Tuning with Warranty Protection

[cstb_87]

I know this is a stupid question but i'm new to the VW scene so i'm not completely aware of all the tuners around Melbourne.

Are there any tuners that protect the new car warranty with power upgrades. I know MRT do but they don't touch 2011 Polo GTi .

Looking to do a ECU Tune and Exhaust. Probably Strut and sway bars to.

Any help would be great as i'm already getting hit with the tuning bug but i would prefer not to void my warranty.

[Candyman]

Tigersoft offer Viezu in Melbourne

Viezu provide insurance.

[Finance_Analyst]

any tune will void the warranty,but APR as far as I know is undetectable as it does not record how many times the ECU is flashed, so the dealer cannot prove it. hence why i paid more to have it done to my GTI.

however, a broken window switch has nothing to do with the tune so you must put it into perspective.

[Candyman]

any tune will void the warranty,but APR as far as I know is undetectable as it does not record how many times the ECU is flashed, so the dealer cannot prove it. hence why i paid more to have it done to my GTI.

however, a broken window switch has nothing to do with the tune so you must put it into perspective.

As has been mentioned elsewhere all tunes incl APR are detectable.

[Finance_Analyst]

As has been mentioned elsewhere all tunes incl APR are detectable.

Really? That goes against everything APR says........ has the VW dealer actually detected a tune even after it has been flashed back to stock via the cruise control stalk?

[cstb_87]

I swear MRT protected the new car warranty with their products.

But I did think that it would be detectable regardless of the tuner. Can't imagine anyone having the ability to hide that.

[gh172]

Pretty sure with Bluefin you can return it to stock and it is undetectable.

[brimway]

Really? That goes against everything APR says........ has the VW dealer actually detected a tune even after it has been flashed back to stock via the cruise control stalk?

My dealer claims to have detected that my ECU had been flashed/modified/altered, but that did not affect the warranty claim that I made which amounted to several thousands of $$ (read mechatronics)

[Candyman]

Pretty sure with Bluefin you can return it to stock and it is undetectable.

No, incorrect.

Log files hold the info. Has been discussed before

[Creniac]

Finance Analyst, the first 6 words in your original post are not necessarily true...... as Candyman has said this has been widely discussed before.....
The dealer has to "prove" any warrantable claim was caused by the tune.
There are some good links on this site about this.

[cstb_87]

Finance Analyst, the first 6 words in your original post are not necessarily true...... as Candyman has said this has been widely discussed before.....
The dealer has to "prove" any warrantable claim was caused by the tune.
There are some good links on this site about this.

Thanks Creniac, can you point me in the general direction of these discussions, just don't want to be looking all over the forum?

Cheers

[Finance_Analyst]

Finance Analyst, the first 6 words in your original post are not necessarily true...... as Candyman has said this has been widely discussed before.....
The dealer has to "prove" any warrantable claim was caused by the tune.
There are some good links on this site about this.

I see.... I was always under the impression that one the ECU is turned back to stock mode via the cruise and locked out using the security lockout function, no one could tell it was flashed. This is because APR (from what I was told) is the only company out there which does not physically record on the ECU how many times it has been flashed (the counter is always at 0). I have been told from some dealers that they cannot detect it, so too some Audi and Porsche dealers....

Here is a link from APR which states similar

http://www.goapr.com.au/support/chip_tuning_faqs.html

[Tim]

Won't my dealer know that my car is chipped?

Not unless he is specifically looking for it. All APR chips are undetectable to a dealers VAG diagnostic scan tool. The only way they will know that the car is chipped is if the physically open up the ECU itself (which they have no reason to), or drive the car (it makes that big a difference).

If VW Australia get involved in a warranty claim sometimes things can be investigated a bit closer. Dont assume that Volkswagen will replace an engine for example without looking a bit closer. Unless of course you have a twin charged engine that is

Likewise, the dealer cannot "flash" reprogram an APR chip, so you need not be worried about losing your precious investment.

If a dealer cant flash over the ECU then surely this would cause alarm bells to start ringing

[Candyman]

The checksum can supposedly be altered by some tunes (even that has been debated) but more info is kept in logfiles in a reserved area of the ECU that can not be changed by off the shelf tunes

Upshot is that tunes are detectable but it all depends on how the dealer and VW decide to approach things as to how much investigation is done.

[cstb_87]

This isn't sounding too good . Bugger