ng8650

Ng

cowboybornlate

Pour Pour CH another drink.... too funny

CBL

dan-d

Deb, a lot of warranty issues are dealer specific. Some dealers actually love to see mods and others don't. My dealer absolutely loves my HHR and I bring it to them so they can check out my mods, and I've done quite a few. The bottom line is that they cannot refuse repairing your car unless they can prove that the mod you've done contributed to the failure of what ever went wrong. Yeah, changing your muffler may void the exhaust system warranty to some degree (but who cares), however the emissions system including the catalitic converter is still covered. There's no way replacing the stock muffler with an after market muffler could ruin the cat. That's just an example.

The key to getting good service is approching your dealership service manager with a hand shake and a smile, these folks often get rode hard and put away wet. Their lives are often filled with angry demanding customers and this often contributes to their disposition and decision to turn away a warranty claim. -Dan

courthousedeb

Thanks for the heads up Mike. I will print that out and put it in my glove box and make sure I give it to them next time I am in their area.

BryceStrong

Lest anyone forget that we are not immune to being rejected for a covered part. That Magnuson Moss Act reiterates the fact that modifications have the potential to cause problems. Certainly an aftermarket muffler will never be covered under the factory warranty. I think it boils down to common sense. Expecting that parts of the warranty will be voided is the safest route.

However, that's not to say some dealerships won't cover stupidity. I'd never heard of that act til today, but the fact that they must PROVE the problem does give the customer an upper-hand. My first car, a Toyota Paseo, was covered under a pre-owned warranty contract. Being a dumb 16 year old, I was too lazy to oil my engine. Ended up with a nice hole through the engine block. Needless to say my mom tried the warranty route, although it was stupidly obvious whose fault it was. For whatever reason (maintaining good PR, lack of PROOF...) they replaced my engine. In fact, I pulled the same crap a year later and they replaced it again! I guess my point is that they will most likely not cover parts affecting warrantied items nor neglected parts, but you might get lucky.

SoCalHHR

Talk about lucky: back in the '80's I used to do a lot of weekend sand hill dragging with my Jeep. It was an '85 CJ-7, and even though it had a lot of performance mods, was still under warranty.

One weekend I was racing and shredded a rear axle shaft. Since this Jeep was my "daily driver" I was forced to put it in 4WD and drive it home in FWD.

Monday morning I was first in line at the dealership's service department waiting for them to open (gotta get this rear axle warranteed!?!). As soon as they open, the Service Manager walks up to me and says - "Hey! Didn't I see you out at Whitewater (the place we race on the sand hills), yesterday?"

Figuring I'm busted now, I meekly say "yes" - and he surprises me saying; "Man, you were tearing it up out there! I'm going to get this warranteed for you 'cause you made us (Jeep), look so good!" I walked away from it with a new rear axle shaft, seal, and free labor.

Now that doesn't happen every time, - but it's great when it does!

bisho1p

I went over all this with my dealer BEFORE I bought my HHR to avoid any confusion. They had no problem with any of my emergency lights causing any warranty concerns.

For example: Yesterday I drilled a 1" hole in each tail light to insert a Whelen Strobe Tube for rear warning when parked or responding to a call. I told the dealer what I was going to do, and he said, because I am just drilling a hole and inserting something, and NOT splicing into any of the taillight wiring, if anything happens to the taillight it is still under warranty.