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Even after your auto warranty expires, you may be able to get it fixed free.

It's a car owner's nightmare. As soon as the manufacturer's warranty runs out on your new car or truck, the automatic transmission starts acting up. Or the alternator gives out. Or the power steering doesn't work right. And you're looking at hundreds of dollars worth of repairs.

Or maybe you notice a less serious problem, such as peeling paint or a rattle in the door, long after your vehicle is out of warranty. If you can't see paying to get it fixed, you assume you just have to live with it.

Don't. You may be eligible for a free fix.

All car manufacturers, both foreign and domestic, perform "goodwill adjustments" occasionally in an effort to correct chronic problems or build customer satisfaction.

A manufacturer is under no obligation to pay for out-of-warranty repairs, as it must when an automobile defect endangers lives or pollutes the atmosphere. But rather than create unhappy customers, many companies bend the rules.

The key to cashing in on that goodwill is often the knowledge that a special service bulletin exists that details your particular problem. Carmakers regularly issue service bulletins to alert dealerships to problems that originated in the factory but should be fixed in the field.

Service bulletins are sometimes called "secret warranties." But fortunately, secret warranties are becoming less secret, thanks to a movement to make such policies more accessible to the public. Laws in several states, including California, Connecticut, Virginia and Wisconsin, require manufacturers to disclose to car owners when a repair is covered by a special-adjustment program.

These laws, coupled with the growing attention being paid to customer satisfaction, have led many manufacturers to make service bulletins available to anyone who asks. No matter where you live, in many cases you can get an index listing the latest bulletins by calling the automaker's customer service department.

Don't forget the emissions warranty.

You may even be due a free repair if a service bulletin hasn't been issued about your vehicle's problem. But you have to be ready to do some research and willing to press your case.

Consider the experience of a Virginia couple whose five-year-old sedan developed a surge-and-stall problem. The dealer who sold them the car told them the vehicle was out of warranty. But Kiplinger's suggested that the couple check to see if the trouble might be in an emissions-related part, and therefore eligible for a free repair under the long-term emissions warranty. Sure enough: A second dealer performed the $500 repair for free.

Unfortunately, most drivers probably don't know what kinds of repairs qualify for such treatment. Under the law, emissions-related parts--you should find a list in your owner's manual--are covered for up to eight years and 50,000 to 100,000 miles, no matter how long the car's regular warranty lasts.

Asking for and receiving special treatment

If you think your vehicle has a problem that deserves special consideration, you should present your case for free repairs to the dealer first. Be sure to state your case politely but forcefully, because strident demands may stiffen the dealer's resistance to your pleas. These issues generally fall into gray areas and tend not to have easy, black-and-white solutions.

If you have a history of doing business with the dealership, drive home the fact that you and your family are loyal customers. A company spends thousands of dollars to win over customers from competitors, so spending a few hundred dollars to keep a buyer happy is worth the dealer's effort.

When problems arise, some customers become emotional and threaten not to buy another car from the company. That leaves the dealer and manufacturer with little or no incentive to help because they are going to lose the business anyway.

How much discretion does the dealership have to pass repair costs back to the manufacturer, instead of passing them on to the customer? The answer varies depending on the situation, say the automakers.

Each failure is looked at individually. If you have a transmission failure and it's obvious that your car has been abused, for example, you would probably be denied a free repair. But if you had a nice, clean vehicle and the transmission failed, and the car was 5,000 to 10,000 miles out of warranty, it might be covered by a goodwill warranty.

Sometimes an automaker not only picks up the full cost of a repair but will even reimburse car owners who paid to repair the problem before the free-fix program was announced.

While some repairs will be performed for free, others may be offered at a reduced cost to the owner. But even if the manufacturer picks up only half of the cost of the repair, you're ahead of the game.

Tracking down bulletins

If you have a problem with a car or truck you own, ask the dealer or manufacturer whether a service bulletin has been issued that covers that problem.

You can also search for technical service bulletins on the Internet, at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's web site. Just enter the year, make and model of the car or truck you're interested in, and a description of service bulletins will pop up.

A recent search of NHTSA's data base revealed service bulletins for four- and five-year-old cars and trucks describing a wide range of problems. These ranged from "static in the AM band of the radio" and "a clunk noise when shifting from drive to neutral" to "fuel odor inside passenger compartment" and "intermittent loss of drive at highway speeds or from fourth gear."

More-common problems included air-conditioning noise and odor, wind noise, squeaking brakes and rough idling.

Some service bulletins described cars that wouldn't crank and models that "experience no forward or reverse movement." Other bulletins concerned ignition that couldn't be turned off. Then there were bulletins describing cars with power door locks that wouldn't lock, and others with power locks that "self-activate." Not to mention rearview mirrors that fall off; windows that come off their tracks; and buzzing, chatter, clicks, creaks, grunts, moans, raffles, snaps, squawks, squeaks and whistles coming from everywhere from the seat belt and armrest to the passenger footwell and sunroof shade.