914TSX

I am located in Westchester, NY and I was wondering if anybody in the area knew of any mod friendly dealerships to get my warranty work one?

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

what kind of warranty work?
as long as the mods in question didnt directly help the part in question to fail, dealerships have to honor warranty under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act

xtcnrice

true.. but perhaps OP is trying to figure out which stealerships are less anal about it

ceb

Like we've discussed many times, the dealer can - if properly motivated - connect any mod to any failure.

The trick is to not give the dealer any motivation to connect those dots. How do you do that?

Be honest about your mods and clearly state why you believe that the mods did not cause or contribute to the failure.

Don't be obnoxious.

NBP04TL4ME

You might want to try and reach out to acrdr here on AZ. He might (not positive) have an inside scoop on some of the local dealerships -

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...3#post15071033

Jaheri_cbp

Ceb do you work at or own a dealership or something? Lol just wondering

ceb

Nope. Here is the deal.

Manufacturers may ask a dealership to send then parts replaced under warranty for inspection. They do this in order to check for recurring issues (i.e. if a widget keeps breaking in the same spot then it may be a problem with how that widget was made). If they find items that commonly fail with certain mods then they will deny that warranty claim and the dealer eats the repair.

The dealer doesn't want to be stuck with the bill so they are quick to blame a mod for a failure.

If you drive into the dealership with the car scraping the weeds, aftermarket intake, limo tint, blue Walmart headlight bulbs and a Maxwell House exhaust then you can bet that any warranty claim will be denied.

OTOH, if you have built a decent working relationship with a Service Advisor, have a few tasteful mods and don't try to hide them then you won't have a problem.

How do you build that working relationship? Go to the dealership a couple of times for routine maintenance - an oil change or a tire rotation. Start a conversation with the SA about your car and feel them out about mods. That way when you have a legitimate warranty issue they won't be so quick to blame your mods.

If OTOH, you go in there guns blazing, arrogant about your mods and being an ass, then the dealership can - and will - connect the failure of your fuel pump to your aftermarket valve stem caps.

Don't believe it? On VWVortex we used to play "Six degrees of Kevin Bacon" connecting any mod to any failure well enough to have Judge Judy rule in favor of the manufacturer.

The Magnusson Moss Act merely prohibits a manufacturer from denying warranty service based on the mere presence of a substantially similar aftermarket replacement part. Accordingly, the Act doesn't apply to any aftermarket performance parts as they aren't substantially similar. What does this mean?

You can replace an Osram 9004 bulb with a Sylvania or Bosch 9004 bulb and the manufacturer would have to show that the Bosch (or Sylvania or whatever) bulb caused the failure -BUT- if you replace it with a "clear blue XENON like bulb that fits 9004" then it is no longer substantially similar.

At that point, the manufacturer merely needs to show that the replacement was not substantially similar and could have caused or contributed to the failure. The burden then shifts to you to try to prove that your mod didn't contribute to the failure - and you will not be able to do that.

So what is substantially similar? The words "direct replacement for..." "OE equivalent" and the like generally indicate substantially similar. Words like "high performance", "increases output over stock", " off-road use only" are all phrases that can indicate warranty trouble down the road.

Quite simply - if the part is a direct replacement then it falls under the Act. If the part is intended to change the performance in any way then is not covered by the Act.

Additionally, what does "covered by the Act" really mean? If a dealer denies warranty coverage because you used a Osram bulb instead of a Bosch then they are in violation. It doesn't mean that the Feds are going to come riding in on white horses to protect you from the mean dealership but it means that you can sue and have a fair chance of winning.

If anyone is interested, I can provide some information about how to deal with a warranty denial.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

i never lie to my dealership.
it's like doctors, you wouldnt lie to your doctor...

even when looking at buying cars, if you are truthful at the start, the salesman will give you more leeway with things like taking the car for an extended test drive and driving by yourself.

ceb

It is more than that. Let's assume that you have an aftermarket intake and have drivability issues. If you remove the intake (and still have the issues) and take it to the dealer then the dealer will see the tool marks and assume that whatever you had there caused the problem.

Me? If I think that a mod may even remotely be the cause of an issue, I remove the mod. If the problem remains then I put the mod back (depending on the mod) and go to the dealership - keeping the OE bits in the trunk.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

^sure, but that's why I was wondering what kind of work he wants done.
he might not have to remove his "air intake" if he's having squeaks and noises coming from his rear suspension

ceb

Correct. He should also tell us about ALL his mods - even those he considers insignificant.

With early TPMS systems for example, using metal valve stem caps threw off the reading and could cause system malfunctions - aside from the disparate metals issues that plagued 2005 RLs and cost Acura a boatload of money - all for a 5 cent valve stem cap.

Accordingly, it is important to look at all mods and see if we can determine any consequences.