i've already tried to look into this. some people say yes and some say no. if i get a jlt cai and tune will i void my warranty? i only have 3k on my car, and don't want to loose my warranty! I was reading that some people put their tune back to stock before they go to the dealership? thank you for the input!

 

it will NOT void the warranty on the car, it just voids the warranty on the part that has been replaced. if you are that worryed about it you can return it to stock before you go in for service

 

VOIDED WARRANTIES

Below text only quotes my replies to this reoccurring topic previously:

__________________________________________________ ___________________________
ONE
__________________________________________________ ___________________________

It is illegal with regard to federal American law to void your warranty due to a CAI and tune install. The only thing that is voided is the warranty on the CAI itself, which doesn't break anyway and isn't made by Ford so it wouldn't be expected to carry a Ford warranty really.


__________________________________________________ ___________________________
TWO
__________________________________________________ ___________________________

[sarcasm]Modifying your exhaust to duals voids your warranty. By significantly decreasing your back pressure it increases your intake airflow by reducing residual gas in the cylinder. This in turn causes your air inlet tube to "bow" making it considered a modified intake due to the additional pressure and different shape etc. My scervice rep was going over the dangers of duals on a non-dual car with me earlier.

Also, in the warranty it clearly says that if you modify your car your whole warranty is voided, including sub warranties. For example if your drive train warranty is voided due to exhaust, your main warranty is voided. So if your exhaust is modified and your seat cushions become discolored, you will need to replace those yourself because your installed exhaust.

There are currently no consumer laws or anything to guard against this because a car company is the ones that writes the contract and you have to accept it. It's not advertising that's controled by the FCC or production which is controled by consumer protection, it's a legal contract which as you know can be shady...[/sarcasm]

__________________________________________________ ___________________________
THREE
__________________________________________________ ___________________________



Q:do longtubes void my warranty?

[sarcasm]Yes they voided my warranty. I took my car to the dealer to get some of the bubbling paint on the hood fixed and mentioned my sweet new long tubes. By that point they said that they could not do anything for my paint because it's well known that longtubes are made with leaded material. Well they said that the lead had traveled into the fuel system and possibly crept into the paint through the filler cap. I pointed out that it was against Federal American law to void warranties when they said i could not take my car to any other ford dealer, and that they could only do legally void my warranty in the other 198 countries in the world, but they did not care even. The technicans said that they did a search on the mustangforums but were too lazy to find the truth, so instead they voided my warranty.

Now I had to repaint my whole car, including the interior, out of pocket![/sarcasm]



__________________________________________________ ___________________________
FOUR
__________________________________________________ ___________________________


In america it is againt government law for a auto manufacturer to void your warranty if you have installed a mod, unless the mod causes wear and tear that directly results in the damage being warrantied. Furthermore if you live outside the US nothing after the cats will void your warranty.
__________________________________________________ ___________________________
FIVE
__________________________________________________ ___________________________

In America it is againt government law for a auto manufacturer to void your warranty if you have installed a mod, unless the mod causes abuse to the problem that directly results in the damage being warrantied or it makes it abnormally expensive or difficult to repair your product. Furthermore if you live outside the US nothing after the cats will void your warranty this is a very specific Ford policy which is both in the us and outside of it.

If your dad is older and thinks something like exhaust would void an obligation to stand by a product then I could only guess that hes older and grew up in the muscle car era before the laws regarding this form of current fraud were passed. When people actually cared about modding much more and it was more socially popular than they do in this era the laws were not there. I could imagine how he would want to still think it was 1960 where all of the manufacturers bassically were copping customers out of their obligations and it got really bad, but then again he could just be uneducated and randomly think things. Hopefully your dad understands.

__________________________________________________ ___________________________
SIX
__________________________________________________ ___________________________

The truth lies somewhere between these two statements:

If the aftermarket part installed on your vehicle can be determined to be the cause of the failure you are reporting, your warranty claim will be denied.

Dealerships are always looking for a reason not to work

Here's the closest thing to the truth: If the aftermarket part installed on your vehicle can be determined to be the cause of the failure you are reporting, your warranty claim will be denied and dealerships are always looking for a reason not to work.


Here's what the law in the united states says (paraphrased): A "full" warranty such as those mandated on cars cannot be denied if the original product has undergone a modification. Unless it is PROVEN and not just verbalized that the modification caused the faliure in the first place, or that modification makes repairing the product unusually more expensive.

__________________________________________________ ___________________________
SEVEN
__________________________________________________ ___________________________

best one:

Here's what the law in the united states says (paraphrased): A "full" warranty such as those mandated on cars cannot be denied if the original product has undergone a modification. Unless it is PROVEN and not just verbalized that the modification caused the faliure in the first place, or that modification makes repairing the product unusually more expensive.

This automotive law was put on the books by the association for aftermarket car modification part makers, in under the table manner and tied to another bill about big ticket consumer product warranty conformity. It was passed 5 years after the end of the boom of car modification in the 60s where people had warranties denied for car modification all the time. During this time more modifications were done to more cars than all the years after that decade combined according to howstuffworks.com.

Currently most dealers are either not aware of this federal law for obvious reasons provided by the counterargument examples of history, or choose to be unaware for the extra profit ignoring it brings in by receiving double labor hours payment on walk-in rate customers over their normally charged warranty work allotment payments.


__________________________________________________ ___________________________
EIGHT
__________________________________________________ ___________________________


Actually t is very important to deny as many warranty claims as possible because dealerships are already hounded by Ford to do so. This is because dealers like to get your business by having FORD pay them to be nice to you. Lots of times this happens like where you damage a part and they will have ford fix your damage under warranty. To combat this Ford both hounds dealers to justify all warranty claims and frequently deny ones they can, and they put quotas on the amount of money a dealer can have Ford spend. Second the dealer charges two rates for warranty work. The first rate is ONLY to fix a problem for Ford, this is Ford's rate.

The also second reason is to fix a problem for anyone else but Ford, there is this walk-in rate which is doubble or more the Ford rate which is set by ford. A dealer knows that if they deny warranty coverage that the person has no choice but to get it fixed, so then it can make doubble the proffit off of any warranty claim as they take between 10% to 75% of what their mechanics make in pay.

Between these two reasons, a dealer can choose to have it in their best interests to ignore a legitimate warranty claim, they fearful of Ford reps, or the can be looking to make more money off of warranty claims. You can be the one to decide which is which. Then again they could just be uneducated in this law for obvious reasons.

__________________________________________________ ___________________________
NINE
__________________________________________________ ___________________________

Anyway by US law your warranty can be voided if the dealer PROVES the part cause something in the car which you are repairing to fail. Dealers unfortunatly AVOID the "prove" and will put up most people against just an explenation so they agree to the more expensive repair.

__________________________________________________ ___________________________
TEN,ELEVEN,TWELVE,THIRTEEN.. etc
__________________________________________________ ___________________________

Not interesting enough to be cited.


__________________________________________________ ___________________________
SHOCKING CONCLUSION
__________________________________________________ ___________________________

********Not only have I gotten this exact topic in 1% of the threads I reply to, using a sophisticated measurement method about 2% of the threads on this entire forum are about this subject.*********

 

SO OP does this answer your question?!....thanks Legion5

 

A tune re-programs the PCM, which controls most of the power train. Modifying the programming tecnically DOES void your powertrain warranty. Poor programming could damage the engine and/or transmission.
If the dealer/Ford can prove you re-programmed, you will never beat it in a court of law.
Have you ever fought a dealer or manufacturer using the MM act as your defense? I think not.
As far as the rest of you post... "Automaker/Dealer Conspiracy Theory??"
The MM act was not secretly passed it was a sponsored bill passed in 1975 to protect the consumer against unfair warranty practices and jargon.

OP
If you want to be sure to keep your warranty .... don't mod till it's expired.
If you choose to mod... accept the fact that you may be voiding part of your warranty.

 

What did you buy your Stang for? To have some wood when you step on the go pedal, I'm sure. So why hesitate to install one of the biggest bang-for-the-buck mods? Worst case is that you'll get a hassle from the dealer but that's only a problem if you're a spineless wimp.

I've had my Stang back to the dealereship for warranty work and left the CAI & tune intact. They never said a thing other than a compliment about how good it looked and the tech mentioned how well it ran after he test drove it.

You gotta go for it. The majority rules.

 

The simple answer is this, if you want a CAI+tune just get it from good tuner like vmp, bama, brenspeed, tillman speed, etc. If you ever need to take your car in for warranty work simply remove the CAI and return your tune to stock and unhook the battery for about 15 minutes to reset everything. Finally put a few miles on the car, 50 or so so that the car doesn't appear to have a blank slate. If you can't drive it b/c the work needed makes it undriveable, simply blame it on forgetting the headlights which killed your battery, or on unhooking the battery b/c you didn't tighten your gas cap and you wanted to reset the error code.

 

+1 on what Nuke said... it's a MUSTANG, act accordingly! Personally, I'd give up the warranty in exchange for a few grand off the sticker price.. the S197 is bullet-proof AND I'm gonna do all the work myself anyway.. so who needs a stinkin' warranty?!

 

Most dealers expect you to have modded the car in some aspect. While mine was still under warranty, they never said word one about the mods on the car when I took it in. Heck - most dealers sell the parts to mod your car, install them, etc......

If one particular dealer gives you any issues - just call another shop and talk to the service dept. You'll find a Ford dealer who won't care one lil bit about a CAI and Tune.

 

everyone is right