What doesn't void warranty?

[Spootcat]

Been following the forums for a bit while waiting for the right SHO to come along. Box checked, so next question is are there any tunes that don't void warranty? I'm expecting no, but figured I'd ask.

Spoot

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[StealBlueSho]

No

 

[StealBlueSho]

All tunes will void warranty, just a matter of fact... there is even a service bulletin for the service guys about it for our cars...

 

[Jeff2017]

Makes you wonder why Ford doesn't offer a tune themselves that they will honor the warranty for. I would pay $1000 for the basic tune that Livernois sell's for $600 if it would not void the warranty.

 

[StealBlueSho]

Makes you wonder why Ford doesn't offer a tune themselves that they will honor the warranty for. I would pay $1000 for the basic tune that Livernois sell's for $600 if it would not void the warranty.

They didn't sell enough of them to justify it is my guess... second guess is there is more margin on the Mustangs... no need to outsell those when they are making more money of them...
Third guess is they didn't want to deal with warranting something they know is gonna have problem...

 

[gimpy]

This isn't so much as a fact, but more along the lines of luck I suppose.

Having a good relationship with your dealership and being honest doesn't hurt.

On the other side of things, yes a tune will void a warranty, on most levels. However, the dealership must prove the modified part in question caused the failure in question.

For example: if person A was to install downpipes and the fuel system failed, the exhaust is in no direct reason responsible for it.

There are a lot of fine lines that come into play when regarding a warranty. The above example would only void the warranty of the parts affected. A tune on the other hand, is much more complex as a tune makes changes to many things and will in turn affect them.

I lucked out in this scenario. I've had a great relationship with my dealership for over a decade and have made probably 90% of my business with them. I was told by the service manager that if I had their lead tech install my parts, they would honor my warranty as long as I didn't "put a rod through the block" or use a different fuel source... (methanol/n2o/etc)

 

[JimC]

For some warranty issues it isn't up to the dealer and doesn't matter how good your relationship is. As you stated, put a rod through the block and the dealer will have to wait for Ford to send out a field engineer to check it before authorizing the warranty work. And the field engineers know to look for certain tell tale signs beyond the changes to the ECU that are marked.

And as far as "they have to prove the modification caused the problem" discussion. All Ford does is say "our engineer checked it and we determined that your modification caused this problem so we aren't covering it". End of their "proof". They don't have to go to court at that point.

It is now up to you to go to court, start the lawsuit, hire your own engineers to prove it is manufacturer defect and not your modification that is the source of the problem. And Ford has a lot deeper pockets and more engineers and research to put behind their determination. So the burden of going forward is on you after they put forth their evidence.

 

[JimC]

The warranty question is really simple. Ford warranties the car that Ford built.

When we modify the car, it is no longer the car that Ford built. So you assume the risk that your changes could be a proximate cause of the failure.

 

[SilverSH0]

Makes you wonder why Ford doesn't offer a tune themselves that they will honor the warranty for. I would pay $1000 for the basic tune that Livernois sell's for $600 if it would not void the warranty.

But would you be willing to spend $1,000 on a tune that produces half as much power as the Livernois tune? The thing that the factories have to remember if they offer tunes under warranty is that there is a HUGE range of climates the vehicle could operate in and that tune must account for all of them. So they're going to take the most extreme situations and tune conservatively for them. That's going to result in dramatically less power to keep warranty returns down.