Yeah, mine was covered under Applecare. It went out somewhere around the 1yr mark.
It is very possible that they will have mercy on you. I mean, they have the power to do so, the trick is making them want to lol. "I thought about buying Applecare, but Macs have always been so reliable..." maybe? I had a refurb Macbook that wasn't charging the battery and the initial diagnosis was mainboard....2 months out of warranty. I was talking about how I wanted to buy Applecare, but I just forgot about it...the Genius does some typing and bam, 1 year extension on my warranty....which I think just ended lol.