The FTC says the manufacturer or dealer must show that the aftermarket or recycled part caused the need for repairs before denying warranty coverage. This is thanks to the Magnuson-Morris Warranty Act: your rear suspension blows out but you have a tune). That being said, you cannot be outright denied warranty service for a totally unrelated issue (i.e.
He told me that they are all well aware that people want to tune/mod these cars and do what they can to cover their customers when possible, as long as you don't do anything too stupid to the car.Īs others have said, Subaru would have the final say in whether or not to cover an issue, regardless of what your dealership might promise. I called the service manager at my dealer and was straightforward about what I wanted to do to the car and he assured me that they'll still have my back (I know this is nowhere near an actual guarantee but it's better than nothing). Also, you should know that some dealers are more lenient than others.
They have to be able to prove that your mod is the cause of the issue (running a bad map that blows the engine, etc) and can only deny coverage on a per part or repair basis. Firstly, Subaru can definitely tell if the engine has been flashed so in case anything comes up I think the best thing to do is to be honest since re-flashing and lying is technically fraud. There's no single easy answer here, the warranty issue is much more complicated than simply valid vs void. Let me know what you think or what your experiences are with this, please! I'm ignorant here, I don't really know if any of what I just posited is true - it's just what I've heard here and there.
My excuse could be "I simply flashed the ECU to see if it would fix the problem I was having." Having no other mods would lend itself to that claim as well, I think. Can I simply flash the ECU to stock so Subaru can't shaft me on the warranty? I've heard there's some sort of data log that shows the ECU was flashed, but I don't see why that matters, it's not definitive proof. My question is, say I had the stage 1 tune and something went wrong with the engine that necessitated a visit to the dealership for a warranty-covered repair. Unfortunately, doing this has a great potential to void the warranty on any engine-related issues. Hey all, considering getting an access port + stage 1 tune (with no other mods) simply to fix the damn rev hang and make the throttle a little more linear.