Warranty voiding mods source

[Daniel @ K8 Stinger Store]

We have an entire page written on the subject on our website.

Please keep in mind that it becomes your due diligence to make sure you are having parts properly installed and purchased from reliable sources.

As long as you are responsibly purchasing and installing parts such as bolt-ons from reputable manufacturers, you should have no issues with warranty work.

Please click HERE to view our Factory Warranty page on our website.​

 

[BadTrainDriver]

As long as you are responsibly purchasing and installing parts such as bolt-ons from reputable manufacturers, you should have no issues with warranty work.
​

This statement couldn't be father from the truth, and it's downright misleading by stating it.

 

[AusStinger]

I'm just going to throw my 2 cents in here as I know the industry better than many. Sorry for the long read.

When the term 'modification' is used, it insinuates a deviation from manufacturers supplied and suggested item by way of form, and function.
"Modify" any part of your car and you essentially become responsible for that modification and possibly any issues resulting from that mod.

If you replace your discs with DBA T3's and they warp, it's on you.
Replace with genuine KIA parts and they warp, KIA 'might' claim 'ware and tare' and then it's on you ( unless you have reasonable justification to claim otherwise ). THEN if you challenge, it becomes a battle of your legal avenues vs. theirs.

Most of the time, they'll win by dragging a legal case out so long that the costs will exceed the value of the repair ( or even the car ) JEEP were well known for doing this.

If you put wrap on your paint and the paint peels off as a result, no warranty.
Why ? Because you put something there that the manufacturer never intended you to.

If you upgrade your turbo's and you cause damage / error to the engine ( and anything behind it in the power train ), no warranty.
Why ? Because you've changed a multitude of parameters that may have contributed to the issue.

If you install an OCC, chances are that nothing will ever go wrong as a result, but if something did ( and was loosely related ), there's a good chance they would try to point at the OCC as the driving contributor to the problem. No warranty.

And so on and so on....

However...... I have a mate who had a 2 year old car that he THRASHED on a race track over 2 days and ended up with engine, gearbox and diff issues ( and even broke the drivers seat ). He took the car back to the service department and because they know that he ( my mate ) is the kind of guy who throws down cash for replacement cars about every 3 years, they covered all the failures under warranty! 100% truth !

I don't believe that you will ever find an "acceptable list of modifications". Factory supplied, fitted and maintained "options" are "usually" they only items covered by warranty.

However..... I sent an email to KIA Australia asking if my intended list of modifications would void my warranty.
The first item listed was the KIA Factory offered Bi-Modal rear mufflers. OEM supplied parts fitted by KIA.

The response I received was;

"Hi Scott

Good Morning

Thank you for your email

Please be advised that any repairs that might be required as a result of that aftermarket part will not be covered under warranty

In addition, KIA recommends you not to steer away from the standard manufacturing specification

Regards

Abhi"

I could go on and on regarding this subject but sufficed to say, Modify at your own risk.

 

[AusStinger]

Just want to clarify one thing though.....

I'm not saying "Do not modify your car".
I'm saying do it smart and know the battles you're going to pick.

An example might be, you install a Mishimoto OCC ( which is a must have item for any Stinger IMO ) and before you put your car in for a service, simply take 5 minutes, remove it and put the original hose back on. Then put the Mishsi OCC back on after the service.

If you replace your cat-back exhaust with something loud, you're not voiding any warranty issues relating to the drive train etc, but, if you then go back to KIA and say, there's cabin drone or interior plastics now make more noise, I'd say you're on your own.

I would LOVE to install a Mishi Intercooler kit just to bring the inlet temps down but the truth is, ANY issues in the engine ( and possible aft of it ) will have KIA pointing at the Intercooler and then I'd have to prove them wrong etc.

 

[BadTrainDriver]

Just want to clarify one thing though.....

I'm not saying "Do not modify your car".
I'm saying do it smart and know the battles you're going to pick.

An example might be, you install a Mishimoto OCC ( which is a must have item for any Stinger IMO ) and before you put your car in for a service, simply take 5 minutes, remove it and put the original hose back on. Then put the Mishsi OCC back on after the service.

If you replace your cat-back exhaust with something loud, you're not voiding any warranty issues relating to the drive train etc, but, if you then go back to KIA and say, there's cabin drone or interior plastics now make more noise, I'd say you're on your own.

I would LOVE to install a Mishi Intercooler kit just to bring the inlet temps down but the truth is, ANY issues in the engine ( and possible aft of it ) will have KIA pointing at the Intercooler and then I'd have to prove them wrong etc.

You most certainly could have a powertrain warranty claim denied by altering the exhaust system.

 

[Stinger GT SS]

I”ll just leave this here, its an extract from the owners manual.

 

[AusStinger]

You most certainly could have a powertrain warranty claim denied by altering the exhaust system.

KIA ( and any other manufacturer ) can and sometimes will refuse warranty claims as a default stance on any modified car ( that is true ) but a Cat-Back exhaust system replacement changes so little that the argument can easily be won against a refused claim ( within reason ).

Case in point. KIA themselves offer an option of a Bi-Modal exhaust upgrade ( rear mufflers replacement ) that mildly increases exhaust gas flow and this is covered by Factory warranty ( although KIA stated otherwise in the letter I attached above LOL ). Under consumer laws, they wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

Now, if you were to replace the exhaust from the TURBO'S back........
That's a whole different situation. You're on your own.

 

[AusStinger]

I”ll just leave this here, its an extract from the owners manual.View attachment 61311

Correct. Modify at your own risk.

 

[RM7]

Yep, finally a thread with some good common sense regarding modding. For those asking, yes a dealer may try to invalidate a warranty for "anything you do" and these dealers sometimes need to be shown that excerpt in the book or the magnusson act, which states they may not deny a warranty for a problem unrelated to the modification.

Then it becomes being smart about the modifications and not doing stupid stuff. Slamming cars with drop springs works ok some of the time, but it also causes struts to bust through the frame some of the time. A mild drop probably won't do it, but you are putting yourself more at risk with a modification. There are subtleties. Drop springs basically have to support the same weight with less travel, they have a higher spring rate for this, but not all of our car configurations weigh the same, AWD vs RWD, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.3. These all weigh different amounts. Are the drop-spring part numbers the same for each of these configs? If so, it means some of them will end up significantly less than ideal. When I got springs for my BMW, I had to special-order some from ACS Europe, because they were the only ones making them specifically for my Grand Coupe configuration at the time. There were multiple other springs available, but they were not matched to the actual weight of the vehicle, in other words they were a "one size fits all" for the entire rim and configuration range. Then there's the damping issue. I was able to increase the damping by getting a computer damping update for the electronic shocks. Although the commuter upgrade was Dinan and the springs ACS, it matched nicely. A lot better than running around without increasing the damping on drop springs. For some of this stuff, people do it only for cosmetics, which kind of limits the usefulness of the car as far as performance. You gotta know the impacts of what you are doing and what it might limit you to in the future.

Good point above about the exhaust. It's important to note that once you change the power output or delivery, you make it fair game for them to deny the warranty on anything in the engine or drivetrain downstream. This is where it gets tricky, because you may have honestly just had a flawed part that should not have failed, modification or not, but now if the dealer is going strictly by the book, it won't be covered. You'll hopefully find some good common sense approaches out there and there are good dealers in this respect, but again, you open yourself up. You need to do your homework with a mod and make sure you are getting all of the required additional mods to support what you want to do (if it requires additional). Like when I went stage 1 with my WRX, then stage 2, where I stopped. At stage 2 there were several parts required to run the higher tune, from the turbo-back exhaust, intake, bigger intercooler and some other bits. Going to a bigger turbo would require even more, better fuel pump, bigger injectors, possibly forged internals, etc. And then you are putting that stress on the drivetrain, so expect to replace the clutch or possibly trans issues, or swap the trans before something bad actually happens...Basically, this increases exponentially as your level of modding increases. People can and still do mod at those levels, but they dump a lot of money into the car usually when they are doing it right.

Also important to realize how the dealer works in this situation, they get reimbursed for labor and parts from the corp, so if the corp decides to say they ain't paying for mod-related warranty stuff, the dealer isn't going to be doing that stuff for free or out of the goodness of their heart.