They are honoring it. Those are the terms of the warranty. Your powertrain is covered for 5yrs as long as you follow the recommended maintenance and do not modify the powertrain in any way. You, me, and everyone else who bought the car agreed to those terms. It wasn't hidden and Ford didn't just adopt this policy. Its been that way. ALL manufacturers have this policy.

Why is it this way? It's very simple. When the engineers design it they design it to perform a certain way under defined conditions. Any deviation from that CAN cause problems. You can't expect Ford to cover it when some company pushes the engine to do something beyond it's limits.

Why do I think Ford shouldn't have the burden of proof? Because you made the decision to mod, not them. It would cost them a lot of extra money to determine the root cause of every problem on tuned cars. Now the cars that it was determined was their fault they would fix under warranty, I've got no problem with that. But what about the cars they did determine were caused by a tune? Who foots the bill on that diagnostic? That's where my problem lies because now you've just wasted their time and money. If they were to provide this service to us the cost of stangs would increase make no doubt about that.

Ford knows this which is why they have the policy they do.

That being said I still think there are plenty of safe tunes out there. It's just that as with anything there is a learning curve and tuners are still figuring things out. We all know you gotta pay to play. Right now I could't afford a #8 failure so I keep the car stock, and I'm having a blast. People just have to make the choice that's best for them, and stop wishing that Ford will pay for their risks

BTW the OP is the perfect example of what I'm talking about. I haven't once heard this guy complain considering all he's been through. I salute his attitude

 

And that relates to the warranty issue how?

 

No ****.
Nobody is saying otherwise but if it makes you feel superior to keep saying it, by all means.

If my mod causes a failure, I wouldn't even think of trying to pass that off but if my transmission does the old flywheel bolt trick (or whatever happened to some of you guys), and they tell me to kick rocks because, I ran a tune for a short time, months ago, there's going to be a major **** storm.

Regardless of how it's worded, the law is on the side of the consumer. I'd discourage anyone from trying to hide a mod and making Ford pay for a resulting failure... but I also discourage anyone from being so easily parted with their expensive warranty just because Ford is more powerful.

If you do, you're a damned fool.

 

Good luck with that buddy

 

The law may be on our side, but the burden of proof also falls in our hands. Sometimes it just isn't worth the hassle to prove that we are right.

 

Thanks,

FORD didn't write this Brenspeed tune that screwed me.
EVERYTHING suggests that If my car wasn't tuned I wouldn't have this #8 failure... I can blame Ford on the trans BUT not this.

 

Well look on the bright side man, once you build the motor to your specs you can put monster power through it and not have to worry about it nuking again. And you won't have to worry about the tranny coming apart since you put a good tranny in the car and got rid of the MT82.

 

Well I'm running a cai & tune and I'm operating with some trepidation. That said, if Ford is going to deny a warranty claim based on it being the fault of the tune, they should have to do more than just say that the tune was the cause.

It is absolutely fair for Ford to say they won't cover repairs that are CAUSED by mods.
But just saying that the mod is the issue hardly proves their position. I will be curious if to see what percentage of these modded cars go boom. I am also curious to see if there will be an issue with untuned cars (internet rumors need to be more than that).

Given that those of us who are on our 4th or 5th or in my case 9th stang have been used to modding our cars and having them hold up pretty **** well, this mustang does seem a bit more fragile. While Ford has no responsibility to build a car capable of minor modding, it would seem that long time fans and SUPPORTERS might leave the Mustang fold with a bad taste in their mouths. I know if I have to go in pocket 7+ grand or so for mods that are minor at best I will likely purchase a different brand for my next car.

I haven't heard about Camaros and Corvettes blowing from a tune (then again I haven't researched). What is the financial value of customer satisfaction. Is it smart to build a car that you know will be significantly in the hands of enthusiasts and make it so fragile that a CAI and tune will cause catastrophic failure?

These are really minor mods to be so costly to consumers.

 

X2!!! I have owned 6 mustangs in my life ALL except for 1 were modded. We buy these cars to make them mine ( custom). I read that since these are new engines they need to be tuned diffrently. They cannot be tuned like the old 4.6. Im curious as how many of these #8 failures were with a Dyno tune or mail order tune. I had the Steeda tune which he loaded without even putting it on a dyno. I didn't like that, not all 5.0 are the same. I took the car right away to BBR and he put it on the dyno and gave me a custom tune. that was 13k miles ago. Car is still running great no problems. My only regret was I was quick to get the car modded, i should of waited until the warrantee expired. Oh well gotta keep moving forward. Oh and BTW i have been down the track 2x and i drive like i stole it! RADAR DETECTORS FTW!!

 

It seems that way, but on the other hand that minor mod is being done to the most critical part of this engine. Without that programming in that little box, this fantastic engine is a very expensive paper weight. That's like doing some "minor" brain surgery on a human, it doesn't take much of a mistake or misunderstanding of what you're doing to kill the person it controls.

 

This.

Believe me I understand where most of you are coming from. The bigger issue here is the coyote just isn't as easy to tune as past engines. There's more to worry about. Unfortunately the first batch of modders are the testers for everyone else. I'm confident tuners will figure it out (if they already haven't)

 

kinda answered you on s197, sorry your thread is getting crapped..


beers

 

Yeah, thank you. I got an email notification for that. I'll have to get that done.

:beers:

 

Thank you, Eric. This is exactly what I have been trying to say, but have been met with hostility.

 

Once we start getting lots of people with 30k, 40k, 50k+ on the 32V 5.0, we will find out just how well these motors will stand up.

I'm at 18,300 miles in stock form without any issues to date, and am still on the fence about a tune. For now I'm only planning shocks, springs, wheels, and tires as the safer option, but still have the Tune and Cold Air Intake in mind, just waiting to see how things go as miles accumulate.

 

Smart Man, don't even Try to make Ford Honor their Warranty. Instead just go
Off and Spend your OWN 8 Grand!!! Apparently your Rollin like that....

 

Cause the drivetrain warranty will cover a drivetrain that has been heavily modified. He understands that there is no point to even trying warranty service because of the tranny. Just a waste of time for him.

 

This stuff is ugly. If I were in a 5.0 right now, I wouldn't be tuning it at all.

 

+1 I totally agree.
I assume at some point, this will be all straightened out but in the mean time, it's nerve racking, especially when A) you love your 5.0 Mustang and B) It accounts for a significant portion of your expendible income and buying a new engine would mean a long saving period

Unfortunately, there are some of us who came out of a 4.6L 3v where in recent years, tuning was a no worry affair...and buying into the promises of safety from reputable tuners who have provided safe, reliable, effective tune strategies in the past, and installed a tune before the #8 issues started cropping up...and the risk benefit analysis of modding changed.

...and now it's too late

I have been 100% stock for all but ~1000 miles on my car...and the engine is aparently still in tip top shape. Regardless of that fact, if anything breaks in my drivetrain in the next 53k miles, Ford has proclaimed plausible deniability.

 

Well technically, Ford does have to "prove it". The problem is that if they say they won't fix your car, the burden of proof is basically who the judge/arbitrator/etc believes the most, and not beyond a reasonable doubt. If Ford can show that any car had a particular failure from a tune that alone should give them a win much of the time. BUT the other side of that coin is if there is proof that this failure has occurred without a tune, that becomes a draw at best and I suspect a tie goes to the consumer. So find and document those non-tuned #8 failures that were fixed under warranty.