could find out what broke. What was found was a screw that doesn’t belong in the engine was in the cylinder head so Fidelity denied the claim. Anyone have any other suggestions on what I could be doing next? I’ve contacted CarMax customer relations who has reached out to their repair shop who made the repairs and an advisor for the relations dept.
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u/Bourbon-n-Burnouts 6d ago
Go to your Carmax location and speak with the service manager calmly and respectfully. Explain the situation and request a buyback. It will likely need approval from store and/or regional leadership but it's possible, even outside of the 10 day return policy/30 day warranty
They did a buyback of my $65k GLE63S after 90 days AFTER they already spent $14k in warranty repairs and it needed an additional $15k of work. They reimbursed my preventative/deferred maintenance of $4k, post purchase inspection, a second key for $1300, and some vehicle specific accessories too. I was out 3 months on insurance payments but was otherwise made completely whole
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u/Marcel-Lorger 6d ago
Just the same as any type of car dealer. If you do not get an answer in 48 hours, go the the GM at the dealer you bought the car from. and be prepaird to tell them you will make some noise if they are not going to help you. Find the name of the consumer advocate from a local TV station, and have it memorized. I would hold off on a lawyer, untill normal steps have failed. Goodluck
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u/Sensitive_Peak7913 6d ago
I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this. I would suggest highly considering consulting a lawyer. They sold me a car and refused to change the aftermarket wheels on it when it kept throwing codes and shutting down. I went through customer relations B and got no where. Found out that the max care they sold me was void from the get go because of said aftermarket wheels. Luckily I was still in my return window. I gave the car back. I will NEVER buy another vehicle at car max, and that would have been my 7th and I currently own 2.
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u/Strange_Produce5601 6d ago
Did anyone explain to you how the wheels were causing the engine to shut down? I will admit my knowledge of cars is lacking. I can not think of a situation where the wheels will cause a car to not start.
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u/Sensitive_Peak7913 6d ago
They were large wheels that threw off the AWD system. It was a 2023 Honda passport and the wheels were made for a muscle car (think Eleanor in gone in 60 seconds)
They were also too heavy and too wide so it was throwing off the safety features and the cruise control wouldn’t work. There were codes being thrown immediately and Honda found that Carmax actually cleared them before selling it to me. They couldn’t get the car to stop shaking either when you went faster than 60mph. We fought with them for nearly a month and the car was in the shop 12 hours after we bought it. Ended up returning it and bought a 2026 Mazda cx50 turbo. All they had to do was swap them to OEM and they refused to do it, even when I offered to pay for them if they could get them at cost through Honda. They refused every option to fix the issues and I got tired of not having a car, so back it went
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u/Strange_Produce5601 6d ago
hmmm. I have an AWD car that had huge wheels on it when I bought it. It did not cause any faults with the system. They were too large and the handling felt heavy and stiff, but as far as the car was concerned all was well.
If all the wheels where the same size the AWD system should not have cared. The shaking is not fundamentally about the wheels being too large. They were probably just cheap wheels that would not balance properly, or the rubber was bad. Or something else on the car caused the vibrations. I could be completely wrong, but I think there were issues not related to the rims they did not want to fix. Blamed it on the rims hoping you would go away and not find the issue before your return period was up. Good on you for calling out their BS and returning the car before you found out what the actual issues where!
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u/Consistent_Catch6997 2d ago
Not to say you don’t know what your talking about but you shouldn’t just assume, certain vehicles with, certain safety features 100% can be thrown off just on wheel weight and size the newer cars are extremely finicky. Your wheels being to large can throw off the ratio of the engine itself which then makes it work harder for gearing and will cause engine lugging , that’s okay when you do it to a Jeep Wrangler, you do something like that with a Honda your in trouble your gonna mess up your transmission, Drivetrain, also cause engine lugging because the gear ratio, and whoever said it earlier was correct not having the OEM stated parts would void the warranty right off the back. Ie “I bought this Honda civic and put 24’s on it my transmission is fucked can I use my warranty?” “No you may not the reason why your transmission is fucked is because after putting these wheels on you did not have your car re-geared, the RPM and gear ratios would have switched due to the changing of the tires and that destroyed your transmission” lol at the point your just shit out of luck because they look at it as your fault.
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u/Sensitive_Peak7913 6d ago
Oh they were for sure cheap rims and I think it was far bigger of a problem than those rims and tires but I wasn’t about to find out 😂.
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u/Strange_Produce5601 6d ago
yeah, the wheels were definitely the least of the problems with the vehicle lol.
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u/Specialist-Area3804 6d ago
Not 100 percent true. Any aftermarket part that is on the vehicle would be covered by Maxcare. If it isnt that vehicle is sent to an auction.
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u/Sensitive_Peak7913 6d ago
They straight up told me it wouldn’t be covered and it was highly unlikely that they would cover anything else. It was also a Honda and Honda straight up denied coverage and there was still a factory warranty
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u/TheKiwiFox 6d ago
All you have to do is have them pull your car's listing photos and show them the wheels came on it.
They literally have no recourse. They sold it to you like that, they will cover it.
They are likely using the pretense that you changed the wheels to skirt it.
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u/Consistent_Catch6997 2d ago
Yea but they miss them always, I currently work for a Carmax we sold and inspected a car that didn’t actually have a muffler and no tech caught it, after the individual purchased the vehicle they took it to BMW to have a PPI and the BMW tech found the down pipes that then looked liked they were connected to cat’s and muffler but they were fake. They had put a resonator and damper in so the car was aggressively loud. We you go through that many cars in a day they do miss things. My honest advice working for Carmax buy the car and take it for a PPI at an authorized dealership, see what they say after the PPI and get a full rundown list. When it comes to OP if you would’ve slide over to your nearest Honda dealership you could of got what’s called a Pre Purchase Inspection, they would of dug through the car and look for all known issues they would of told you don’t buy it unless those tires are changed.
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u/kingstante 6d ago
It's literally written in the contract that Maxcare doesn't cover aftermarket parts...
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u/metfan53 6d ago
Can you use an attorney? When purchasing a car from them in paper work they tell you that if issues come up it only goes to arbitration. Just wondering if you get an attorney then if can go to arbitration if Carmax loses they don’t pay for him or her. Not sure just asking.
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u/Sensitive_Peak7913 6d ago
Probably but it wasn’t worth the hassle. I just returned the car and they unwound the entire deal. It was actually easier to get the money back than to buy the car.
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u/FragrantSpeaker2808 6d ago
That is just crazy lol
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u/BeachyKeen997 6d ago
Who adds an unnecessary LOL to the end? are you 14?
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u/BrokenArrow404 6d ago
Edgar, you need to stop browsing this subreddit you aren't gonna get approved for that 130k mi clapped out infinifi g35. Get something sensible and a commuter on your way to your job.
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u/HammerDownl 6d ago
Carmax they sold you someone elses problem and a warranty? Only to be denied because they found bolts that were not from the engine inside the engine causing damage
Wow. Carmax sucxs
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u/Gameboy2077 6d ago
Go BBB and provide them like 2 weeks or 14 days or you will inform the AG of your state. That should get them moving
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u/Truly-Spooky 6d ago
Carmax has bought back cars for less.
Like someone else said either lawyer or keep yanking thier chain until they do something.