What Is Covered By a Powertrain Warranty?

Every new car sold comes with two distinct warranties: the bumper-to-bumper warranty and the powertrain warranty. Together, the two warranties offer comprehensive coverage should anything fail prematurely on your new or almost-new car.

The powertrain warranty covers the most expensive components of your car, yet what it covers and what it excludes isn’t clear for a lot of car buyers. We break down the ins and outs of what the powertrain warranty includes.

What is the Powertrain?

A car’s powertrain refers to the critical components that produce the power for a car and deliver it to the wheels. These parts include the engine, transmission, differential, axle shafts, and, depending on whether a car is front-wheel, rear-wheel, or all-wheel drive, the transaxle, driveshaft, and transfer case. In short, if a component directly engages with the creation or flow of engine power, it’s part of the powertrain.

As you might imagine, these parts are complex pieces of engineering - there’s nothing simple about an engine or transmission. When there’s a major failure with one of these parts, the cost can be high due to the labor hours necessary for repair as well as the cost of obtaining replacement parts. This is becoming doubly true as cars incorporate more and more technology under the hood. 

All vehicles also have something called a drivetrain, a term that can be easily confused with the powertrain. The drivetrain, however, focuses on the driven wheels. All-wheel drive (AWD), four-wheel drive (4WD), front-wheel drive (FWD), and rear-wheel drive (RWD) are the four types of drivetrains. The components of these drive systems are covered by the powertrain warranty. (For more on drivetrains, refer to our guides: 4WD vs. AWD and RWD vs. FWD.) 

What is Covered by a Powertrain Warranty?

The powertrain warranty is a type of limited warranty that covers the cost of any repairs or replacement of any of a vehicle’s powertrain component. 

Exactly what is protected differs in detail from warranty to warranty. Typically, covered parts include seals and gaskets, internal parts like the crankshaft, pistons, valves, fuel injectors, and timing chain, the cylinder block and oil pan, transmission gears and synchronizers, and all the hardware that composes the differential and axle systems.

It’s important to note that coverage of all these components can be voided if the vehicle has been altered from factory specifications, if it has been used irregularly, or was otherwise intentionally abused. What this means is that you shouldn’t expect a powertrain warranty to cover the damage arising from off-roading your Mitsubishi Mirage.

Getting in an accident also voids the warranty. Any powertrain repairs needed as the result of a collision will be covered by your insurance, not the warranty. 

Also, be sure to take your car to authorized service providers and dealerships when it’s time for a warranty claim; the work of a local independent mechanic will not be covered by the terms of the factory warranty. 

What is Not Covered by a Powertrain Warranty?

With every warranty, there’s a long list of exclusions as to what’s not covered; sometimes this list seems longer than the list of covered parts. As we mentioned, the particulars of what is and isn’t included differs with every manufacturer, but a common theme is that all electronics, engine control module sensors, belts, hoses, emissions, and cooling systems are not covered. Wheel bearings, catalytic converters, oil pumps, and water pumps are other parts that are potentially not covered.

A good rule of thumb is that anything considered to be a wear item is not covered by a powertrain warranty. For instance, if your clutch goes on your manual-transmission car, don’t expect the dealership to cover the replacement cost. Even if it lasted just 20,000 miles, the service department will simply call it a wear and tear item and hand you the bill. The same goes for other items such as the timing belt or CV joints, which are considered wear items and will not be covered by a warranty.

Common maintenance items like oil changes, tire rotations, and brake pads will also not be covered. The warranty is designed to protect car owners from unexpected repairs, not pay for routine maintenance.

If you don’t want to be surprised at your local mechanic about what is and isn’t covered by your service contract, you’ll need to read the fine print regarding your warranty coverage. It doesn’t matter whether you’re buying a new car with factory coverage or some third-party warranty - the contract will clearly spell out the terms of the warranty.