What should I do about a garage that refuses to stand behind a parts warranty?

Five months ago I had new front brake pads and rotors installed (Honda Civic) at a local non-dealer garage. Now they are making grinding noise when the brake pedal is applied. A trip back to the garage revealed the rotors were warped. The invoice said they were warrantied for two years, but the garage said the warranty is with the manufacturer and for parts only. I would have to take it up with them to recoup money it will take to replace these parts and I'd still have to pay for labor.

That's the standard way most warranties work when there are parts and labor involved such as on cars or construction.

The parts are warrantied with the manufacturer and you have to pay to have the labor redone. Some shops will give you a reduced hourly rate for labor.

Warranty is for manufacturer defects. If it was not cause by wear and tear then they will accept your warranty. It is not the decision of the installer but the parts manufacturer. Like if the car broken down and you're blaming the dealer.

Tell them if thy don't take the defective rotors they sold you back to their parts jobber you're going to sue them and let everyone on Facebook know they don't stand behind their work or the parts they provide for you. I've worked on customers cars for 35 years and the brake warranty is 12 months or 12,000 miles everywhere.

It's not the garage's warranty

The garage deals with hundreds of different companies that make parts. The garage ONLY INSTALLS THE PARTS YOU BOUGHT. So, it is not a matter of workmanship. The garage did their job correctly. Part failure is taken up with the maker of the part and at most you will be getting a new part. The LABOR is a different bag of hammers.
. Every garage does it that way… And have done so for DECADES. It says so on the back of your receipt. (The fine print) So you can't Sue and win and EVERYONE KNOWS THAT.

Welcome to REALITY.

I know that my independent garage would make good on the repair they performed - in fact, since I've been going to them for years, they have stood behind defective replacement parts such as an alternator… The garage "pushing" the supplier/jobber/wholesaler for free replacement.

Must assume that your garage is sourcing inferior parts from questionable sources. Find a new garage.

Example of a good garage: many years ago, my garage installed an exhaust system on my car with "lifetime guaranteed" mufflers. Of course, such guarantees for mufflers or any other replacement part gamble that you won't still own the car when the part fails. In this case, I kept the car (and the paid invoice) for 10 more years… Mufflers blew out, returned to garage and learned that the muffler supplier was out of business. But the garage found another supplier and replaced mufflers @ no charge.

They're right. The shop didn't warranty the rotors, the manufacturer does.

Not a very good customer relation strategy. We've run into this problem with various parts we installed on cars over the years. We've taken care of the problem and ate the labor to keep customers happy. That's what we're in business for and have repeat customers and new customers who have been referred by our repeat customers. They have to remember that old saying ( a happy customer will tell one person a unhappy customer will tell 100 )

My guess is either a brake caliper is stuck, causing the rotor to overheat and warp, someone is riding the brake, overheating them and causing them to warp, or somebody slammed into a curb and warped the rotors. Since they're grinding, the caliper is more suspect, but it's not likely more than one caliper went bad. Calipers can go bad without the pad or rotor being at fault. I don't feel optimistic that you can win this fight.

Warping is an act of God. Enjoy driving through ice water with hot brakes? No? I wouldn't do any more business with that garage. Couldn't afford to.