mustangrider48

What modifications can you make to your mustang without voiding the warranty? For example, I have heard that a CAI would void it, but then another time I heard it would not. I have tried asking a sales person at my local dealership, but I cannot seem to get a straight answer.

S197winstang

good question. I think they are real strict about what will void it. Anything installed that is not done by a dealer could cause you problems. Now if you go CIA with a hand held you will be fine if you remove the cia and re flash the car to stock. If they read your ecu and can't find history just tell them you disconnected the battery (make up a reason)

Xeno

a cai (in most cases) will not void your warranty; the stealerships will say it voids it, but that's so they can take your money. the only time it will void it is if the cai is the direct cause of the problem; if the transmission or rear end goes out, it's not the cai's fault and it will still be covered. plus, if you know you have to go for a particular service, just swap it for the stock intake if you have any worries.

a tune, on the other hand, will void your warranty IF you take it in for service with the tune still programmed. again if you know you are taking it in for a particular service, re-flash the computer to the stock program and it will look like you just had a dead battery to the techs. (*** what ^^^ said )

also, almost any suspension part shouldn't void your warranty unless, again, the upgraded part is what's at fault; not trying to be redundant here (i like giving examples ), but if your a/c goes out, and you have upgraded shocks/struts, your warranty is still valid

Art161

It seems to me that the simplest thing to say is that you disconnected the battery to clean the posts and terminals. Just make sure you actually clean them, and that they are nice and shiny!

Nuke

You can pull up your skirt and panties and not do anything to YOUR car until the warranty period expires or you can pull up your pants and do what you want to YOUR car.

The dealer can only deny warranty work if he can prove that the aftermarket part caused whatever problem you have the car in for service for. Most dealers are pretty cool about it but some are counting on you wearing a skirt instead of pants and will intimidate you into believing that you voided the warranty. If the later case is you, I'll personally bitch slap you and remove your man-card from your purse.

wilkinda

Now THAT was some funny SHYTE!!!

replica

They'll use any excuse to void your warranty. Even if you don't mod the car I'm sure they'll say the car was abused and that's why X part failed. Warranties are only as good as the company issuing and approving it. Assume every warranty claim will be a fight.

Legion5

it's against federal law to "void" the warranty due to any modification under any circumstances. The law was passed in 1975 which was after the greatest boom and bust of car modification in America, surpassing even todays trend. At this time warranties were voided and this was a real result to almost every enthusiast. This could be in some ways be responsible for this common misconception in many people nowadays that warranties could be voided. In fact GM is so uninformed of such laws that their internal marketing department in Febuary of 2009 released some literature with talking points that would be heard by thousands of customers which contradicted the laws in America on voiding warranties and they had to retract it and issue an appology in an embarrassing situation which offended enthusiasts. In modern times thanks to lobbying by the SEMA organization laws regulating car warranties were put in a carry on of a bill regarding consumer product warranties called the Mangusen Moss act OEM manufacturers can no longer void car warranties due to aftermarket parts. SEMA is a group that represents most companies that manufacture modifications.

Obviously if a modifications breaks something mechanical you have to fix what broke just like if you damage your car's body in a crash it's not warrantied even though your car body has a warranty.

Law also requires that manufacturers have a warranty arbitration process which has consumer advocacy in mind. In other words they have to be on your side in terms of warranties and mods by law. Ford actually has the simplest to use system compared to any other American sold manufacturer where they've established a 1800 number to call something in to Ford Corporate directly. Ask your dealer about where to arbitrate your warranty claims.

Furthermore it's international Ford policy in every country not to void your warranty due to cat back exhaust systems or appearance parts though they can void your warranty in those places for other things. Ford is a leader in actively not denying warranty claims internationally thus.

The only brands that exempt themselves from this federal regulation in their warranty disclaimers are BMW with every model and Nissan on the GT-R model. They do this by not offering any legally defined standard warranty on their vehicles, so technically those vehicles have no warranty by law. Ford actually specifically restates information which follows the Federal Mangusen Moss law on it's stance on modifications in a section of the information it prints about the Mustang warranty in the pamphlet going over it.

Also there have been over 5,000 threads on this forum backing these facts up, this is a misconception that's so common that there are 3 threads a day made about it.

Some aftermarket manufacturers also warranty their own parts against failures on the car or damage to it as a result such as Roush.

Charlie321

Really? Under ANY circumstances?

Oh. Except for those circumstances.

mustangrider48

Thanks guys for the info. I'll be modding soon.