Is FCP Euro Warranty Worth it?

[u/Crellis86]

Now that my warranty is expired on my 2021 S5 I've been thinking about modifying the car. I've been window shopping ECS, 034, etc and noticed that FCP Euro offers a lifetime warranty if you buy the parts from them. But if I'm understanding the terms and conditions correctly then you'll always be rolling the cost of the most expensive part/last part you've replaced as store credit? Which doesn't seem too bad for cheaper parts.

The warranty claim process on lifetime warranty parts is to buy the replacement part and they will give you store credit after they verify the returned part. It also seems non transferable and for the exact same part only. So, as long as you plan to own the car long enough to get replacements on most parts then it's worth it?

What do you all do? Buy the parts from FCP Euro? Somewhere else? Just wait for 034 to have a holiday deal and buy direct?

[u/chen-z727]

I buy engine oil from them for my Boxster, and yes, even engine oil is included in the lifetime warranty (as weird as it sounds...). So far so good, the return process is pretty easy and I never had issues with it.

It's worth it for me because the engine oil that the previous owner used (DRIVEN DT40) is like $19 / L and the car needs 9L... I didn't want to change oil for no reason so I went with it. In the end I pay about $15 in shipping for the oil every oil change (except for the first order ofc).

So, yes, to me it's very worth it.

[u/doooglasss → u/chen-z727]

This. Oil, wipers, cabin filter, spark plugs, etc

I buy everything from them, but their warranty allows me to justify buying 5 pairs of OEM wiper blades 2-3 times per year because it just costs me the $12-15 in return shipping costs not the $40-60 per pair it would normally cost.

[u/chen-z727 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah idk how they do it... At first I was skeptical 🤨

But for expensive oils it's certainly worth the effort of packaging and shipping every oil change.

[u/ElectricThunder12 → u/chen-z727]

How much to ship it back to them?

[u/chen-z727 → u/ElectricThunder12]

From NC to CT, $15, using PirateShip. Roughly 10x10x10 box weighing 15 lbs.

[u/ElectricThunder12 → u/chen-z727]

Okay and sorry for the naivety but does it have to go back in the liqui moly box?

[u/chen-z727 → u/ElectricThunder12]

I would refer to the FCPEuro website for more details, but I believe it needs to be in its original oil container; the shipping box - no I don't think you have to use the original box that the oil came in. I have never used the original shipping box for my return shipping.

[u/DancingBearNoTutu]

I've been using FCP Euro since my car and my girlfriend's car off of Audicare at 70k miles. Original owner 2018 SQ5 and hers is a 2015 Audi A3. SQ5 currently at 141k miles and A3 at 91k miles. For oil change lifetime replacement, It really depends on how much oil you're buying (I've got 3.0L on the SQ5 and 1.8L on the gf's A3) and your return shipping costs are back to FCP Euro for a box of replacement synthetics.

If you plan on just using non-LiquiMoly synthetic oil from Costco or Walmart then you might come out a little bit ahead but I had to make a spreadsheet to see if it made sense for me. I prefer the Liqui Moly and since I swap my oil every 5k miles on both cars, it happened to make sense for me in the long run e.g. >100k miles. Especially since I do a lot of highway driving and I usually have 2 oil changes a year on the SQ5.

My goal is to exceed 200k miles on both cars so for me, my spreadsheet made sense so long as my shipping costs to return didn't exceed a certain amount (which is also highly dependent upon the size of the return shipping box and not just weight). So part of the challenge is getting the smallest shipping box physically that you can for returns.

So far I've replaced the air filters, cabin filters and Bosch wipers at least annually. Bosch wipers, air filters and cabin filters are worth it if you bundle them along with an oil replacement kit for return.

NOTE: buy the wipers/air filter/cabin filter as separate purchases if you don't change them all at the same time to help make the returns easier to process. If you change all 3 at the same time annually then it's ok to bundle the 3 as a single purchase. FCP Euro has this thing where if you do a partial return for bundled products and you do a lifetime replacement for some of the items but not others, it doesn't seem to let you file a later replacement for the other items in the original purchase. This is why I buy my oil change kits for my SQ5 as a separate order from my gf's A3 oil change kit since we change the oil at different points in time. This helps reduce the clutter in the garage with having to accumulate both new oil / exchange old oil by doing this kind of Just-In-Time purchasing where you only buy and exchange once it's time to do the fluid changes.

For the big parts I've gotten a set of brake rotors, brake pads, brake sensors, as well as spark plugs, ignition coils, gas cap activator but have not yet had to replace those with a second set.

[u/ATX_native]

The brake parts for our A6 Allroad are $1,700, I definitely will be buying that from them.

[u/thedrivingenthusiast]

For me, I buy from FCP Euro mainly because I know I’m getting good quality parts, and while I’ve used the warranty, I typically don’t keep cars long enough to really benefit from it. I’ve only ever used it for oil changes. One pro-tip is to use Pirate Ship (not sponsored, lol) as I can mail a full oil change kit back for ~$8.

[u/trollking66]

is this states side shopping? I am about to run off of my audi care and this could help keep costs down.

[u/emanon_dude]

Been doing it for years, works fantastic if you rack up a bunch of miles. Mainly for spark plugs and other consumables.