Has anyone been refused warranty work because of upgrades? wheels , radio , exhaust , ecu reprogram (not sure how they would even know)? Or maybe I should ask if anyone has had warranty work done with any of these mods done to their car. thanks
FWIW.... Almost every high performance manufacturer has an ECU which has proprietary software embedded which detects if you flash the ECU for performance enhancements or do anything in any way to it or other systems monitored by it........ Porsche for example has voided many a warranty as a result of the above. I know from first hand testimony from clients......and have seen how their software interacts on their hand held diagnostic computers....pretty amazing stuff.
Why, what's up? Your relationship with your service department makes a big difference and can vary from dealer to dealer.
The onus is on the dealer to prove that the mods caused the problem if they want to deny a warranty claim. It always pays to maintain a good relationship with the service manager!
I'm not a lawyer, but I was told by a very reliable source that a manufacturer can only void warranty on a specific part of a car if it was mod'd..or a part that was damaged because of the mding of a related part. ie. I don't think they could deny you warranty on a wheel bearing if you had switched to a different head unit/cd player...but they "might" if they wanted to be sticky deny a warranty claim on a speaker -- on the grounds that the speaker was fed to much power by the aftermkt head unit. As someone said before me, i think having a good relationship with a reasonable dealer can help them with the "overlooking' of some mods..
FNA's official position is that if the motor or its accessories have been modified in any way (that includes mufflers) the warranty coverage is void. I have been involved in cases where they have done exactly that. Legal action had to be pursued to get repairs performed. In one of my cases the state of Ca. even admonished them for it but they will still do it when allowed to get away with it. "Most" dealers will not enforce that but if it is a claim that for some reason Ferrari gets involved in they will. It all comes down to, how much trouble and expense do you want to go through to get your rightful warranty coverage?
