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Has Anyone Ever Gotten a Warranty Claim Denied for a Tune?

nate-roth

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There really has not been many actual engine failures. Internet makes it appear they are all failing and crappy motors. Yes, shit happens. Stock 18 plus motor has cleared over 1000 whp in multiple setups. I bet a fair share of the replacements where due to owners complaining about tick/rattle. The chances of the tune causing a failure is pretty low imo. Again, everyone has an opinion...
This^ If your concerned leave it stock for a few thousand miles, most commonly a mfg defect or assembly issue will have come up by then. I think Ford probably replaced way too many motors just because the customers were so demanding about the "tick" noise. And every one of those cases (very few in reality) seems to be documented on youtube or a message board I waited 1500 miles and and then went E85, some wait longer and some mod sooner.
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ComeIngotIt

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Thanks for all of your input. I think for the time being I’m just going to keep it stock and drive it hard for a bit with the peace of mind of the warranty. I’ll just have to settle with a measly 460 HP lol
 

Weather Man

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You can be the bestest buds ever with the service manager, and if Ford asks for the ecu info, you're screwed.
 

bubba

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If I have to return to stock, I'll just spend the weekend turning the car on and off to get my key count back up... ;)
 

Furious18

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If I have to return to stock, I'll just spend the weekend turning the car on and off to get my key count back up... ;)
Not if the engines blown lol
150-200 starts per thousand miles on the car? I’m just guessing but it has to be up there
 

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bubba

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Not if the engines blown lol
150-200 starts per thousand miles on the car? I’m just guessing but it has to be up there
Depends on what equates to a key count I guess, just hitting the turn on button with the brake pressed? I'd spend my weekend doing it if that's all it takes!

But in all seriousness... anyone adding a tune should be prepared for the worst case scenario.
 

CEHollier

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From personal experience. At 28,000 miles metal was discovered in my oil. Ford replaced the short block and four cams under warranty. At the time I had a GT350 manifold, LU47 injectors, JLT CAI, and Lund flex tune. Ford did the right thing and replaced my engine. Which is why a GT350 will be my next car.
 
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Burgo

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Not if the engines blown lol
150-200 starts per thousand miles on the car? I’m just guessing but it has to be up there
Not necessarily, I often drive 1600km with 3 starts.
 

ctandc72

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It's again going to be different at every dealership. I can tell you from experience, that when I worked in a service department, there are many factors at play. While that was years ago, I have plenty of friends / acquaintances still in the business and this subject, in general, is a constant source of stories when we're sitting around having a drink or two, or six. The stories coming from a guy I know who worked as a service manager with Subaru were some of the most cringe worthy. Keep in mind - the TYPE of failure plays a major part in how everything is treated. If your bring your car in and it's doing something (tick, noise etc) that the service department has seen already in the same model / trim of your car, it will likely be treated the same way as other cases and is considered "routine" in a way.

Having a noise, cylinder scoring (if they check the bores before disassembly), or metal in the oil on a running engine is a lot different than looking at a performance oriented car / truck with a catastrophic engine failure.

As for key counts - again it depends on WHO is working on your car. Remember, not every technician or service manager is a "Car guy". I recently looked at a used S550 GT Performance Pack car on a large, high volume Ford dealership lot with a friend who was in the market. Car had low miles. In great cosmetic condition. Also had Corsa exhaust, headers, air intake, aftermarket shifter etc etc. Car ran like SHIT. We got the heads up on the car from a friend of a friend who worked at the dealership. The story was the previous owner traded in on a Raptor. He told the salesman the car was tuned and the tuner was with the car. Somewhere along the line someone at the dealership returned the car to stock tune and of course the trouble started. My friend made a reasonable CASH offer based on the present condition of the car, and a generous offer in my mind - since he knew the car more than likely just needed tuned again. The sales manager turned him down. We found out later from the guy who worked there that the car sold - for FULL Asking price (which was on the high side for a stock PP car of that year / miles) and they didn't touch a thing.

Every employee and every dealership is a different situation.

The best advice I've heard on this matter...if the the thought of tuning your car and potentially losing your power train warranty really worries you - odds are you probably shouldn't do it.
 

Timeless

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You can be the bestest buds ever with the service manager, and if Ford asks for the ecu info, you're screwed.
Absolute truth. Anything that requires major warranty (engine, trans, etc) is subject to a Ford Engineer getting involved which will remove any help you might receive.

However I can tell you from experience that the service managers have a great deal of pull on these warranty claims and Ford really does not WANT to have to get engineers involved on what is basically a mass produced vehicle.
 

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MaskedRacerX

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Not that I would suggest doing this, it's purely for theoretical discussion: how easily can an ECU be swapped? Over on the Durango forum people actually do this to use an unlocked ECU so they can flash a tune, but it also allows them to quickly swap back to the factory ECU that's 100% stock/untampered.
 

Cobra Jet

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Not that I would suggest doing this, it's purely for theoretical discussion: how easily can an ECU be swapped? Over on the Durango forum people actually do this to use an unlocked ECU so they can flash a tune, but it also allows them to quickly swap back to the factory ECU that's 100% stock/untampered.
Not sure about Dodge/Chrysler but on the modern Ford’s the VIN is embedded/coded into the PCM.
 

MaskedRacerX

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Not sure about Dodge/Chrysler but on the modern Ford’s the VIN is embedded/coded into the PCM.
I believe it's the same way with a modern Dodge ECU and they're just doing some kind of voodoo to flash the car's VIN on the unlocked version. One of the tuning kits has the option to supply an extra ECU, plus tune and you just swap it out.

Ford's system may be more sophisticated, and/or maybe there's some ECU data that's not accessible.
 

2JZFAN

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It all comes down to the people involved. I won't go in to detail but they can get anything covered that they want to.. Even if an engineer comes on to the property to inspect.

They don't owe you anything and there's no guarantees.. but it can be covered. Worse case scenario if it can't, you'll pay a little and they'll cover parts.. partial labor etc.. but everyone benefits from work being done.
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