Chipping /tuning your car

[LosXC451]

i'm actually thinking about chipping it after my warranty runs out

[nol300]

Originally Posted by EMB135Driver

You have missed my point.....why not wait til you get the car to plan your modifications. It just seems a little premature to begin thinking about voiding the warranty months before you have even seen the car.

It's called a sickness some of us have it and there is not much we can do about it.

[2010 2-Tone]

I admit I have the sickness as well!!! Ain't no pill gunna cure this ill!!!!!

[Vash]

With the new system and CAN they will be able to tell if you have modded anything. There is no Chip you can swap. It's flash memory based.

And yes technically you can void your warranty it's gonna be up to your dealer and or if they find out.

[camaro5]

They can void if they want to.

I was in Chevrolet Service for years.

Buy a second PCM, and pop the stock unit in for dealership visits.

Of course, that only works if there are no other detectable mods.

[dodson914]

Originally Posted by Vash

With the new system and CAN they will be able to tell if you have modded anything. There is no Chip you can swap. It's flash memory based.

And yes technically you can void your warranty it's gonna be up to your dealer and or if they find out.

You can swap the ECM. I suppose they could put tampering stuff on there. They didn't with the G8s. And it's not going to void your entire warranty. If your radio stops working, they aren't going to try to deny a claim because you are running a tune. Well, I take that back. They can try I suppose but they most certainly shouldn't do something like that. Just like we shouldn't be throwing on a S/C and then going back to GM for a new transmission because it took a dump on us.

[franknbeans]

remember your car's milage is logged into the ECM. . . all they would have to to is compair the milage on the dash and the milage on the ECM to see if you changed it.

[JICPerformance]

On the GTOs, the ECM had to be mated to the BCM using a Tech II while connected to GM dealerworld. My understanding is everything with CAN bus technology would be like this from now on. Not sure how you guys are swapping ECMs out, but you sure couldn't do that with the GTOs.

[PsyDoc]

Over in the Challenger forum, there was a guy who had a "note" put on his paperwork:

"I had to sit down and talk with the service manager at the dealer when I got there. Turns out that Chrysler wanted them to go over the car with a fine tooth comb to try to deny warranty. They had to document the MBRP exhaust and the Rota-Fab intake (pictures sent to engineering) and were told to disassemble the clutch and check over the complete drivetrain and tires. The flywheel was perfect, the clutch is in perfect shape with nominal wear for mileage(4400 miles) and everything looks perfect. The tires are wearing properly with no sign of abuse. Basically, it's all intact and looks fine. The input shaft on the transmission has too much endplay which is what seems to be causing the internal issues that I've had SINCE VERY SOON AFTER I PURCHASED THE CAR. that last was in caps for you Chrysler geeks reading this. They have continued to deny that there was a problem right up until it failed enough that they couldn't deny it any longer, and then tried to make it look like my fault. The dealer couldn't find anything wrong, so they fixed the car but put a disclaimer on the work order. Here's what it says.

Note to owner from Chrysler:

Dealer was notified by CAG engineering and Star Center to inform customer that some modifications, as stated in the glove box warranty manual, may void the vehicle warranty. Vehicle warranty does not cover the costs of repairing damage or conditions caused by racing. Chrysler can restrict the warranty coverage such that may be denied or subject to approval by Chrysler before the repairs are performed. As per Chrysler personnel, this vehicle's VIN number will now be monitored by the manufacturer for all future repairs.

This in spite of the fact that they found no signs of abuse. Know why? I was told that Chrysler got my screen name from these boards and is WATCHING ALL OF THE CARS AND THE MODS THAT ARE DONE TO THEM and also they are watching for ANY SIGN THAT YOU TAKE IT DOWN A TRACK TO GET A TIME SLIP EVEN IF IT'S NOT RACING. This in spite of the fact that the car is sold as a performance car and in fact the SRT models have 0-60 and quarter mile timers. Seems they'd rather you did your acceleration runs on public streets."

Just something to think about. I read a story...perhaps it's just a urban legend...about a GM owner being notified by Onstar that his warranty was being revoked due to driving at excessive speeds. Might just be B.S., but who knows whether something like this could or might happen.

[THE EVIL TW1N]

I've read about warranties being nullified on the corvette boards. You guys should check them out.

[09CobaltSS/Turbo]

Originally Posted by PsyDoc

Over in the Challenger forum, there was a guy who had a "note" put on his paperwork:

"I had to sit down and talk with the service manager at the dealer when I got there. Turns out that Chrysler wanted them to go over the car with a fine tooth comb to try to deny warranty. They had to document the MBRP exhaust and the Rota-Fab intake (pictures sent to engineering) and were told to disassemble the clutch and check over the complete drivetrain and tires. The flywheel was perfect, the clutch is in perfect shape with nominal wear for mileage(4400 miles) and everything looks perfect. The tires are wearing properly with no sign of abuse. Basically, it's all intact and looks fine. The input shaft on the transmission has too much endplay which is what seems to be causing the internal issues that I've had SINCE VERY SOON AFTER I PURCHASED THE CAR. that last was in caps for you Chrysler geeks reading this. They have continued to deny that there was a problem right up until it failed enough that they couldn't deny it any longer, and then tried to make it look like my fault. The dealer couldn't find anything wrong, so they fixed the car but put a disclaimer on the work order. Here's what it says.

Note to owner from Chrysler:

Dealer was notified by CAG engineering and Star Center to inform customer that some modifications, as stated in the glove box warranty manual, may void the vehicle warranty. Vehicle warranty does not cover the costs of repairing damage or conditions caused by racing. Chrysler can restrict the warranty coverage such that may be denied or subject to approval by Chrysler before the repairs are performed. As per Chrysler personnel, this vehicle's VIN number will now be monitored by the manufacturer for all future repairs.

This in spite of the fact that they found no signs of abuse. Know why? I was told that Chrysler got my screen name from these boards and is WATCHING ALL OF THE CARS AND THE MODS THAT ARE DONE TO THEM and also they are watching for ANY SIGN THAT YOU TAKE IT DOWN A TRACK TO GET A TIME SLIP EVEN IF IT'S NOT RACING. This in spite of the fact that the car is sold as a performance car and in fact the SRT models have 0-60 and quarter mile timers. Seems they'd rather you did your acceleration runs on public streets."

Just something to think about. I read a story...perhaps it's just a urban legend...about a GM owner being notified by Onstar that his warranty was being revoked due to driving at excessive speeds. Might just be B.S., but who knows whether something like this could or might happen.

It's no urban legend That is straight up facts, and any car manufacturer can deny you for racing.

Onstar Black box Removal consists of strapping off 4 wires on the unit ...

[UCF w00t]

Originally Posted by nol300

You have to remember the computers on the vehicle's now are like black boxes they can pull all the history and now if you reprogramed a car. Diesel people do it all the time plug in put the horsepower to the max and then it breaks they put the HP rating back to stock we know you did it it pulls the info when we plug into the ecu. It is a sickness with most of us even though it is plenty of power this is our hobby not that we need it but we don't have a choice it is the way we are.

But on the same note I will modify I have a 600HP TwinTurbo running 28 pounds of boost and methanol injection so no it will not be fast enough.

Here's the problem I have and it seems to be uniform across all "car guys"... a fear of electronics and "computers". Do you think some sort of "monitoring" or "black box" has stopped people from modding their Xboxes and playing downloaded games on Xbox Live? Nope. We need to get out of this mentality of fear of the electronics. In this day and age, modding the firmware of the various chips should be some of the easiest, cheapest, and maybe even most cost effective mods. I can't stand that the modding software is soo expensive. You should be able to flash your ECM with an extremely inexpensive cable.

GM using OnStar to void a warranty would be a HUGE violation of privacy laws.

And hopefully with all the cut-backs they laid of their "forum mod monitor" so they won't try and do stupid crap like that.

On another note, efilive has graphic saying they now support the 2010 camaro on their site

[dodson914]

All I know is I have swapped my ECM in my G8 and taken it in for TSBs and warranty stuff and not once has it been an issue. They even asked if I had a tune because they were going to flash my ECM and TCM and I'd lose it. I told them no and had zero issues. I have flashed the ECM on my diesel and returned it to stock and warranty things have never been an issue with it either.

The bottom line is, you gotta pay to play. I know the risks. I also understand that if I break my transmission from running too much power I am not going to GM to fix it. Unfortunately, too many people want to make more power, they break things and then want GM to pay for it. This then forces more and more dealerships to try and void warranty claims. Classic has been great with our Pontiac and given us no issues at all. Moritz is where I take the truck and they've been great too. I will probably start taking the truck and the Camaro to Classic since they have such great reviews here and are much closer to me than Moritz.

I know that within the first two weeks of me getting my Camaro I'll have a tune on it. The G8 jumped about 30HP to the wheels with just a tune. Too much fun to be had with a tune. LOL

[LSxJunkie]

The tune will void the entire powertrain warranty. Any motor or driveline warranty claim could be denied by the dealership on the grounds that the extra power caused the stock part to fail, or the tune itself grenaded your motor (which has been known to happen. again, stick with reputable tuners).

Originally Posted by spd98

Magnosun moss act issue. Basically no unless they can prove it caused the failure. but you have to be willing to fight them and possibly sue them.

Magnuson Moss Act looks pretty on paper, but a lot of dealers will just laugh at you when you bring it up because 9999/10000 times, the person bitching about his/her denied warranty claim will not have the time or money to hire a lawyer and file a suit. You're better off finding a mod friendly dealership where some of the service writers are car guys and reasonable.

Originally Posted by LosXC451

i'm actually thinking about chipping it after my warranty runs out

*facepalm* You don't "chip" LS motors. And a tune in a stock motor LS3 is pointless unless you want better gas mileage.