Lease Inspection and Wiring/Tune
 

Anyone have any experience with modding their cars, specifically tuning (OTS tunes) on a leased vehicle? I plan on returning the car at the end of the lease.

Edit: I will be returning back to stock, but I have some wiring changes for my headlight so that the C-Stick/Eyebrows turn on when I turn the headlight dial 1 option above Automatic. I also had to do some wire cutting/rewiring for my Valenti-Style 3rd Brake light.

I have a few questions:

1. How do dealerships typically do their inspections? Do they open the car up, remove front bumpers and check all the wiring even if everything works like normal? (My mechanic could reverse the headlight mod but may look tampered with if opened by inspector)

2. Would OFT Off-the-shelf tunes be detected and somehow force me into buying the car?

3. Anyone know any good electrical wiring guys that know BRZs in the GTA?

You will be required to remove and restore at lease end. Modifications will also break the lease. You may have to buy out the lease if the mods are discovered.

Yeah....if you plan to return the car, than I wouldn't mod it.

The people usually who mod the cars tend to buy them out after the lease so it's why they don't care about voiding anything.

In your case...I'd do a window tint if you like that kind of thing and call it quits.

You can technically do easy bolts ons like a axel/catback exhaust but it's such a waste of money since the aftermarket parts depreciate a lot once used.

If you don't service your car at the dealer you can mod whatever you like as long as you return it back to stock after. I own my car and I would still return it back to stock when I sell or trade in anyway.

Exhaust and lowering springs are pretty easy to return to stock. So are tunes like the Open Flash. But I would probably avoid anything more complicated like a Rocketbunny kit or a turbo.

It's not so much the bolt on mods that worry me. I know I can put the stock stuff back on and resell them.

It's the OFT OTS Tune. As far as I know, they can see that I tampered with the ECU(?) and I also know that the history can be wiped BUT they also see this. Does anyone know anything specific in regards to the tune?

I also have some wiring splicing (?) done by my mechanic so that when I turn the lights 1 flick above the Automatic setting, the C-lights/Eyebrows in the headlights turn on.

Anyone know how car dealers do their inspections after the lease? Do they check every single wire or do they just briefy look over the general condition of the car and see if everything is in working order?

There's a guy on the tri-state 86 group that heavily modded his lease, even had a supercharger on it. Recently put the entire car back to stock and returned it to the dealer. So its definitely do-able.

Not sure if hes on this forum.

I think its ECUtek that can be detected,

But with OFT you can reflash to your factory tune and its harder for them to find evidence that you mess with the ECU.

i could be wrong

I just called Richmond Hill dealership and they said just return back to stock.

Anyone have an idea how the inspection is actually done? I have some wiring changes but could change it to work like stock but obviously if you open the headlights up, you'll see wiring changes.

If they turn the car on and check all the lights and it works like OEM, would they still open up to see all the wiring?

I mean, my question is what's the point? You're paying twice for something that is a one time expense for most people, once to put the tune on and once to restore it back to stock, and all for a car that you're not even going to own in a couple years. It was slow when you got it, it's still going to be slow when you tune it, You're throwing your money down the drain.

I originally thought I was going to keep the car but things changed and I decided not to.

OFT Tunes are free and you flash it yourself. You just have to buy the tablet and can be sold at the exact price I bought it for (Second hand). (Canadian prices, I see that you're American and usually don't realize the difference)

The only loss I'll take is probably on the brand new wheels/tires that I bought, which I'm ready to take a loss on. Probably won't be too big since it's only 3 months old at this point and never seen Winter. Other after market stuff was purchased second hand and the market value is still roughly the same.

Which wheels? lol I foresee a potential FS thread in your future.


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Haha It'll be in a year. But expect that thread haha

They won't be able to detect the OFT tune, and probably won't be able to check for it. I returned a lease last year (Fiat Abarth) and the 3rd party company hired to do the lease inspection didn't get anywhere close to that level of detail.

The headlights, they'll check to see if they function as expected. They're safety equipment, so they have to. I doubt they'll check the wiring, but if you're worried about it then simply buy someone's stock headlamps used (on this board or ebay) and install them in your car. The cost will be less than $200 (maybe even much less.) Then sell your modded headlamps for roughly the same amount. All done.

Hey, thanks for the info. Was mostly interested in the level of detail they actually went into inspecting the car. So I guess as long as they work like OEM, they won't notice.

The headlight itself isn't changed, it's the wiring behind it.

No problem.

My guess is that if it's not abundantly obvious from a visual inspection of the engine bay that there is modded wiring AND that the headlights function the same as OEM from behind the wheel, then it should be fine.

If both of the above are not true, then they'll probably say it needs fixing. Since you know exactly what was done, chances are you can reverse it without much work. Safe bet would be to do that prior to your inspection.

This ^. They will be far more concerned about chips in the paint and tears in in the seats then if it was tuned or had different lights at some point. Depending on how many miles it has they may not even resell it but simply ship it off to auction without even a glance.

I've only put 9000 kms on it so far in a year. Never even seen Winter. Hopefully they'll drool at that and forget my mods :drool:

Don't think there will be much drooling but at that low a mileage they probably won't take much more than a glance at it. All my trade ins have had such high miles in a short period of time that they pretty much had them on a flatbed before I even left the lot with my new car.

Some dealers will even take it back with mods, just talk to the dealership ahead of time. Don't mention cutting the harness, they'll never look into that unless you tell them.

I talked to my dealer about this the other day when I was in for a service, my front bumper is getting pretty rough and I mentioned I was thinking of getting an aftermarket one, the guy said if I was buying out my lease I can "Do whatever the hell you want to it" and they're not going to care about. Which I plan on doing anyway, so works for me. I'd talk to the dealer, like others have said, most of them are fine with it as long as you are keeping it, or bring it back in stock.

Your insurance company can also void your insurance if you fail to inform them about any modifications you make to your car.

I'm not too worried about returning it anymore. I'm actually trying to get someone to takeover the lease.
I'm afraid the warranty may have been voided because of the tune. I hear different things from different people. Some say that you could just claim that your battery died which resets the ECU. Not sure how true this is. Wish I had someone experience this first hand.

In theory, any modification of the car voids your warranty in Canada. There is no consumer protection legislation on warranties other than emissions controls and panel rust through.