Mods without voiding warranty

[JayJay1974]

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking on this forum for a while and have gathered some nice info. I have a question regarding mods and your experiences with dealers and warranties. I have a 2007 R32 and I wish to do a few mods, namely lowering the suspension and an exhaust system. Has anyone done these mods and had problems with any warranty claims? From what I've gathered, if your servicing manager is a nice guy, he won't have a problem with them if he believes they aren't the root cause of any claims and he process the claim through VW. I'm in Sydney, so if anyone could recommend a "nice guy" it would be great. I got my first service done at McGrath Sutherland, just because it's close by.
Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Jason

[Pablo64]

can open a can of worms. it's just an aftermarket exhaust... well if something goes seriously wrong with your engine internals vw thinks when it's been installed some metal shavings have been flicked back into the header and that's why your car is blowing smoke. it may or may not be the cause of the problem but you likely cannot prove them wrong and you could be left out in the cold. have known of a warranty claim to be voided by a/market air filter

[johng]

Check your insurance policy - in a lot of cases a mod will void the insurance.

[JayJay1974]

Thanks for the info.

Regards,
Jason

[Dub_Star_V6]

Hey JJ,

Remember that the warranty covers OEM parts and mechanicals.

So if the mods were to effect another part of the vehicle or more correctly, VW argued that after-market parts fitted was the cause of the OEM failure (and be sure they will make a case to get out of honouring the claim) both insurance (for non-disclosure) and warranty (for non-genuine parts) could quickly cause headaches.

Things like suspension or wheels usually aren't effected, but in my experience, warranty claims will be dismissed for any non-approved mechanical work or after-market mods performed while the new vehicle was covered under the factory warranty. So it may be best to keep it OEM and wait for the warranty to expire before modding.

Then again, all you have to do is ask the question and get clarification (in writing) that any mods you wish to undertake won't effect the factory warranty.

[dgd1600]

So does this mean that if you can get an OE chip upgrade ( as is available for GTi in Europe ) that it will be warranted in Australia. Now that would be nice.

One of the sales guys where I bought my GTi from put the 190Kw chip set ( OE in Europe ) onto his new GTi and said it was awesome. If the dealer provides warranty all you've got to do then is hang onto your license.

[mrx]

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking on this forum for a while and have gathered some nice info. I have a question regarding mods and your experiences with dealers and warranties. I have a 2007 R32 and I wish to do a few mods, namely lowering the suspension and an exhaust system. Has anyone done these mods and had problems with any warranty claims? From what I've gathered, if your servicing manager is a nice guy, he won't have a problem with them if he believes they aren't the root cause of any claims and he process the claim through VW. I'm in Sydney, so if anyone could recommend a "nice guy" it would be great. I got my first service done at McGrath Sutherland, just because it's close by.
Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Jason

You are correct, the service manager / workshop foreman play a large part in whether your modded car will get fixed under warranty or not. VW themselves won't know your car is modded unless the dealer tells them. Unfortunately, since I'm not in Sydney I can't answer your actual question. Maybe someone from Sydney can actually answer the question instead of being a bunch of nay-sayers?!

[Autosport]

I had a mate who bought a New Sti from a Sydney dealer, he was advised by the dealer to go to a particular high profile Sydney performance shop (with which the dealer had a comercial agreement with) to get the car moded, chipped etc as that would retain waranty.

The performance shop stuffed up, tuned the car to lean, the car did 1.5 laps of eastern creek (only few weeks old) before throwing a con rod.

Subaru refused the claim because the car was moded, the performance shop refused to pay for any damage, and the dealer also washed their hands of it.

The owner had to pay $20,000 to repair damages in his new Sti out of his own pocket.

Be careful is all I say.

[mrx]

As with anything in life there is always a small amount of risk, so yes, be careful, all you can do is stack the odds in your favour. When doing any mods I always keep the original equipment, just in case it needs to go back on for any reason. (Obviously if you throw a conrod, keeping your original suspension probably won't do you much good!)

Promises by sales staff at dealers that they are mod friendly etc. cannot be relied upon - they will say anything to sell a car. Actual experiences with the dealer's service department are much more valuable. I personally have found one of the dealers in Perth to be very anti-mod, while another much more reasonable - performing a couple of expensive warranty jobs on my car without issue, so it definately pays to shop around. The upside for this particular dealer is that they will now get all my future business - so it's really a win-win situation.

[No457 Snowy]

I had a mate who bought a New Sti from a Sydney dealer, he was advised by the dealer to go to a particular high profile Sydney performance shop (with which the dealer had a comercial agreement with) to get the car moded, chipped etc as that would retain waranty.

The performance shop stuffed up, tuned the car to lean, the car did 1.5 laps of eastern creek (only few weeks old) before throwing a con rod.

Subaru refused the claim because the car was moded, the performance shop refused to pay for any damage, and the dealer also washed their hands of it.

The owner had to pay $20,000 to repair damages in his new Sti out of his own pocket.

Be careful is all I say.

Yep, be careful, the above is a classic example of how bad things can turn and everybody there is on solid ground except the owner, all verbal, nothing in writing. All care, no responsibility.

To further weaken his case, it has happened on a race track, so for the dealer and VW it would have been an easy case of 2+2=4. Interrogating the ECU can also show any "maximum RPM exceeded" errors, that would compound his problems by also voiding warranty.

I ended up doing suspension while under warranty and just decided to leave "power" mods till the warranty period was over because once you turn the power up it can be used as an excuse and implicated in the failure of a lot of other more expensive stuff like engine, clutch, drivetrain, etc.

It's really up to you and how much risk you feel "uneasy" with.


Snowy

[balkanac]

The upside for this particular dealer is that they will now get all my future business - so it's really a win-win situation.

I hope you are not talking about Ozzy Park VW, have a look what they have done to my car on Monday

http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/newforum/upload/showthread.php?t=21630

[mrx]

I hope you are not talking about Ozzy Park VW, have a look what they have done to my car on Monday

http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/newf...ad.php?t=21630

Eeek! Actually, I was! The other mob are the less mod tolerant ones, and in my experience had trouble even diagnosing what the fault was.