Has anyone ACTUALLY had a warranty denied due to tuning???

[BigBlock69RS]

Originally Posted by RichP

BTW, I am specifically talking about a tune and GM denying your powertrain warranty...NOT a tune and GM denying your window motor not working.

We are on the same page.

Don't get me wrong iI think you are in for a fight if you have a power train failure and you had a tune, especially if you changed the tune to push the motor (raising rev limit etc). And the failure could be traced to those changes. However just because you had a tune is not automatic voiding of the power train warranty, their still has to be direct proof, but you are definitely treading rough waters.

[Slowhawk]

None of my customers have been voided drivetrain warrenty. The warranty's were small like lifters and oil pump failures. 2 G8's were tranny's but caused by faulty seals in them.

Gm and the other companies are covering themselves for shady tuning and people that try to get away with warrenty work caused by there own doing. There are plenty of people out there that install a blower or nitrous, blow the motor up and try to hide it for the dealer to warrenty.

Biggest problem now is diesels. Plug a tuner in and crank the power up past what the tranny can handle.

[djpelosi]

I have a friend whose warranty was voided because he had an SCT tune on his car. He took his car to the shop to get an alignment and they found the tuner in his trunk. They would have never even known had they not found the tuner. It does happen, just depends on who is working and how bad of a day they are having but from what I've read, this is illegal as articles have stated that dealerships cannot void any part of your warranty due to aftermarket upgrades unless they can prove that the upgrade was in direct cause of the failure. For example, if you get long tube headers and a month later one of the synchros goes out in your transmission, they can't void your warranty unless they can relate the LTs/tune to be the cause of the synchro going out. This is just what I've heard though. I believe it's the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act. There are tons of threads on the internet about it.

Originally Posted by Rocky1974

I don't think the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act is going to protect you much after you've re-flashed you PCM with a non-certified flash. That's called "tampering with an emission control device" and is against Federal and most state's laws. It's going to be rough going to try to convince GM that not replacing your engine is breaking the law, when their reason for not replacing it, is that you broke law in the first place.

If flashing your ECM/PCM is federally and state illegal, then how is it that speed shops aren't being shut down everywhere? It is not illegal to alter the computer. Otherwise "tampering with emissions control" would mean that simply changing the mufflers would be illegal, which it's not. Now taking off the catalytic converters is a different story...

[Ivan @ Southwest Speed]

Anything is possible anywhere....

Point in case, I have a local LLT Camaro customer who had her "exhaust" warranty become void after she replaced her OEM V6 Catback with an take off OEM V8 Catback.

Funny how things can be interpreted at times but the way I've seen it, if a service advisor has it out for ya, or can't find a way to make money off you at the end of the day....beware.

With that being said...I've yet to see or hear of anybody who had a powertrain warranty voided around here. But I'm darn sure it happens.

#becausenewmexico
Ivan @ Southwest Speed

[Mcarltonjr]

Originally Posted by F-16 Camaro

Maybe this is a stupid question.

But couldn't you just buy a new ECM, and say your old one fried. Then place your warranty claim?

I assume an ECM is cheaper than say an LS3 engine/transmission

This was a valid point! My dealer said the same thing. When I do my long tube headers with dyno tune they said buy the extra ECM and put the tune on it. If I had any issues I would have the original stored and if anything goes wrong they would swap out the ECM and THEN assign it as warranty work. That has to be the smart way to go about it if you wanna cheat gm.

[Nutbutt]

There are case of dealers voiding warranties for tune. You can take them to court to honor the warranty but the cost to do so really doesn't make it worth it in all cases. Going into this knowing that you may not be covered is the way to plan.