Wheel bearing

[twabrigs]

So it looks like I might have a wheel bearing needing replacement, which is a little irritating at 55k miles.

Started about 2 days ago, faint whirring noise around 60mph. 200 miles later this morning it's more a 'thrumming' at 35mph and up. Local garage came out for a drive and confirm my thought that it's the nearside rear wheel bearing.

I've got extended warranty and despite my scepticism it looks like the wheel bearing is covered, so I'm now waiting for them to confirm where and when the repair will be (hopefully Monday). Inevitably the family of four have an unavoidable 250 miles round trip this weekend so rather than take our Fiesta I'm hiring a car. Cost of that won't be covered by anyone, sadly. I expect the CX5 is perfectly safe for a while yet but I'm not taking any risks.

Anyone else had a bearing go at this mileage?

[YX1109]

Wheel Bearings can go at any mileage, once they start growling, best used as little as possible till you get  it
changed. Had wheel bearings go over the years at various mileages with different cars.

[twabrigs]

Well surprise surprise the extended warranty company has wriggled out of things.

Apparently although wheel bearings are covered by the policy, any part is only covered if it fails and thereby causes the car to actually break down.

To achieve that I would have to have continued driving with an ever more noisy bearing until it suffered a catastrophic failure, endangering me and others and no doubt causing a more expensive recovery and repair.

Ah - but they would be able to wriggle out of that too. There's a clause which says if the driver keeps driving when it must have been obvious that there was a problem, then the warranty is invalid.

So their wheel bearing cover - in fact their cover for anything at all - only applies where there is a sudden part failure with no prior warning, which causes the vehicle to be undriveable. So that's quite a limited set of circumstances for £274 a year.

Others on here have counselled putting some money aside for repairs instead of buying expensive cover which might not be needed (or might not be applied). I will do so in future, and have asked for the warranty cancellation terms...maybe I can get a refund of sorts.

They also took from Friday till Monday late pm to tell me I wasn't covered, during which time my local garage did have time to repair it. I then had to wait until today for them to fit it in, which cost me £191.

[YX1109]

Considering the circumstances and attitude of the Warranty provider,as they are recommended  by
Honest John and others,might well be worth giving the details of the case the those people.
Maybe a bit of pressure from the press might well work in your favour and claim settlement.?.

[BigAl]

Both Motoreasy and Honest John have Facebook pages. I’d be straight on there embarrassing the hell out of them!

Alan

[twabrigs]

Meantime the garage who they originally booked my car into, phoned this morning to ask was I coming in. This despite me telling them by phone and email that i no longer required the booking.

Oh - they have at last replied to my email asking about cancellation as follows. I find this incredible. These guys are shocking.

"Regarding the Cancellation Terms & Conditions; these are shown on page 32 of the Cover Document linked to your account.

Unfortunately having looked into your policy; i can confirm that as you have had a denied claim; this falls under the scope of "requested repairs" and therefore you wouldnt be entitled to a refund upon cancellation of the policy and we would require a £30.00 admin fee to process the request for you.

Kind Regards

 "

[Deeps]

To achieve that I would have to have continued driving with an ever more noisy bearing until it suffered a catastrophic failure, endangering me and others and no doubt causing a more expensive recovery and repair.

Ah - but they would be able to wriggle out of that too. There's a clause which says if the driver keeps driving when it must have been obvious that there was a problem, then the warranty is invalid.

I don't wish to come over all high and mighty here but if, whilst on the move as it appears, then why didn't you pull over and call the Mazda breakdown service which is automatically renewed annually on the provision that the car is serviced at prescribed intervals.  In that way you'd have covered yourself for all options surely.

Either way, whilst obviously sorry that this should have happened to you in the first place your post encouraged me to take another look at my own extended warranty policy which I have recently taken out (although it doesn't come into effect until Oct) and haven't paid for yet. The policy covers two sides of A3 booklet, contains no parts that leave me in any doubt as to what is and what is not covered and for a legal document the jargon is very easy to understand. Here in Germany it appears that Mazda use CG Car-Guarantie Insurance according to my documentation.

[twabrigs]

Hi Deeps, unless I'm missing something the Mazda UK breakdown only continues so long as you take their own extended warranty, which I did for a year after the standard cover but it was significantly more expensive than other providers so I switched to another.

I'm very hacked off having paid £270 for warranty that is effectively useless (or rather is breakdown only and that if there is no prior warning), plus £120 hire car for a trip I had to take (father seriously ill in hospital), plus £190 for the wheel bearing repair.

Glad if this sorry tale has promoted others to check their cover though.

[Deeps]

Hi Deeps, unless I'm missing something the Mazda UK breakdown only continues so long as you take their own extended warranty, which I did for a year after the standard cover but it was significantly more expensive than other providers so I switched to Motoreasy.

Um, ok, another difference between the service offered in the UK and that in Europe. Over here the only criteria for having the Mazda Europe Service as it's called is that the vehicle is annually serviced by an authorised dealer and is totally independent of whether or not the extended warranty is taken out.

Just for interest sake - the 2 year extended guarantee cost me €290 (approx 263GBP). Parts & Labour are covered 100% up to 50,000km with the parts coverage dropping as the distance covers increases i.e. 80.000km only includes 60% parts costs which I guess is fair enough.

[twabrigs]

Hi - final word on this is the warranty company have now righted things to my satisfaction.