Dealership experiences with tuned cars?
 

Does anyone have any real-life examples of dealership interactions on tuned cars? Has anyone had a warranty need, flashed back to stock and taken the car to the dealer? Did it go ok? Has anyone had any problems that they think were caused by the tune/flash?


I really want the results of a tuned car.. the extra power and smooth torque curve would make the car so much better. The prices are very reasonable for the increases you get. We have lots of good and reputable options.

So what's stopping me?...


I'm worried about voiding my warranty.. plain and simple. I understand that some of the tuning options make it simple to flash back to the stock tune. But, I've also read that a dealer could possibly still find out if you've tuned the car and then could void the warranty on related items. that's what I'm afraid might happen.

So can anyone calm my fears and tell me about your experiences with dealership service after you've flashed your ECU?

Thanks everyone!

Car has been tuned for over a year had many stops to the dealer. Normally I flash back to stock though. I did have a coil replaced under warranty. Just as a heads up your warranty will never be voided. They can just choose not to honor it. Which for engine flashes they should be doing. Got to pay to play.

An engine flash is NOT a valid reason to fail to honor a warranty unless it can be proven to cause the issue under question of the warranty.

there is a law that states to the effect of-if they cant prove your modification didnt cause the issue they cant deny your warranty claim. Id google it and make sure you understand it incase they decide to give you a hard time. Ive gone through something similar with a less than stellar ducati dealership. But some dealers can be just plain @ssholes and try and claim you race your car. While some others can be glad to help you out and get excited seeing something other than timing belts, water pumps and tire rotations. Try and profile the service writers or the dealer best you can. If there are modified cars parked in the employee spots you might be better off than the dealer that all the employees are driving camrys. Ive seen it go both ways and i once worked at a toyota dealer that was right next to a consumer reports test track and we did some cool stuff. We also warranteed alot of things that shouldnt have been waranteed and helped alot of customers out including lifting a few vehicles for Overland Express when the FJ came out. The dealer i use now treats me pretty well but i go in with a purpose and am prety good at explaining issues to them and only use them for warranty work. Something i talked with the service manager about before i bought my car and they seem to trust me. In fact they usually dont see my car, just the parts. (ie they dont do my free oil changes they just give me free filters when i tell them my mileage and VIN as i use my own oil since im turbo'd) Just do your research and go in understanding any problems and be able to confidently explain why its warranty and not from adding 200whp to the car:burnrubber:

Too lazy to copy pasta:

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson%E2%80%93Moss_Warranty_Act"]Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

I think it's hilarious that you tried to bypass the swear filter and ended up mentioning sshole by accident. I wonder if he chose that name because of that.

^ Boom there it is.

Yeah i didnt realize that until i submitted it and it turned blue. Oops.:bonk:

OTOH - If you load a non-factory tune to your car and the dealer finds out about it, they could argue that anything that happens to the engine was the fault of the tune and the owner would have a very hard time proving otherwise.

They could easily prove:
A- that flipping just one bit in the entire ROM could cause catastrophic failure. (they could even demonstrate that as a fact in court)
B - The owner flipped thousands of bits.

You would have a very hard time explaining how every single bit that was flipped did not cause a problem.
It is the nature of software.

The reality is most dealers will use any excuse they can find/see to deny a waranty claim.

You can have all the magnussen/moss acts ect but in the end its going to be you ie someone generally not trained/qualified or experienced in the industry arguing your point against experienced trained qualified persons.

Flash tuning is probably one of the safest mods as you can flash back to stock easily and their is no evidence to prove it was flashed or what was flashed. (please provide me with location of flash counter :),) their is a timer for last DTC/CEL reset and distance since DTC/CEL reset.

The turbo/supercharger under the bonnet might give it away though :D

If you lower your car and put on 10" wheels it would be pretty easy for them to prove the axles broke due increased traction and the suspension geometry change.

Any mod you do risks warranty denial on the modded part and associated parts/systems.

You can say assholes without tagging me...

It isn't like the dealer is covering the repair out of his own pocket.
What they are doing is covering their asses by not doing work that they can't justify if called on it by a higher authority. Some are more paranoid than others.
If I remember correctly, warranty work doesn't pay as well as regular work so that may factor into it as well.

Over here, warranty work pays well. Its a guaranteed number of hours work even if the part is a simple fix. All depends on the job though,

I honestly can't understand the paranoia on this forum. In the UK they won't even check the ECU on services or repair unless they have to and they aren't allowed to note down any mods etc for future reference either. Techstream can't see if a car has been flashed either, it just shows the ROM version.

AND... regardless of what ROM you have installed, it can be made to show the ROM version that was most recently put on the car by the dealer.

Then the only way the dealer would know it wasnt the stock ROM would be to pull it and compare it to the factory ROM.

Or if you have mods to the rom that they would immediately notice (e.g. Lower startup idle RPM like in the OFT ROMs)