EBC and warranty

[palaban]

My car is going in for 7,500 service. Will my warranty be in jeopardy when they spot my ebc?

[blackshadow]

depends on the dealer, but in one word YES. 99% will void your warranty. If you installed the ebc yourself, you won't have that hard of a time removing it since you know how everything goes, 45 minutes tops. If not then it's up to you what to do.

[TurbeauxREX]

For the 100th time:

An EBC, or other mod WILL NOT VOID YOUR WARRANTY. Period.

It may affect having warranty repairs made to any part which may be affected by the application of an aftermarket part.

Read this:

Voiding warranties.

Not trying to be a ****. This is probably the single most asked, and misrepresented question answered on this, or any car-related forum.

If you have concerns about the car you have willingly modified, no longer being covered by the manufacturer's warranty, on a vehicle that they provided in a certain configuration, then you should NOT modify your car.

If you want to play, you must be willing to pay.

Peace,

Curtis

[palaban]

Sorry for the noob question and thanks for replying anyway. Maybe we should make Pace's post a sticky.

[GV27]

The problem is you need to hire lawyers to fight what SOA does, and an EBC is going to be a tough one, since you are making the motor produce more power as well as overriding several engineered safety features. I guess your only saving grace is that they really can only deny your warranty on the powertrain for an EBC. Anything else is going to be unrelated. But if you're running more boost and making full boost under partial throttle and in 1st gear and you blow out the rear diff, it's gonna be mighty easy for SOA to relate it back to the EBC in court. Obviously the same goes for driveshafts, the tranny, the motor and of course the turbo. Probably the rest of the intake and exhaust systems as well. Though if your muffler falls off you might have a case.

So while it is important to know your rights as a consumer under Magnusson-Moss, realize that lawyers cost a lot of money and an EBC really violates the spirit of the law (the right to buy replacement parts from other manufacturers, not the right to modify the car for more power) and does contain provisions to protect the manufacturers in cases where an aftermarket part causes other failures. Realize too that if you do go to court on it, you'll be up against an army of lawyers and expert witnesses with PHDs in Automotive Engineering.

Pace wrote the thread about the law, but he'll be the first to tell you that if you mod your car and it breaks, you need to take the responsibility yourself.

Chris

[TurbeauxREX]

SOA letter regarding mods & warranty coverage.

Peace,

Curtis

[palaban]

Thanks again. I'm going to roll the dice and bring it in for service with the ebc installed.

[Racenut]

Gee, would have been nice if they had used a better example than a freaking AIR FRESHENER! Geez...

If I make changes to the car, I don't expect SOA to warranty anything that I change, or anything directly related to what I change. e.g. - If I put H&R Springs on it, and the struts fail, that's OK... I understand how that could be related.

I'm more concerned with changing the up-pipe and exhaust and then having them tell me that it somehow caused the oil delivery to fail and sieze a motor or some crazy thing...

I don't have any plans on getting too wild with mods... but some of what I've read about how SOA handles warranty concerns me... hopefully I won't have to use it. My Dodge's have had warranty service, more than I care to talk about, but I've never had any real problems getting the service, even though I had exhaust, air intake and a chip in it.

[Jimmy O]

<rant>

I really get tired of people mincing words without giving any answers...

Regardless of what these armchair lawyers say... MODIFICATIONS LIKE AN EBC WILL (in effect) VOID YOUR POWERTRAIN WARRANTY unless you happen upon an extremely mod friendly dealer


blah blah magnussun this blah blah sema that...

when it boils down to it, it doesn't matter if the warranty is "officially" voided or not... if the dealership (and associated SOA rep) refuse to do repairs under warranty because of modifications, you are without warranty coverage. end of story.

Unless of course I dont have access to the forum where all these guys with modded cars are getting letters from SOA saying "we'll fix your car no matter what you do to it"...

</rant>

[Ibizan]

Originally posted by palaban
Thanks again. I'm going to roll the dice and bring it in for service with the ebc installed.

Just curious to see if they eyeballed the ebc

[is2scooby]

I don't know specifically if they caught Palaban's EBC - but check this thread out for a memo/edict that came down from management at our local Subaru service departments:

http://www.i-club.com/forums/showthr...&threadid=6255

[is2scooby]

There was even talk of service personell going out to the local races/dragstrip and taking down license plate #'s. The nazis.

[ScoobySteve]

7,500 Mile Service:

1) Change engine oil.
2) Change oil filter.
3) Rotate tires.

Why even involve the dealer for something like that ? Unless there are some warranty issues needing attention at the same time, do this kind of stuff yourself and save the risk of dealer scrutiny until there's something truly at stake.