WARNING adding electrical accessories to your Camaro may void your warranty!

[The_Blur]

Let me get this straight. We don't trust our dealers when we purchase a car; we don't trust our dealers for our oil changes and maintenance schedule; but somehow we trust our dealer when something is broken—ironic.

[Msmall143]

1 - mods voiding warranties isn't breaking news. Gm made a car and covers the car they built, they shouldn't have to fix something you did to alter that car that caused an issue wether it be a light bulb or a blower. If you did something and it caused a problem, you pay. And to be clear, this would only void the warranty for parts it's tied to. If your tranny goes out, they aren't going to point at an electrical mod.

This isn't just a gm position, it's a standard across manufacturers from all types of industries. You can't put a different processor in a play station and expect sony to cover repairs when it causes issues. You can't put a weed wacker motor in a blender and expect blend tech to repair worn blades.

2- what's the issue here? It seems they are helping you find the problem and are doing so under warranty?...i

Personally I think you should have been contacting the vendors that sold the part that's causing the issue.

When the phastek dail light running light harness I installed caused a cel, I didn't call gm, I called phastek. I was just thankful gm did the diagnostics and pointed it out as the issue.

To wrap up, I'd recommend you go get a nice tune, this way you don't need to worry about any future warranty issues!

[trcsr]

Originally Posted by Msmall143

1 - mods voiding warranties isn't breaking news. Gm made a car and covers the car they built, they shouldn't have to fix something you did to alter that car that caused an issue wether it be a light bulb or a blower. If you did something and it caused a problem, you pay. And to be clear, this would only void the warranty for parts it's tied to. If your tranny goes out, they aren't going to point at an electrical mod.

This isn't just a gm position, it's a standard across manufacturers from all types of industries. You can't put a different processor in a play station and expect sony to cover repairs when it causes issues. You can't put a weed wacker motor in a blender and expect blend tech to repair worn blades.

2- what's the issue here? It seems they are helping you find the problem and are doing so under warranty?...i

Personally I think you should have been contacting the vendors that sold the part that's causing the issue.

When the phastek dail light running light harness I installed caused a cel, I didn't call gm, I called phastek. I was just thankful gm did the diagnostics and pointed it out as the issue.

To wrap up, I'd recommend you go get a nice tune, this way you don't need to worry about any future warranty issues!

The point is, the added part most likely did not cause the problem. All the part did was tap into the battery. They did not find the problem with my added on unit under warranty as that was not the problem. Plus, from the other posts on this forum, apparently many, many others have installed this same item with no problems. The service mgr. did not even narrow the problem down to this particular item; he just made a blanket statement that "any electrical accessory added to the car would void the warranty". I have an RS which does not have fog lights. So, by his reasoning, if I added aftermarket fog lights it would void the warranty. Does this make sense? I think not!

I have made many accessory additions to many cars in the past and have never had a warranty problem with Ford, Toyota, Mazda, Geo. I don't really believe that this is the case with GM. Next week I am going to call some of the other Chev. dealers in my area to see what they have to say. If it is just my dealer, I will complain to the owner as I say goodbye to him. Plus I have had the oil in many of my warranted cars changed by Jiffy Lube, etc. and have never had a dealer refuse warranty work because of that. With all the varied opinions on this site, I really don't know what to believe.

[Msmall143]

Originally Posted by trcsr

The point is, the added part most likely did not cause the problem. All the part did was tap into the battery. They did not find the problem with my added on unit under warranty as that was not the problem. Plus, from the other posts on this forum, apparently many, many others have installed this same item with no problems. The service mgr. did not even narrow the problem down to this particular item; he just made a blanket statement that "any electrical accessory added to the car would void the warranty". I have an RS which does not have fog lights. So, by his reasoning, if I added aftermarket fog lights it would void the warranty. Does this make sense? I think not!

I have made many accessory additions to many cars in the past and have never had a warranty problem with Ford, Toyota, Mazda, Geo. I don't really believe that this is the case with GM. Next week I am going to call some of the other Chev. dealers in my area to see what they have to say. If it is just my dealer, I will complain to the owner as I say goodbye to him. Plus I have had the oil in many of my warranted cars changed by Jiffy Lube, etc. and have never had a dealer refuse warranty work because of that. With all the varied opinions on this site, I really don't know what to believe.

You can't keep making blanket statements like "would void my warranty" because it would void only a small portion of the warranty.

Yes or no....are they working on the car and covering cost under warranty?

Because I haven't see where you have had a warranty claim declined.

[CFD]

Something everyone should keep in mind is that, although any modifications can affect you warranty coverage, dealerships do have a lot of discretion with honoring the warranty, with the exception of mainly but not only powertrain and ECM's, TCM's etc. Most dealers welcome warranty work and do want to build good relations with their customers. Repeat business is crucial to their success. So unless they see a direct relationship to an added component contributing or causing a problem they won't care BUT THEN, there are some dealers who just suck and don't care.

[HeadonaStick]

.

[HeadonaStick]

Originally Posted by Envy

Lots of people like to drink the Magnuson-Moss koolaid but as others have stated...it WILL NOT help anyone in a warranty dispute. I have some experience in this area since my dealer denied me warranty work and then GM tried to void my warranty. But I couldn't find an attorney in Dallas to represent me (and believe me I tried)...even though I was willing to pay out of pocket...because there has never been a successful case won against an automotive company when it comes to warranty denial. There's really a whole lot more to all of this that I learned during my experience...but there's no reason to get into all of that in this thread.

Actually, there are quite a few successful cases against automobile manufacturers under Moss-Magnuson and there are lawyers who specialize in auto warranty cases under Moss-Magnuson. In addition, the law provides that a person who pursues a successful claim is entitled to legal fees. A quick search turns up successful cases against car dealers, DaimlerBenz, Volkswagen, Chrysler, GM, Hyundai, and American Honda.

It is possible that you were unable to find an attorney due to the fact that you did not have a case. While it is up to the manufacturer to prove that an aftermarket part is in fact a contributing factor to the failure in question, in some cases that is a pretty easy case to make.

[trcsr]

Originally Posted by Msmall143

You can't keep making blanket statements like "would void my warranty" because it would void only a small portion of the warranty.

Yes or no....are they working on the car and covering cost under warranty?

Because I haven't see where you have had a warranty claim declined.

The "blanket statement" you refer to was made by the service manager; his words, not mine. Yes, they were working on the car under warranty "out of fostering good customer relations", but telling me that other dealers would not do any work under warranty because of this "mod". The point of the thread was not that the warranty was declined, it was the threat that normally warranties would be voided under a situation where something, even as simple as adding fog lights because they connect to the car's electrical system, were added. They completely removed the Curb Alert system (even though I only gave them permission to disconnect it) and it had no affect on the problem. After 4 days of keeping the car they finally found the problem was an electrical connector that had nothing to do with where I tapped in for the Curb Alert. When the service manager called me to tell me that they had solved the problem he told me that there was a TSB that was related to the problem. But, when I picked up the car today I was told that there was no TSB involved in the repair (the service manager was not there when I picked it up and the service writer supposedly talked to the mechanic and she was told that there was no TSB involved).

There are many, many posts on this forum about warranties and many of them include stories such as mine; the dealer tries to get out of doing warranty work or tries to get favor from the customer by telling them that there is a reason why the repair is not covered, but that they will do it for "good customer relations". I suggest that you search the site for "warranty" and read some of the posts, including ones from the Chev. Rep. and some of the thread sponsors.

Plus I did contact the maker of the Curb Alert and was told that there have been hundreds installed on Camaros and many on other makes with no problems of any sort like I have had.

[Envy]

Originally Posted by HeadonaStick

Actually, there are quite a few successful cases against automobile manufacturers under Moss-Magnuson and there are lawyers who specialize in auto warranty cases under Moss-Magnuson. In addition, the law provides that a person who pursues a successful claim is entitled to legal fees. A quick search turns up successful cases against car dealers, DaimlerBenz, Volkswagen, Chrysler, GM, Hyundai, and American Honda.

It is possible that you were unable to find an attorney due to the fact that you did not have a case. While it is up to the manufacturer to prove that an aftermarket part is in fact a contributing factor to the failure in question, in some cases that is a pretty easy case to make.

I did have a legitimate claim...since my dealership sold me the modifications that were causing the problem and had them all installedl before I took delivery of my car. It was legitimate enough that the dealership felt it necessary to forge my signature on a "GM Disclosure of Non-GM Parts" document to cover their a$$es when I escalated the claim and the district rep came calling. And once I had the handwriting analysis done to prove they had forged my signature...GM customer service would no longer return my phone calls...but they did tell the dealership to take care of the problem and they did just that with more than adequate financial compensation.