Voiding factory warranty

[Jeff72392]

Looking to do a cold air intake, throttle body spacer, kooks longtubes with catted y pipe and borla catback exhaust, will doing these mods throw any codes and will i absolutely have to do a tuner of some sort? ive been reading that having a tuner will void the warrany,so is there a way i can do all this without voiding the warranty?

[RyanbabZ71]

Headers will throw a code you will have to do a tune. Add headers loose your engine warranty. The other mods by them self are fine

 

All look like good mods except TB spacer skip that it's a waste of $

 

 

Ryan

[TJay74]

As said, skip the TB spacer they are snake oil and do absolutely nothing other than steal money from your wallet. Catback and CAI and you are fine, add headers and you will need a tune and that is when you could have issues with the powertrain warranty if you have to go in for work. It doesn't kill it right off of the bat, but if the failure kills the engine or transmission GM will require a scan of the ECM/TCM and if they see any tuning changes they will deny warranty coverage.

[BuyAmericanIron]

I have to agree with what is written above. Headers and tune will likely void your factory warranty. I did read on here that Blackbear had a customer that lost a cam phaser which caused the valves to hit the piston which lead to major engine failure. Dealer tried to void warranty. According to what was written, Blackbear went to bat for the customer and in the end GM agreed the cam problem was not caused by the headers and/or tune and covered the damage to the engine. First and only time I had ever heard anything like that. Most times you would be on your own.

 

On a positive note, engine failures are rare and almost never caused by a tune or headers. And, your truck will be 100% more fun to drive. As with so many things in life, there are risks. Are you willing to forfeit your factory warranty for headers and a tune? Chances are you will never have an issue. I would also suggest talking to your dealer service manager and see if he will work with you.

[Jeff72392]

Thanks for the input guys, the truck I bought is actually a GM buyback, motor blew at 3k miles and previous owner got mad about it and stuck it with the dealer. So I'm hoping now that this motor lasts hopefully longer than the original one.

[fondupot]

motor blew at 3k miles

 

hoping now that this motor lasts hopefully longer than the original one.

 

3k miles isn't asking a lot..... lol

[schmolf4]

dont forget to add the muffler bearing fluid heater for those extra 25 hp ;)

[krdeal]

All of the above information is accurate with one exception, you do have the law behind you! There is a court case (Magnuson-Moss?) that was a standard for warranty work denial. It basically states what is stated above that the aftermarket part must be proven to have caused the damages to the broken part.

 

I believe anything engine or transmission, drivetrain, etc could be suggested to be the fault of the additional performance part.

 

In other words, you have the law on your side, but you will probably have to hire a lawyer to make it work for you, or at least know someone at the dealer that will go to bat for you.

[MikeNH]

All of the above information is accurate with one exception, you do have the law behind you! There is a court case (Magnuson-Moss?) that was a standard for warranty work denial. It basically states what is stated above that the aftermarket part must be proven to have caused the damages to the broken part.

 

I believe anything engine or transmission, drivetrain, etc could be suggested to be the fault of the additional performance part.

 

In other words, you have the law on your side, but you will probably have to hire a lawyer to make it work for you, or at least know someone at the dealer that will go to bat for you.

 

 

People tout this like the law is some magical shield. If you take this to court, you will need to find an attorney with significant experience in these cases and it better be damn solid. You'll need expert testimony like Black Bear to get ahead of the more expensive legal team GM has. Remember, justice usually goes to who spends the most.

 

There was a story probably a decade ago in one of the truck magazines about an owner who fitted a Banks exhaust brake to a Duramax. The engine had a catastrophic failure and GM denied the claim, citing the exhaust brake. The owner ended up paying cash for a new engine and paid to keep the old engine. He then sent it to an independent engineering firm to do a teardown and failure analysis. They found the quality of metal of the valves to be insufficient and the cause of the failure. Eventually, he won. But he put out tens of thousands of dollars to fight this. The average owner won't have the means to do this. The law is there but don't mistake it for carte blanche when it comes to mods, or protection should something go wrong.

 

 

Link:

 

http://www.trucktrend.com/how-to/project-trucks/163-0512-chevy-duramax-engine-update/

[BuyAmericanIron]

Mike is right about Magunson-Moss. Once you change the factory tune, good luck with a powertrain warranty claim. If you have a good working relationship with the dealer, you might get a break if the problem is not related to what you have done, but the manufacturers are getting smarter every day making it very hard for the dealer to slide one under the wire.

[G-FOURce]

I called my dealership proactively to talk about using a tuner or disabler b/c my brand new, 2015 Silverado drives like crap. I asked him if using a disabler or tuner to bypass the AFM/DOD would void my warranty and he said, and I quote, "Modifications made from using a tuner or a disabler will not void the warranty. However, if an issue does arise and the cause of the problem can be traced back to the modifications made from using a tuner or disabler then the warranty claim could be denied." I asked him if he'd ever seen a warrantable repair denied due to the use of a tuner or AFM/DOD disabler and he said that their dealership has never denied any claim due to the use of either of those devices on a gas engine.

 

I manage national litigation efforts for a $400MM company and work with attorneys all over the country and I can say, with certainty, that our justice system is completely dysfunctional and the prevailing rule of thumb is that he who has the most money and the most connections wins.

[sti]

I asked about my service rep about tuning out the afm on mine last week. His response was I didn't hear a word you just said. I said I just need to put it back stock before I bring it here for work. He said if you don't I will and just smiled.

 

 

STI

[namanc6]

dont forget to add the muffler bearing fluid heater for those extra 25 hp ;)

 

@schmolf4, please forgive my ignorance, but what is this you're speaking of. Was it a reply because of the TB spacer snake oil comment or is this a real thing? My bad, I may have read your post out of context but I really am trying to figure this out. I only ask because I'm planning on putting on a cat back exhaust and I'm trying to decide to go with a CAI from K&N, AFE, or Banks. And then on top of that I'm trying to decide if I should go with a dry filter as opposed to an oiled filter.

 

 

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[CAtaylor]

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[namanc6]

Banana! Ok cool I thought I was losing my mind thinking that muffler bearing stuff was real. Ok so I am back to reality. Anyway I just ordered my 77 series K&N this morning from auto anything.com. They've got 20% off until the new year. Happy holidays.

 

 

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