[enRo]

A couple days ago, my girlfriend decided to take her newly purchased 2007 Mazda6 v6 with 21K miles to my local mechanic for an oil change since it was due (sometimes I've heard dealers voiding warranties for that but I was told by the dealer that it had no effect). Anyway, she takes it there and my mechanic looks at the positive battery terminal and notice a very large amount of corrosion. So, my mechanic pointed it out to my girlfriend and said that he can clean it off but it will have to go to the dealer to get fixed. He goes ahead and does his thing, he sprays corrosion eater, wirebrushed it, and put protectors on it to get her through the next few days, warning her that the wire is barely holding onto the terminal.

So, the next day she goes to start the car and sure as hell, it wont crank. So I go to pop the hood and take a look for the first time and I was in aww at how much corrosion there was. I didnt realize how bad it was until I first looked at it. It was so bad the metal tip on the positive cable was barely there, and the corrosion went about 6 inches down the cable. There was literally no copper wire to be seen. The engine bay was covered in little chunks of corrosion from when the mechanic cleaned it off. So, me being me, I say "We shouldnt have to pay for a tow, Ill just run to autozone and get a connector and do a little rig job to get it to the dealer" so I wouldnt void the warranty. So what I did is I bought a brass connector and attached the metal tip on the positive cable to it and got a connection. No cutting, no splicing, nothing was tampered with.

So we take it to Open Road Mazda in Morristown (would have went to wayne, but long story short, they previously sold my girlfriend a 2005 mazda6 that ended up being a lemon, which is why she currently has a 2007). Drop it off. Today she got a call and they told her they are completely voiding the warranty because the wire was "tampered with". WTF. I called and got no answer. I called my mechanic and he told me "tell them to call me if they want specific details about the condition of the terminals when I looked at it".

Anyway, the dealer said it will cost $400 plus labor because they have to replace the entire wiring harness........ bull ****ing ****. Suggestions?