One major
question you may be facing before you do any modifications on your
newer car or truck may be whether or not you are willing to void
your cars warranty.
Like yourself, we have faced this same question with our own new
vehicles recently and would like to share with you what we have
learned. As you know,
there are modifications to your vehicle which won’t void your
warranty, which are mainly aesthetic upgrades but there are some
performance upgrades that are allowable. Talking with our friends at our
local Ford dealership (though this should apply to all
manufacturers), placing a modification on your car is not a reason
for them to void your warranty.
Your vehicles warranty is basically
written so that it is made up of several individual warranties,
from the engine’s warranty and the drive-trains warranty all the
way through the smaller components such as the warranties for the
mechanical parts like the suspension and brakes. There are warranties to cover
everything, including the stereo system. For your manufacturer to void one
of these warranties, it must be proven that the modification that
you made caused the problem in question. There is federal law governing
consumer product warranties that is very specific on how a
manufacturer may go about voiding their warranties and the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act states that all
of this. More
importantly, our consumer warranties are protected under this
act. Section 15 U.S.C Sec 2302(c) reads (notice the section
in parenthesis):
No warrantor of a consumer product may condition his
written or implied warranty of such product on the consumer's
using, in connection with such product, any article or service
(other than article or service provided without charge under the
terms of the warranty) which is identified by brand, trade, or
corporate name...
But what does
this mean? We can’t
tell you other than it’s basically been interpreted and enforced
under the meaning that your modification has to be determined to
have caused the failure of the component covered under warranty
before they can void that components warranty. Each dealership and manufacturer
is different and may handle each issue completely different. The best comparison would
be that your manufacturer won’t void a warranty because you put on
aftermarket wiper blades. Our friends at the dealership
pretty much put it that when it comes to the biggest warranty,
you’re safe from the air intake forward and from the catalytic
converters back.
Therefore, two of the best performance
modifications, the cat-back exhausts and the performance
air-intakes, should not void any of your warranty. But please heed this warning; the
wrong air-intake may lead to major issues. The best example is that if you
put a cold air induction air-intake on your car, many times these
air-intakes run down into the fender-well and if your car is an
all-weather driver, you could suck up water into the engine and
ruin your engine.
After you ruin your engine, your air-intake may be blamed for
ruining your engine and then you won’t be covered under
warranty. What would
we recommend? Get as
much information about the product or modification you are looking
to add to your vehicle. Knowledge goes a long way and our
tech department is here to help, too. Drop us a line with any questions
you may have.
HHP
