Does Putting Aftermarket Parts Void Warranty?
 

I am planning on getting a BRZ in september and wanted to put some aftermarket parts in it, would that void my warranty? or does it depends on the parts? & what parts would void the warranty?

Yes. No. Magnuson moss. Subaru dealer. Who knows.

Yes but then no and only sometimes.

Depends on the issue at hand. They can't claim your exhaust caused your wheel to fall off..

The answer is a most definite maybe.

I guess its safe to say that suspension mods will probably not affect your engine and transmission.

Unless they do.

It all comes down to how cool the stealership you take it into is...Sometimes they are laid back enough to either not care, or realize that your +10 to speed stickers didn't cause the crickets. Other times they see that you've put a clear bra on the car and the whole warranty is void.


The lesson? Most stealerships are assholes.

Disagree. Many maybe but not "most". We just never hear the good stories only the horror ones.

Touche sir. Touche.

Real, more detailed answer:

No mod can "void" the warranty. But what it *can* do is give the dealership a reason to deny warranty coverage for a specific repair. If the mod could have plausibly caused your issue, then they will likely decline warranty coverage.

So for instance, if you put on a catback exhaust and then develop electrical problems with your radio, they will probably honor the warranty because your exhaust in no way affects the electronics. However, if you do any power modifications and then develop transmission issues, they now have an excuse to decline coverage--basically, the trans isn't designed to handle the increased power, so it's your fault.

To add to this read the attached. They are very clear on the subject.


http://subaru-com-au-3.s3.amazonaws....e_jan_2014.pdf

all depends on dealership like everyone said.

I had a co-worker who had a mercedes c63 and for some reason after 7k miles his car would shoot out blue smoke once in a while. he took it to the closest dealership and they refused to work on his car because he had KW suspension. Go figure.

Short answer: no.

Long answer: depends on the part but you will never lose warranty. You may lose ability to make a warranty claim.

It's important to not look at this in terms of loss of warranty, but rather to view it as "if I make this modification, will it affect my warranty coverage on the rest of the car?"

If you swap out an exhaust, and your ECU starts smoking, that is not related.
If you swap out the battery and the fuse box starts smoking, that is related.

Understand your rights and understand what a warranty is, as its most basic level.

-alex

You should find a local facebook group and ask which dealerships are mod-friendly. Like others have said, some dealerships won't care, others will void your car.

You could also call dealerships and ask them if they are willing to work on your modified car.

That pamphlet is for Australia. Australian laws can be considerably different from the US, so I wouldn't use that as a reference for a guy in Florida.

Ooooops. Clicked on wrong one.


So, for you Aussie members....

Read the piece of paper called the Magnussen-Moss Warranty Act. It's common sense- if your mods broke it, you pay for it. If it's covered by warranty and you or your mods didn't break it, it's covered by warranty even if you have modified your car.

There is no one warranty. Your car is a rolling bucket of different warranties.

But the thing to bear in mind is that this is enforced by humans and some of them are scum. A piece of paper congress calls a Law that was passed 40 years ago says that your header-back exhaust won't affect your warranty on the broken A/C you're dealing with but the guy at the dealership says that the excess vibration from a loud exhaust caused the compressor-widget to break so there's no warranty on the $2000 A/C system. Related? Of course not. Bullshit? Of course. But there's no warranty on performance and once you start modding get ready to deal with this sort of crap.

To enforce the law written on that $0.02 piece of paper, YOU have to hire a lawyer and PROVE the scum at the dealership is wrong.

Totalled, inb4 partout.

Not necessarily but if something goes wrong you'll have the burden of proof to prove the aftermarket item did not cause the issue.

Going off what everyone else has already said, never, EVER, tune your vehicle under warranty. The ECU is responsible for so many things on the car that it's easy for the dealership to say that a tune is responsible for any engine, exhaust, intake, and electrical issue.

Some dealerships will view tampering with the ECU at all as a warranty void. I've heard of multiple ways that they can check to see if a tune has been flashed, even if the owner flashed the stock setup back on the car. The most plausible method I've heard of is that they can see a log of all the times the ignition has been activated, so if you've had the car for over a year or so and it only has 2 ignition starts logged then they pretty much know the ECU was flashed.