Will A Tune Void My Warranty?

[el ess A]

This is so not hard to understand:

Tune your car if you want. You roll the dice and if you break something and they don't warrant the breakage, be a man/woman and suck it up.

The act protects the consumer, but that doesn't mean you get to wield it like a sword because you tweak a tune and feel entitled to a warranty after messing with a calibration.

There's always a cake and eat it too crowd.

[Apex Motorsports]

Originally Posted by el ess A

This is so not hard to understand:

Tune your car if you want. You roll the dice and if you break something and they don't warrant the breakage, be a man/woman and suck it up.

The act protects the consumer, but that doesn't mean you get to wield it like a sword because you tweak a tune and feel entitled to a warranty after messing with a calibration.

There's always a cake and eat it too crowd.

That pretty well sums it up.

[VTSummit]

I'll throw in my two cents on this, as I am the parts and service director at a Chevy dealership and a Camaro owner (with mods).
I can't speak for every dealer, because there are some out there who are confrontational for no real reason. If a tuned car comes in and we suspect it's related to the tune, we have a chat with the door closed and see what we can work out. If you come in with an attitude, lie about tuning it, or give me a ton of crap you won't make friends with me or the techs. For the most part, we would do whatever we can to help the customer and not 'tag' your vehicle for warranty block.
If you can't have a candid discussion with your service manager and trust him/her- you need to find another dealer. In my whole career with several brands, I've only ever came down on ONE guy with a tune... and it's because he was an epic a-hole.

[Apex Motorsports]

Originally Posted by VTSummit

I'll throw in my two cents on this, as I am the parts and service director at a Chevy dealership and a Camaro owner (with mods).
I can't speak for every dealer, because there are some out there who are confrontational for no real reason. If a tuned car comes in and we suspect it's related to the tune, we have a chat with the door closed and see what we can work out. If you come in with an attitude, lie about tuning it, or give me a ton of crap you won't make friends with me or the techs. For the most part, we would do whatever we can to help the customer and not 'tag' your vehicle for warranty block.
If you can't have a candid discussion with your service manager and trust him/her- you need to find another dealer. In my whole career with several brands, I've only ever came down on ONE guy with a tune... and it's because he was an epic a-hole.

Sounds like you are the kind of guy we all wish was running our local dealer's service department.

[FrostySS]

Originally Posted by VTSummit

I'll throw in my two cents on this, as I am the parts and service director at a Chevy dealership and a Camaro owner (with mods).
I can't speak for every dealer, because there are some out there who are confrontational for no real reason. If a tuned car comes in and we suspect it's related to the tune, we have a chat with the door closed and see what we can work out. If you come in with an attitude, lie about tuning it, or give me a ton of crap you won't make friends with me or the techs. For the most part, we would do whatever we can to help the customer and not 'tag' your vehicle for warranty block.
If you can't have a candid discussion with your service manager and trust him/her- you need to find another dealer. In my whole career with several brands, I've only ever came down on ONE guy with a tune... and it's because he was an epic a-hole.

Finally, another service guy that "gets it". I left writing for GM a few months ago so I don't run into modified cars anymore but I wrote for GM for about 6 years. I had the attitude of "be honest with me and I'll help you out as much as possible, lie to me or jerk me around I'm gonna be your biggest nightmare". GM isn't responsible for your modification **** ups. Be humble, be honest and some of us will go to bat for you, jerk us around or treat us like fools all bets are off.

I had a Corvette guy like that, total d-bag(typical lol), said no one had touched his car aside from putting the exhaust on and his transmission after 20k magically blew up. No mention of the line running back to the trunk/hatch area that looked like it'd be for a nitrous bottle. Swore up and down that there was no tune done, was "insulted" that we'd suggest such a thing....well the thing is the jackass was to f'in stupid to REMOVE the tune...
I guess he thought he did.

Claim denied, next time don't be a jackass and maybe we could have given you the opportunity to at least return the tune back to stock(though I think my tech still would have known). I know a lot of advisors aren't "car guys", they're salesman but some of us are....and I support modding these cars as long as it's done right but at the end of the day GM isn't responsible for warrantying these cars after they're modified...so come in, be humble, be straight up with us and we got your back.

[VTSummit]

FrostySS gets it. Amazing how some people even think those of us who are willing to be helpful still aren't doing enough. If you want a job in VT, I'll have a spot for a writer opening at the end of the year when my new shop is built. We're literally at the base of a ski resort and our back lot borders a river full of fish.

Moral of the story: Don't be afraid to step in the office and close the door. State your concerns, be open and honest. If you are asking someone to overlook a mod that probably was responsible for the failure, don't think we are stupid and don't go all nasty on the forums about how dealers suck because we didn't risk our job and our dealership agreement with GM for you.

[Apex Motorsports]

Originally Posted by FrostySS

Finally, another service guy that "gets it". I left writing for GM a few months ago so I don't run into modified cars anymore but I wrote for GM for about 6 years. I had the attitude of "be honest with me and I'll help you out as much as possible, lie to me or jerk me around I'm gonna be your biggest nightmare". GM isn't responsible for your modification **** ups. Be humble, be honest and some of us will go to bat for you, jerk us around or treat us like fools all bets are off.

I had a Corvette guy like that, total d-bag(typical lol), said no one had touched his car aside from putting the exhaust on and his transmission after 20k magically blew up. No mention of the line running back to the trunk/hatch area that looked like it'd be for a nitrous bottle. Swore up and down that there was no tune done, was "insulted" that we'd suggest such a thing....well the thing is the jackass was to f'in stupid to REMOVE the tune...
I guess he thought he did.

Claim denied, next time don't be a jackass and maybe we could have given you the opportunity to at least return the tune back to stock(though I think my tech still would have known). I know a lot of advisors aren't "car guys", they're salesman but some of us are....and I support modding these cars as long as it's done right but at the end of the day GM isn't responsible for warrantying these cars after they're modified...so come in, be humble, be straight up with us and we got your back.

[MrChrisLS3]

I bought a used '11 SS this past November with 61K on it, with a CPO warranty. For this reason, it is going to stay completely stock until that warranty runs out. So far, it hasn't been needed and I've put a little of 10K on it so far.

But like these last two guys said, be up front and honest. You're not going to fool these guys. They are the professionals that work on these things day in day out. The other part of it is that the dealer doesn't want to deny your warranty any more than you want them to, it's simply that it is not their choice.

The one thing that I might add. If you want to find a dealership that is "mod friendly", look for one that sponsors a local club. These dealers tend to have a better understanding and attitude about the people that drive these cars. Club relationships are important to these dealers.

[Apex Motorsports]

Originally Posted by MrChrisLS3

The one thing that I might add. If you want to find a dealership that is "mod friendly", look for one that sponsors a local club. These dealers tend to have a better understanding and attitude about the people that drive these cars. Club relationships are important to these dealers.

You know, that is probably a really good way to filter them that I never considered.

[VTSummit]

I wish I had a local club to sponsor, but there's not many into performance around here. Only seen two Camaros on local roads since I got mine. :( It's lonely out in the sticks.
I've opened negotiations with a tuner provider to offer tunes here- just hope there are customers for it.

[Apex Motorsports]

Originally Posted by VTSummit

I wish I had a local club to sponsor, but there's not many into performance around here. Only seen two Camaros on local roads since I got mine. :( It's lonely out in the sticks.
I've opened negotiations with a tuner provider to offer tunes here- just hope there are customers for it.

That sucks.

[rberns]

Last fall I had a cam swap done. Throughout the fall and into the winter I noticed coolant on the ground while it was in storage. This spring I decided to bring it in to have it checked out. Come to find out I was one of those unlucky people whose oil cooler line was cross threaded into the block from the factory. The dealership said they tried to seal it and retap it, but it just wasn't working. Obviously from the sound of my car and the things done under the hood they new the engine had been modded. Actually many of them came over to check out my car since they don't get to see stuff like that very often. I told them everything I had done and got a lot of compliments. Anyhow, come to find out GM authorized a new engine block since none of my mods caused this problem. GM acknowledged that this happened from the factory and took responsibility. So GM paid for the labor to remove, install, and the cost of the block. However, I had to pay the labor cost of moving all my internals from the old block into the new block which ran me another $1500 plus another $300 for new gaskets and BR30 oil.

[Apex Motorsports]

Originally Posted by rberns

Last fall I had a cam swap done. Throughout the fall and into the winter I noticed coolant on the ground while it was in storage. This spring I decided to bring it in to have it checked out. Come to find out I was one of those unlucky people whose oil cooler line was cross threaded into the block from the factory. The dealership said they tried to seal it and retap it, but it just wasn't working. Obviously from the sound of my car and the things done under the hood they new the engine had been modded. Actually many of them came over to check out my car since they don't get to see stuff like that very often. I told them everything I had done and got a lot of compliments. Anyhow, come to find out GM authorized a new engine block since none of my mods caused this problem. GM acknowledged that this happened from the factory and took responsibility. So GM paid for the labor to remove, install, and the cost of the block. However, I had to pay the labor cost of moving all my internals from the old block into the new block which ran me another $1500 plus another $300 for new gaskets and BR30 oil.

That is a perfect example of how things are supposed to work. I had a similar experience years back on a highly modified 4th Gen SS I had. It had a shift kit and torque converter installed and still had a repair done under warranty because it was a known problem.

[Bretts]

Well I just had my car in for a gear recalibration and various other items looked after, no warranty issues or comments on "our agreed to prior "level of modifications as below in my sig. And also no charge plus a 2015 rs convertible loaner overnite as I am an out of town customer
Highly recommended these guys here in Loydminster Alberta!