AutoZone Limited Lifetime Warranty (How It Works, Rules)

Do you know what AutoZone’s limited lifetime warranty is? Well, you are at the perfect place to find the answer to such a question.

If there’s one thing in our lives that we spend more money on than anything else, it’s probably our vehicles. Insurance, gas, parking, and maintenance all cost a lot every month, and that’s not including the big expenditures when something breaks down.

Wouldn’t it be great, then, if you could get auto parts that you could trust to last forever? AutoZone has a limited lifetime warranty on some of their products, but is the deal too good to be true?

This article will tell you everything that you need to know about the lifetime warranty that AutoZone offer, including how limited it actually is, and what items come with it. Read ahead to find out whether or not this offer really is as good as it seems.

Table of Contents

What is AutoZone?

Before we look into their warranties, we should take a look at the company itself. AutoZone is the largest retailer of aftermarket automotive parts and accessories in the United States. They operate all over the country and even have stores in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Brazil, and the US Virgin Islands.

If you’re looking for parts for your car, AutoZone is probably one of the first places that come to mind. They operate over 6,000 different stores in the US, so you are likely to find one nearby, wherever you happen to be.

The company was founded in Arkansas in 1979, under the name Auto Shack, but has since gone on to become a giant in the industry, netting around $12 billion per year. You might wonder, then, how can they make so much money while offering lifetime warranties on their parts?

What Does AutoZone Sell?

There are a lot of different products that you can buy at AutoZone. When it comes to automotive parts and accessories, they have almost everything that you can imagine. At AutoZone you can find:

Batteries
Internal Auto Parts
Body Parts and Hardware
Electrical Accessories
Lighting Parts
Chemicals, Oils, and Washing Equipment
External Accessories
Tools
Fittings
And much more…

Essentially, if you need something for your vehicle, you can probably get hold of it at AutoZone. Surely, they can’t offer a lifetime warranty on all of these products?

What AutoZone Products Come with a Limited Lifetime Warranty?

The limited lifetime warranty from AutoZone only covers all of their “hard parts”. These include:

Alternators
Starters
Shocks and Struts
Brake Rotors
Brake Pads

Most of AutoZone’s products are not covered by the limited lifetime warranty, instead, they come under AutoZone’s standard limited warranty.

What is the Standard Warranty From AutoZone?

The standard warranty that you get from AutoZone is their Limited Warranty. This covers many of their products, though the specific warranty period will be different for each item.

You need to check the product description page to see what the exact warranty period that you are getting is.

As an example, we can look at some of the different warranties that you get with batteries at Autozone. For some batteries, the warranty period is as long as 4 years, whereas others are only covered for as little as 30 days. In the table below you can see how much these different warranties can vary.

Battery Type	Free Replacement Period
Odyssey 0790-2420	4 years
Platinum	3 years
Duralast Gold	3 years
Duralast	2 years
Duralast Heavy Duty	1 year
Econocraft	90 days
Valucraft L&G Utility	30 days

What Does the Limited Lifetime Warranty Actually Cover?

So not every product at AutoZone actually comes with a limited lifetime warranty, but how good is the deal when you can get it? A lot of people see the phrase “lifetime warranty” and assume that it means you’re never going to need to buy another one of these items again. That is rarely the case.

At AutoZone, their warranty only actually covers manufacturing or material defects in the product. If your auto parts fail for another reason, or due to wear and tear, you are not technically owed a replacement or refund.

You are not covered for any damage caused by:

Misuse
Abuse
Other faulty parts
Improper installation
Off-road, commercial, or marine use

Which does go to show how limited a “limited warranty” can be. This can really reduce the likelihood of any issues actually being covered by the warranty. Many auto parts, like brake pads, are designed to wear down over time and will always fail eventually, and that doesn’t qualify as a “manufacturing defect”.

How Long Does the Limited Lifetime Warranty Last?

So, the limited part of the warranty is a bit limited, but surely the “lifetime” aspect has you covered for good, right? Sort of.

Some companies take the term “lifetime” to mean the expected life span of the product and, somewhere in the fine print, you might find out that it runs out after a certain amount of time.

There is no expiry period on the AutoZone limited lifetime warranty. This is great, but there are a couple of caveats.

Firstly, it can be hard to prove any manufacturing defects after a certain amount of time, because normal use will probably have caused some damage for which you are not covered. Additionally, the warranty expires when you sell or trade your vehicle. That means that this lifetime warranty is only valid for the original vehicle in which you installed the part.

As most people don’t keep a single vehicle for life, that does put a bit of an expiry date on your warranty.

Can You Replace the Parts as Often as You Like?

Another attractive aspect of a lifetime warranty is the idea that you can keep coming back for new replacements.

Technically, this is not the case with the AutoZone warranty (And to be honest, it’s rarely the case anywhere).

Usually, a limited lifetime warranty means that it is limited to the original product that you bought.

What Do Customers Find When They Claim on Their Warranties?

We’ve already looked at how the limited lifetime warranty at AutoZone technically only covers you for manufacturing defects, so it should be quite hard to get a free replacement for used, older parts.

A lot of customers, however, report getting their parts replaced immediately, without requiring proof of a defect and with very little hassle. Even if you are not technically covered, the people at AutoZone may be kind enough to make the replacement for you anyway.

Additionally, many people have found that they can get their parts replaced as many times as they like, as AutoZone will transfer the remaining warranty period onto the replacement parts.

Whether you’ll get lucky or not does seem to depend on which store you go to, and who you happen to talk to, as some locations are stricter than others, and some states have different warranty laws.

How Do You Claim an AutoZone Warranty?

To claim your warranty, all you need to do is visit an AutoZone store with your parts and your proof of purchase. Your warranty information is automatically stored on the database when you first make a purchase, in-store or online.

Advance Auto parts or Autozone. What Limited Lifetime Warranty mean >> Check out the video below:

Conclusion

What you need to know is that, while AutoZone’s limited lifetime warranty is supposedly quite limited, most people still find that they can get a lot of easy, free replacements.

Technically, you are only supposed to be covered for manufacturing defects, the warranty doesn’t always transfer to replacement parts, and it expires when you sell or trade your vehicle.

Despite this, many customers have had really good experiences claiming this warranty, getting multiple free replacements even when they haven’t proved there to be a manufacturing defect.

At the end of the day, it’s a good offer, whether you get lucky with your claims or not.

References

https://www.autozone.com/lp/warranty

https://www.autozone.com/lp/termsAndConditions