Will tracking my mustang screw up my warranty?
 

I have a 2013 BOSS 302 and I've spoken to my dealer repeatedly about tracking the car and he keeps assuring me the warranty will still be good. Does anybody have any insight with regards to this as I'm nervous to hit the track and jeopardize the warranty...unless I just do it and not advertise it and if things do go south just say it was "spirited driving" any suggestions or advice?

If anything happens on the track, pray you can get it to the street before you call your insurance company or a tow truck to take it to the dealer.

I'm sorry I don't have any warranty insight but REALLY great editing skills! Looks like it was a ton of fun to produce. :)

Regards

Straight from the warranty on mine and yours too:

WHAT IS NOT COVERED UNDER THE NEW VEHICLE LIMITED
WARRANTY?
Damage Caused By:

• accidents, collision or objects striking the vehicle (including driving through a car wash)
• theft, vandalism, or riot
• fire or explosion
• using contaminated or improper fuel/fluids
• customer-applied chemicals or accidental spills
• driving through water deep enough to cause water to be ingested into the engine
• misuse of the vehicle, such a driving over curbs, overloading, racing or using the vehicle as a permanent stationary power source

attending HPDE events is not racing - its performance driver education. If you enter in SCCA races, you could have issues, but for 'driver schools' you should be fine. I don't work for Ford and am not a lawyer, but that's my take on this subject.

There are LOTS of Boss 302 guys who track their cars btw... and I'll be one of the "Boss wannabe's" who will have my car on the track quite a bit

I'd like to think you're right...but I have a hard time thinking Ford's warranty claims groups is going to differentiate between an HPDE and true racing or even autocrossing.

this is not true.. we have a member here that was told his warranty claims were not honored because of a hpde class..

I don't see how they could deny you a claim, anything you come into on the track could happen on the street. Now if you wreck that's a different story.

No, it's the same story. Your probability of doing damage to every component of the car goes up exponentially when you're on the racetrack; hence the voiding of your warranty when you do it. Check out this story from a while back (2004) but I would bet money car companies are still doing this stuff: http://www.caranddriver.com/news/evo...tions-car-news

Ford's not any different from pretty much every car company here. When you're racing, you gotta be prepared and realize your car may end up with serious problems or even totaled with no insurance or warranty coverage to help you out. If you're not prepared for that possibility, stay off the track.

This, above all else, is the key to the entire debate, and closes it down.

If you are not prepared to fork the money out to repair the car with your shenanigans, then you do not need to partake in said shenanigans. If you are even *ASKING*, then you might seriously need to not even think about the shenanigans. That also means mods to the car. I always thought those who blew up their motors with a tune, and then complained about Ford denying the warranty work were deficient in their thought process.

If it is not stock, and it is not regular driving, then it is shenanigans. Shenanigans are *always* the user's responsibilty, not the manufacturer, and as such if the warranty can be applied, it is a *bonus*, not a given right, in such a case.

Have a decent wallet first. Then go play.

So I could decide to drive in 1-3 gears all the time on the street, nothing to stop me, and that is likely far more harsh than a couple track days... But not a track day so warranty would be honored? It's very unlikely something will go wrong at the track with a stock car as its OEM tuned and many of us have likely read the detailed articles on the testing ford has done

That said, there is always a chance a warranty could be denied

I thought in the case of the Evo's owners filed a class action lawsuit and won, though I may be wrong.

I used to think:
The Boss was designed for the track!
But that's probably not the case... what it should really say is...
The Boss was designed ON the track... for the street. So basically you can confidently Bench Race.
Unless you have deep "enough" pockets to track it.

Check out this video and read the thread. http://bossmustangsonline.com/index.php?topic=5356.0 I have the track key for my car and the dash says "track use only" when I use it, which means my warranty is for 3 years with it in and 5 years with it out. Tracking your car does not mean racing your car. HPDE is not, uhem, racing your car. Time trails and competition is racing your car. Abusing your car is another story.

I'm glad to see Ford is standing behind the motors when guys are having problems with their Bosses. However, that thread is great evidence to me of what I, and others, have said above. You better be prepared to blow a motor and have it be all on your dime if you're going to track the car. If that happened on the street, no question it'd be under warranty. On the track, whether HPDE or not, I'd be very, very wary. But maybe I'm overly cautious.

The part about ~"due to abuse" is the FoMoCo introduction to "I can fix it if I want to... why should I want to?"

The computer in modern cars has recording capabilities, like "logging" on your hand-held tuner. Although Mr Ford says he won't peek into your history without good reason, he might view Saving A Few Thousand Warranty Dollars as sufficient. If the necropsy reveals habitual bouncing off the redline, you reckon "abuse" might rear its head?

So, if you have a good relationship with a decent dealership, and hold your mouth just so, there's a chance your broken motor might be a warranty matter; that is to say, Ford holds the cards except in actual Materials or Workmanship failures.

Track your car, be ready to pay the piper.

Plus, if you wreck it or collide with another vehicle on the track, your policy excludes the event from coverage.

I like how I paid for a "Track Package " on my car but if I use it they don't warranty it.