Dealerships just as misinformed as general public!?!

[pace]

I took my WRX in today for a scheduled warranty appointment regarding some footwell trim that has become detached. I also wanted them to investigate an abnormal noise coming from under the car that I feared could be the dreaded clutch vibration issue.

I had heard this particlar dealership was mod friendly, so being and honest guy I initiated a conversation thus:

Me: '..just to be up-front with you guys so you don't have any unexpected surprises; the motor has been lightly modded..'
Service Manager: 'What do you mean, lightly modded?'
Me: 'Larger turbo, plus fuel system, engine management, and exhaust system upgrades.'
SM: 'You know what you just did?'
Me: 'Huh?'
SM: 'You just voided your cars warranty....'
Me: [Take deep breath, count to 10, then proceed to point out to the SM that a warranty on a component is not *voided* by a completely unrelated modification. '.....for example I don't think you guys are going to be able to show that my larger turbo caused the footwell trim to become detached..'

He was pretty cool about it after I demonstrated that I'm actually somewhat informed on the subject and he wasn't going to be able to panic me with the official SOA spin. The way he recited his verse about the voided warranty, it sounded exactly as though he had memorized it from an SOA bulletin. This does not bode well if my vibration noise does indeed turn out to be a clutch issue, especially since the problem started LONG before I made any mods whatsoever to this vehicle.

We shall see. I'm clocking up miles fast enough that my warranty will be eaten up by the time the car is 18 months old anyway...

-Pace

[tan]

Unfortunately, many places you would go will associate the mods with aggressive driving habits.

Aggressive driving habits is referred to as abuse of the car.

Abuse of the car is immediately voiding a warranty, as abnormal wear caused by the owner/driver.

Installation of non-Subaru OE approved parts, is another way of a warranty voiding.

Of course, some will carefully word things, to coincide with the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.

In other words, to have the original powertrain warranty and/or the bumper to bumper warranty to cover you, well you may be SOL.

[pace]

I have no problem with the situation where a modification I made or component I fitted blatantly and obviously caused a failure. Eg. I have modified my car to 340 HP when it produces 227 HP in factory configuration. If my clutch starts to slip next week, I'm not even going to mention the word warranty.

What I do have a problem with is the following two potential situations:

(a) The dealer attempting to declare my entire warranty as void, or declaring it void on a completely unrelated component which fails, just because I have modified something else. Case in point would be my footwell trim IF they tried to deny coverage (which they are not).

(b) A component related to one of my mods does fail, but the reason for it's failure is highly questionable, and the symptoms had been exhibiting themselves intermittently over a period of time and may have begun before the modifications were made. Case in point would be the noise from under my car that could be a drivetrain issue. Another good example is the 1st and 2nd gear failures people are experiencing on both modified and unmodified vehicles.

I think the second scenario is more of an area of possible contention, yet the Magnusson-Moss act implicitly attempts to protect the consumer against _both_ situations. I have no doubt that if some clutch problem was now found on my vehicle, they would contend warranty coverage. Given the circumstances, I would most certainly pursue the issue, in court if need be. I can prove when my modifications were made, and can also prove when the symptoms began.

So far we have not heard of any of these warranty issues needing to be resolved in court AFAIK; it seems that in the cases we know about (I'm using the 1st/2nd gear issues as my reference) the dealership and the vehicle owner have come to an agreement regarding the work to be performed.

-Pace

[Penguinking]

Originally posted by tan
Unfortunately, many places you would go will associate the mods with aggressive driving habits.

Aggressive driving habits is referred to as abuse of the car.

Abuse of the car is immediately voiding a warranty, as abnormal wear caused by the owner/driver.

Installation of non-Subaru OE approved parts, is another way of a warranty voiding.

Of course, some will carefully word things, to coincide with the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.

In other words, to have the original powertrain warranty and/or the bumper to bumper warranty to cover you, well you may be SOL.

thats so stupid how they say "you can't drive your car aggressively or else we'll think you were racing your car" then SOA decides to give out a 1 year membership to SCCA with every wrx they sell. so what? you're suposed to use the wrx to drive to the autox and watch??? how lame.
ok sorry about the rant, im still very angry about that

anyways, what is the stock warrenty? 25kmi? or was it 50k mi?

[PlatinumWRX]

Agreed. Aggressive driving should not void a warranty.

3 year, 36,000mile bumper-to-bumper
5 year, 60,000mile powertrain

Originally posted by Penguinking


thats so stupid how they say "you can't drive your car aggressively or else we'll think you were racing your car" then SOA decides to give out a 1 year membership to SCCA with every wrx they sell. so what? you're suposed to use the wrx to drive to the autox and watch??? how lame.
ok sorry about the rant, im still very angry about that

anyways, what is the stock warrenty? 25kmi? or was it 50k mi?

[Penguinking]

oops, i was way off.

oh well, at least the warrenty was better than i thought it was



...anyone know which dealers in the houston area are ok with performance mods?

[pace]

Just got my car back: They did a good job fixing the footwell trim situation, and diagnozed the rattle as 'noise coming from aftermarket downpipe.' Basically they charged me $35 to tell me that I have loose debris on the hot side of the cat. I was actually expecting them to *fix* the problem - for this I would have happily paid more.

The ironic thing is; I'm 100% certain the rattle they diagnozed is not the one that's been bugging me for over a month. What they found is what I believe I caused this weekend; when fitting the VF30 and removing the dp, I'm pretty sure that I inadvertlently knocked loose some carbon deposits. The real PITA noise happens when the car coasts at 3800rpms and something resonates very very loudly under the trunk area.

Oh well... My WRX will always be a car of rattles, creaks, whistles, and groans.

-Pace

[tan]

That's cool they fixed it.

But, until the warranty is up, just watch out for yourself with dealership technicians (they don't want to lose money on warranty fixes).

A lot of mechanics will warn you about the mods and their warranties. Transmission shops will not honor their warranty if they see the mods, and suspect abuse (see the post above), they are protecting themselves, and making sure they make a profit.

Their will be places which are cool with the mods, but most aren't.

[blarg]

what is this "Clutch vibration issue" of which you speak....I haven't heard of it yet....but I'd like to.

[pace]

Originally posted by blarg
what is this "Clutch vibration issue" of which you speak....I haven't heard of it yet....but I'd like to.

http://www.i-club.com/forums/showthr...hreadid=150583

[NJSubieTech]

The noise to which they are referring is caused by worn springs on the clutch disc. You can help keep it from occuring if you double clutch and matching revs when you downshift. (It'll also wear your syncros less.) so get out and practice your heel and toe

Speed safely,

Joe
merlin916@aol.com