draymer

US Federal Law states that automobile manufacturer or representative thereof may not deny a warranty repair on a modded vehicle unless the failure can be directly and conclusively shown to be the result of modification, or that a modification contributed to the failure.

Technically speaking, changing a rear gear really only directly effects that components of the rear axle. To change the speed of rotation of the transmission, you'd have to change something internal to the transmission. 5,000 rpm is still 5,000rpm, which is translated to some number of drive shaft revolutions, regardless of the rear gear. The rear gear engages on the drive shaft, and the changes in acceleration that result are a result of the ratio of the gear. The drive shaft rotation doesn't change, the effect of the driveshaft rotation on the rear axle (or axles) does.

The crank turns the flywheel, the flywheel turns the transmission, the transmission turns the drive shaft, the drive shaft turns the rear end. If the trailing end of the drive shaft is damaged, and you've changed your gears -- there may be a denial.

I don't know how Ford behaves in this space -- Subaru is good about not voiding warranties on mods to WRXs and STIs, assuming that either a dealership or a certified master mechanic did the install. Mitsubishi in Texas was good about not voiding warranty, however, in SoCal they actually monitored the various Evo boards and as soon as somebody in SoCal posted a dyno run or strip run -- their warranty was voided (a clause in the owner's manual basically allowed them to do this).

A good explanation of the warranty issue can be found here: http://impala.homeip.net/misc/warranty.html; the relevant law is often referred to as the Magnuson-Moss Act

-- dave

Sxynerd

IT only depends on the dealership you take it too... they get paid less for warrenty work because it's based on fords decision of "man hours to do a job". But if your paying out of warrenty then the can rape you as much as they need too.... Change your gears, put the stock gear tagback on it and hope they don't notice it. If you go to a dealership to get something fixed the first place you go can ruin you be voiding the warrenty by computer. Also if they really want to get you, aprearence mods can be a demise to your warrenty... (Shows charachter of driving which we all know is BS) Which is wrong and can be legally wrong but sometimes they don't care about you and only think of the $$$. Find a mod friendly dealership.


This is comming from my tunner who is a lawyer for Ford....


pease love and hair grease
Mike
sxynerd
[sm=americanasmiley.gif]

tncruiser

is your car still under warranty? if you have an extened warranty the rules may be differant as it is a service aggreement and may be affected by mods

svt99redcobra

OOOoohhhh you have a automatic.....dont fear the gear big boy go with 4:10's

Dan04COBRA

How could that work? Look at the ring & pinion, betcha won't find a logo or stamp on 90% of them.

Many AFTERMARKET warranty companies set their own rules instead of following Manufacturers guidelines. Since you are buying into a service they offer, many have a strict regulation against ANY aftermarket parts being installed outside of what may have been installed when you purchased the car.

This means if you have an aftermarket warranty & your transmission bites the dust & you did a gear swap that they somehow find out about, they can send you up ****s creek without a paddle and have every right to do so. IMO, if the warranty isn't a factory warranty, I'd see what you could do about selling back the warranty and getting your money back. The cheapest aftermarket warranty I've heard of in my area was $1,500 for 3 year/30k mile from purchase mileage with an initial 120 point inspection. It's pretty much not worth it, especially if nothing covered by warranty breaks - ontop of your loan interest and now your aftermarket warranty purchase, you'll have thrown away so much money it'll make you sick.

Darkcrime

Very True! However, I believe there are stipulations, such as, a CAI will not void the engine of your car, but, if the CAI sucks in water and goes to the engine, that voids your warranty. A gear would be tricky. It doesn't DIRECTLY affect your trans, however; it is making the trans technically work outside of it's normal nature. I can see it both ways. Best thing to do, not say anything about the gear. I went through 3 trannies on my accord, with a few mods (cai, headers, pulleys, and plugs), they just replaced them.