American Auto Guardian, Inc. AAGI Lies And The Runaround With My Differential Arlington Heights Illinois

 I bought my 1992 Jeep Wrangler from a used dealership in Long Beach, CA. After a bad experience with a previous car I owned, I decided to seize the opportunity of buying a warranty (Drivetrain 1 year 10,000 mile contract) to cover any unexpected repairs my Jeep would need. Little did I know that the "warranty coverage" would be coming from my own wallet.

The rear differential (gearbox where the drive shaft meets the wheel axles) was howling and had a lot of slop in it. I called AAGI Wheelz claims who I have the warranty contract with and they told me to take it to a shop of my choice to have it inspected and so I did.

The shop told me that they looked at the diff. and that the pinion nut had backed off. When the shop called AAGI, they were told the warranty would not be covered at their shop because they contract out the work to another shop that specializes in differential rebuilds. At that, the shop tightened the pinion nut, told me sorry and sent me on my way. I was frustrated but could understand why AAGI did not want to deal with a 3rd party. Then the real fun began.

I found a shop in Compton, CA that does all their business in house and strictly works on off road vehicles, specializing in Jeep Wranglers. The owner was a really cool guy and willing to work with me and the warranty, though he had never dealt with AAGI before, and I doubt he ever will again. He opened up my differential and found that a seal had previously been replaced and that the pinion nut had to be removed to access the seal. He then went on to explain that the pinion nut is a one time use nut and should be replaced with a new one each time it is removed. Well apparently the shop that replaced the seal reused the old nut which was worn out and that is what caused the nut to back off. When the nut backed off then the gear started oscillating and moving around and causing excessive wear and damage.

He contacted AAGI about this and they told him to completely take apart the differential and lay all the parts out so someone could come by and take pictures of them. They also told him to call me and have me authorize the work (which I did) with the understanding that I would be charged a $250 deductable after already paying almost $600 to purchase the warranty. The pictures would then be shown to a "technician" at AAGI who would decide if the warranty would cover the work. He was also told that the warranty would only cover the worn parts in the differential and not the items that did not fail, but have to be replaced regardless due to the differential being taken apart (I.E. the pinion nut and the seals). A representative from AAGI then went to his shop to take pictures where upon the shop owner showed him in the service manual all the items that automatically need replacement whenever the differential is taken apart. The reps. repsonse was he isn't the one in charge of deciding what gets covered.

A couple days pass and I get a call from the shop. The owner said that AAGI chose not to cover the warranty at all because a previous shop did not replace the pinion nut with a new one as they were required to do. This repair that a previous shop did occured before I even bought the Jeep. The shop owner then called AAGI back to explain that the reason I bought the warranty was in case of situations such as this and that they should honor the warranty because it is a mechanical failure and is completely within my contract limits. They then changed the story and said "We do not cover fasteners (referring to the pinion nut)". Although this is true and it is stated in the contract that fasteners are not covered, the pinion nut is still the reason for a bigger mechanical failure of warranty covered items.

On top of all that, my differential is still apart and needs to be put back together and AAGI wont pay for the labor rates to take the differential apart. The shop charges $1500.00 to rebuild a differential, which I am now stuck holding the bag for. I authorized the rebuild with new parts anyway because it is already apart and it may as well be taken care of. Bottom line is this is a huge scam AAGI is running.