anova77

I own a 2005 TSX with about 70k miles on it. Over the past few months, the malfunction indicator light came on twice. The first time it came on, I attributed it to a loose gas cap. After I refueled and tightened the gas cap, the light went off after about 4 days. About three weeks later, the light came on again. Again, I thought it was due to a loose gas cap and I tightened it immediately. However, the light stayed on for several days and I decided to make an appointment with my dealership. A few days before the appointment, the light disappeared again after having been on for about a week. I was going to cancel the appointment, but decided to keep it because I thought it was odd that this had happened twice in a few months. I fuel up at least once a week and I never had this problem after owning the car for over three years. My car has an extended warranty, so I did not think I would be charged anything to have it looked at. The malfunction indicator light history showed that the lights came on solely due to a loose cap and the cap was tightened for me for a cost of $79.95. The service managers at my dealership have always been great and I walked out without showing my frustration over this. Why isn't this kind of a service covered under an extended warranty?

litesout

More than likely the extended warranty only covers powertrain components. The gas cap may or may not be covered under the "powertrain" and could be open to interpretation. Sounds like they just charged you an hour of labor.

Now, the more interesting part. There have been a few threads about this in the past. Just search "tighten fuel cap." I had my 08 in a few months after I got it for a tighten fuel cap message on the MID. I verified that the fuel cap was tight, and let it go for a week before taking the car in. They did the evap test, everything checked out okay. They said there was no problem. But, at the direction of others here on the board, I checked the fuel cap itself. Sure enough, there was a new washer installed in there. I know that because the washer was a different color than the one that was in there when I took it to the dealership in the first place. Might be worth looking at. And definitely search for the tighten fuel cap threads.

jlukja

Did the dealership know you had an extended warranty? You could have just asked them, "is this covered by my extended warranty?".

wreak

The extended warranty probably doesn't cover the fee of using their diagnostic machine.

poltergeist

Most warranties cover defects. Leaving the gas cap loose is not a defect. Like it or not, diagnostics are not cheap. To do an EVAP test the dealer visually inspects the entire system and then plugs their $5000 tablet into the car to run a EVAP function test.

wreak

Save yourself some money long term and go buy a OBDII reader. I bought one for $99.99 CAD funds and I can check my own check engine lights at home in my garage.

nj2pa2nc

the tighten message came on my 06 and stayed on for a month. The dealer reset the codes after determining nothing was wrong. (no charge even tho my warranty is expired.) I do not have the extended warranty but I did have in on my 05 civic. I know if I did not use that warranty when either the mileage or time period was up I would get a full refund. I would rather pay the $79.95 than give them reason not give me the refund.

onebadtsx

Go to auto zone or advance auto and let them cut it off for you. They have FREE diagnostics checks. Then order a new fuel cap from either Acura or online. This happened like 4 times on my 04 MDX before I replaced the fuel cap.

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

You were charged the diagnostics fee, which is SOP for most dealerships now. If they discover it to be a warranty issue, they will waive the fee. If the issue is due to user error or is not something that is covered under the warranty, you will be charged the fee or the cost of the repairs, whichever is higher.

Next time, unless there is a catastrophic failure, take the car to your local autoparts store and ask them to full the code for you with their OBDII code scanner. Most stores will not charge to do this as it literally takes less than 5 minutes to do.