I agree with you there. Although my personal experience with warranty work has ALWAYS been a nightmare. Even when it's completely legit and has nothing to do with mods.

I once spent all day at a dealership to get my brakes fixed under warranty... like pulling teeth from an angry horse. And it turned out to be a small retainer clip on the caliper that I could have replaced myself for about five bucks.

I suppose this is why I never take my car in for warranty work and don't really care about voiding my warranty since I'll likely never take it to a dealer for the work.

But I've heard other people say they got warranty work done and it wasn't an issue... I guess it's a YMMV situation.

 

It's not your entire warranty it's the powertrain warranty. And what manufacturer does cover aftermarket tuned engines? I can't think of any.

I know it sucks cuz we are all car guys, but I'm sorry I think they're within they're rights to deny warranties on modded engines.

 

Right... so if your intake manifold cracks or you get an exhaust leak...or if this goddamned ticking turns out to be the symptom of impending doom for the valvetrain...and even your tune had nothing to do with it, Ford will laugh at you. "Prove that it didn't!"

 

YES.

Why should they have to invest time/money to determine if the tune was the cause when you decided to mod it?

 

You're joking, right?


So you'd be okay with them voiding the bumper to bumper warranty and not repairing a broken door latch because you installed an aftermarket stereo? Prove that it's not related.

 

Using a non-Ford aftermarket tune is no different than taking your car to an independent mechanic shop. Once a non-Ford mechanic touches your car, Ford has every right to deny your warranty claim.
Who knows if the mechanic was trained, did everything correctly, or caused other problems while working on it??
Aside from mgmt doing their job, you think Ford shareholders are going to allow warranty claims when someone other than Ford messed with it?? What is Ford in business to fix every non-Ford mechanic's work??
Is it Boeing's job to fix Airbus' defects??
Is it Chevron's job to clean up BP's oil spill in the Gulf??
Common sense.

 

Really sorry to hear about this, I hope everything works out well. I had been hearing more and more about these #8 failures but its looking more and more like if you have a tune your going to end up with this problem. This is why I am not putting a tune on my 2012, half the reason I sold my 2007 was to get this engine and the performance of it, but the risk of a tune is not worth the extra power and to be honest my 2012 is already way quicker then my 07 so I am happy with that.

The warranty claim issue is a gray area, from a consumer standpoint just because you are using a tune does not mean other issues that have nothing to do with it should not still be covered. Though in Ford's defense they did not design the engine to handle that kind of power. Even if it can from a technical stand point does not mean the real world mass production parts can hold up to long term to added abuse and that should not be Fords problem.

 

No in fact, I said the exact opposite. Only your POWERTRAIN Warranty is voided by a tune. Other items are still covered.


And agreed w/Charlie x1000

 

This is an argument that can go back and forth for ages and neither side will ever agree.

Bottom line is ford decided to start bonking engine warranties. It is my OPINION that they are doing this to take the easy way out. They know they have a problem with the #8 issue, just as they did with the 6.0 powerstrokes blowing head gaskets, but they will do anything to avoid laying out the money to fix their design screw-up.

I found that they do some pretty funky stuff with retarding the timing on #8 between 4k and 6.5k on the stock calibration which tells me that they KNOW there's a problem, and they used their tuning to hide it, and it is now being exposed because people are tweaking these motors a bit.

Regardless of any argument, noone can sit here and say that a CAI/Exhaust/Tune can seriously result in engine failure to this degree, unless the tuner is a complete idiot. Fact is factory cals are always set extremely safe and leave a LOT of room for people to play, no way ford pushed the coyote to the ends of it's limits, it never would have passed any tests that way, unless they didn't test it.

 

I disagree with the bolded portion. This has ALWAYS been Ford's policy. It is nothing new for Ford or every other manufacturer to not warranty aftermarket tunes.

 

Say what?

If you (spark) retard only one cylinder you're going to have one rough engine.

I'm from Missouri - you're going to have to prove that one...

And even if they (spark) retard ALL cylinders in that rpm range, that has to be taken into context with the change in cam timing.

 

These 5.0's are a whole different animal, they can make near instantaneous adjustments with the VCT and there are many per cylinder paramater options available when tuning these motors.

 

No they're not. DOHC allowing cam timing changes is old technology. I adjusted my cam sprockets (manually) to increase overlap on my 1974 Lotus DOHC 907 for goodness sake. You devotees to the 5.0 god crack me up.

I understand they have the ability to vary cam timing (which is why I said that) as well as ignition timing, but you can't change one cylinder's ignition timing - and expect a smooth (and durable) engine - no different than you can change one cylinder's cam timing. You would feel one hellacious miss as you go through the powerband if only one cylinder's ignition timing was retarded while the other 7 were advanced.

Every piston is connected to one common crankshaft, so you can't just change one cylinder's specs without it affecting the other seven.

Each cylinder's cam lobes are connected to a common camshaft. If you advance or retard a cam it is going to affect every cylinder (in that bank) - not just one.

 

This is funny!....I think you should spear head the lawsuit !

Of course it makes sense....The #8 piston isnt a problem with the stock configuration,and when the tuning parameters are changed the design limitations in #8 can be exceeded....Resulting in parts failure...


What is so hard to understand?

 

This ^^^

 

He wants to be able to mod and when it goes **** up he wants someone else to pay... that's what he doesn't understand.

Cry about it all you want and stamp your feet and heck even file a lawsuit, but you still won't get a free motor after you've modded your car and blow it up.

Oh wait... what do I know... I drive a Prius?

 

What difference does it make what Ford does with #8 timing with the stock calibration?.....As long as the #8 cyl doent blow up in stock trim,Ford doesnt have a problem....


How would you know how far Ford pushed the stock tune,in terms of leaving lots of room for people to play?.....


Its becoming obvious why the frpp tune improves the driveability but doesnt give the same power gains as the other tunes...

.Considering they have the benefit of inside knowledge about design limitations,I would trust a frpp tune over any other aftermarket tune in terms of risk...

 

I was making an analogy which aparently wasn't clear- my point is that they would be in the wrong to throw up their hands and not honor their part of the deal if something in the engine that was unrelated to the tune failed.

The stereo installation voiding your bumper to bumper warranty was the anology.


So...the warranty has a monetary value, no?
If they're not going to honor it, can we get the pro-rated portion of the warranty back? Seems like common sense to me.

 

I would rather any mechanic from Steeda work on my car than the Ford dealership. When it comes to knowledge about a mustang, the guys at Steeda know more about the car than any of the knuckleheads that will do any warranty work which is sad.

 

This is because the extent of dealership "mechanic" training involves online training and answering questions. It does not require proof of any practical knowledge.