After market parts, do they effect the warranty on the vehicle?

[Sempai]

I know GM won't cover after market parts but just wondered how it exactly works. Did someone here do it? Do they just don't cover that part? Do you have to only go with GM after market parts in order for the warranty to still be in effect?

Thanks in advance.

[Dan3]

Aftermarket parts only void your warranty if the dealer can show that the modification is the cause of the problem. Some mods, like engine tuning and/or forced induction, can be used as justification to deny almost any warranty work on your powertrain. A mod like a CAI or Axle-back exhaust should have minimal warranty impact. The key word is SHOULD. Some dealers will try to blame anything and everything that goes wrong on a random mod to get out of the work (i.e. replacing the mufflers somehow cause your XM to stop working. Did an axle-back really cause the problem? No. But some dealers will still try to pull that.)

Some aftermarket companies offer warranties of their own though. I believe procharger and maggie both offer powertrain warranties to replace your factory one since a S/C pretty much results in a denial of any claim for warranty work on the powertrain.

Summary: Aftermarket parts are not covered on your warranty. However your warranty should stay intact for any systems unaffected by your mod.

To get a clearer answer you may have to be more specific on exactly what mod you're considering. Hope that helps.

[one_day]

As Dan3 already stated, a specific part can not void a car's entire warranty, but a dealership can deny coverage of a component or system if they can prove the part in question caused the failure/problem*. This law stating this is the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.

I've heard of dealerships claim that a cold air intake that relocated a MAF resulted in a overly lean condition in the engine, and then denied coverage of anything related to the emission system, including ECU and engine (they are all connected after all). This is rare however. If you build a report with your service writer and ask at the service counter about parts before installing many tech centers will give you some leeway. Most of the techs mod their own cars and know that your cat back is not going to cause a rod bearing to fail (but you standing on the loud pedal so you can hear the new exhaust as the V8 bounces off the rev limiter for ten minutes might lead to an engine failure of some sort).

*I am not a lawyer, so read the document for full details.

[GaryTucker]

Originally Posted by one_day

As Dan3 already stated, a specific part can not void a car's entire warranty, but a dealership can deny coverage of a component or system if they can prove the part in question caused the failure/problem*. This law stating this is the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.

I've heard of dealerships claim that a cold air intake that relocated a MAF resulted in a overly lean condition in the engine, and then denied coverage of anything related to the emission system, including ECU and engine (they are all connected after all). This is rare however. If you build a report with your service writer and ask at the service counter about parts before installing many tech centers will give you some leeway. Most of the techs mod their own cars and know that your cat back is not going to cause a rod bearing to fail (but you standing on the loud pedal so you can hear the new exhaust as the V8 bounces off the rev limiter for ten minutes might lead to an engine failure of some sort).

*I am not a lawyer, so read the document for full details.

Also realize that you can stand in the dealership yelling "you can't do that because of Magnuson-Moss" until you are blue in the face...unless you've got deep pockets...it won't help.

Also, please remember that Magnuson-Moss is typically assessed to cover what are deemed "same quality replacement parts" not the aftermarket engine tune as some would lead you to believe. Magnuson-Moss was written to give companies such as Fram and Purolator the opportunity to make REPLACEMENT parts for a GM vehicle. These companies will have thousands of hours in testing to ensure that their product truly is minimally equal to the factory OEM part.

Magnuson-Moss is in no way written to allow you to put on "extra-stressors" such as a turbocharger and keep your powertrain warranty as I don't believe that GM has a turbocharger on the Camaro. If it did, you could buy an aftermarket "equal" replacement and still keep your powertrain warranty.

I'm not saying that a company such as Borla doesn't do testing on their systems...they absolutely do. Can they still get parts of your warranty voided? You bet.


As far as the MAF and cold-air intakes goes, one of the tuners on this forum experienced a lean issue with a cold air intake on the Trailblazer SS...so it is very realistic that a dealer might void a powertrain warranty if the vendor's cold air intake had caused this situation. My question for the aftermarket people is why they aren't standing behind their product.

There is a Corvette owner that just bought his own motor because the tuner told him that the tune wouldn't affect his warranty...guess what? The motor lets go and the owner is left holding the bag. Why didn't the tuner either provide a lawyer or pay for the motor as the warranty was voided due to his tune?

I've said it here before and I've said it on the other forums I post in...but here goes again-

If you modify any part of your car, then the related systems to it are subject to having their warranty voided and you really don't have a leg to stand on. I'm sure you'll get the "get a lawyer crowd", but most of us don't have pockets deep enough to take on GM. It doesn't matter if it adds 1 horsepower or 100, you have added what is termed "additional stress" to a system and should be willing to pay for anything related to it.

You've got to decide which is important to you...mods or warranty. You can't typically have both.

[one_day]

Originally Posted by GaryTucker

There is a Corvette owner that just bought his own motor because the tuner told him that the tune wouldn't affect his warranty...guess what? The motor lets go and the owner is left holding the bag. Why didn't the tuner either provide a lawyer or pay for the motor as the warranty was voided due to his tune?

I'm sorry, but anyone who thinks they can get a car tuned and maintain a warranty is delusional, ignorant, or both.

Though, there is no reason an intake (short ram, cold air or drop in) should be an issue as long as you are getting one from a reputable manufacturer. That does not mean it can't cause a lean or rich condition under different circumstances, but most are designed to perform properly under normal conditions (warm engine, part-throttle).

Originally Posted by GaryTucker

You've got to decide which is important to you...mods or warranty. You can't typically have both.

Truth. I always get a kick out of peeps that "want to add 10-20% HP." Then ask, "will that void my warranty?"

[GaryTucker]

The sad thing is that there are tuners out there convincing or implying it won't affect warranty. It's usually with the promise that their tune is invisible. It may be invisible to the gm tech, but gm is asking more and more for a copy of the programmed parameters.

[detroitboy]

I know I'm going to get flamed for saying this on this site....but Ford dealers seem to be much more forgiving on this issue than GM.
I would assume it is related to the financial strength of one company versus the other. Lets hope things even out later on...