Actual warranty denials due to tuning.

[Bikeman315]

Youtubers do not count?

No

I'd like to know if any members have actually been denied warranty service or had their warranty cancelled due to simple tuning?

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[Louk]

No

Does first hand experience at a dealer and telling people that Ford will not warranty due to modifications/tune mean members??

I mean it wasn’t me it was being told to but I definitely said it to people and heard it said to others.
So yes I have had people told there engine work would not be warrantied due to a tune.

A dealer close to the one I worked at was so tight about modifications that someone had an axle back and the person said there was a rattle. Dealership just said you have an aftermarket exhaust if you want us to look at and it’s anything from headers back with any of the clips bolts hangars you are sol and need to pony up the cash.

 

[Tomster]

OK, so we have resurrected a year old thread that never received an answer. Unless someone chimes in with an actual warranty denial we should let it die again.

woman.driven
stangmode

 

[Bikeman315]

woman.driven
stangmode

Doris was one and done over a year ago. I see she is still on YT, but never came back to M6G. She probably never saw this post. That said she is definitely one.

Is Stangmode on here?

 

[TxGT350-52]

Doris was one and done over a year ago. I see she is still on YT, but never came back to M6G. She probably never saw this post. That said she is definitely one.

Is Stangmode on here?

I get it that some people think Youtubers are not real people, but what is the reason for wanting to know if someone on this forum was denied? It is "more" real if one of us says it? I could be a secret Youtuber and a person who posts on this forum. Will my story be credible?

It is a fact that Ford will deny claims for a tune whether you are a real person on this forum or a Youtuber with tens of thousands of followers. If you do not want to take the risk of getting an engine or transmission warranty claim denied, do not tune your car.

 

[Bikeman315]

I get it that some people think Youtubers are not real people, but what is the reason for wanting to know if someone on this forum was denied? It is "more" real if one of us says it? I could be a secret Youtuber and a person who posts on this forum. Will my story be credible?

It is a fact that Ford will deny claims for a tune whether you are a real person on this forum or a Youtuber with tens of thousands of followers. If you do not want to take the risk of getting an engine or transmission warranty claim denied, do not tune your car.

This has nothing to do with YT. A specific question was asked to the members on this forum. It was never answered. A year later it was resurrected and still no answer to the actual question asked.

The reason this irks me as there was another tune/warranty thread some time ago. We went through all the BS that this topic always brings out. But there was one member who raked many of us over the coals saying that there was never a verified account of a claim being denied because of a tune (it was not the OP).

So the question remains.......Has anyone on here personally had their warranty claim denied because of a tune?

 

[Tomster]

I thought this was a question of if you tune your car, will your warranty be voided.

Ninjack had his denied with a tune. He had to agree to pay for the teardown to prove the tune didn't cause the failure. He wound up not have to pay because the tune didn't cause the failure.

Edited to add:

If Ford finds a tune, or evidence it has been tuned, the reaction will be to void the warranty. Just like Ninjack, the burden of proof was on him to prove otherwise.

That, Jim, is an uphill battle.

 

[Shift]

I thought this was a question of if you tune your car, will your warranty be voided.

Ninjack had his denied with a tune. He had to agree to pay for the teardown to prove the tune didn't cause the failure. He wound up not have to pay because the tune didn't cause the failure.

Edited to add:

If Ford finds a tune, or evidence it has been tuned, the reaction will be to void the warranty. Just like Ninjack, the burden of proof was on him to prove otherwise.

That, Jim, is an uphill battle.

This is why I always chime in when people blindly state "but muh Magnusson-Moss act!" as if that's some secret saying that makes the dealer/Ford stand at attention, ready for orders like a drone.

You can claim Magnusson-Moss Act all you want, but if Ford gives a simple, logical reason why your ____ mod is the cause of failure, you'll be standing there dumbfounded, right next to your now very large paperweight.

 

[Tomster]

This is why I always chime in when people blindly state "but muh Magnusson-Moss act!" as if that's some secret saying that makes the dealer/Ford stand at attention, ready for orders like a drone.

You can claim Magnusson-Moss Act all you want, but if Ford gives a simple, logical reason why your ____ mod is the cause of failure, you'll be standing there dumbfounded, right next to your now very large paperweight.

Yes, all they have to do is assess the car and then determine the warranty is void. Now the burden is on you to prove otherwise. Most don't. They move along because it is an uphill battle.

Do people now understand my concern over the change in the last clause of the warranty for the '20 GT350 and GT500? All Ford has to do is say no and now the burden is on you.

In the warranty exclusion clause, the word is damage. Damage caused by track use. What is damage? Damage could be a verb, a noun, an adjective. I had a failure at the track which left my CVs damaged. By the strictest interpretation of the warranty, I shouldn't be covered. So it essentially is left to the discretion of Ford to warranty the affected parts or say no. Saying no would mean a legal battle.

Why anyone would tune their cars to gain a slight improvement is beyond me, especially when you are dealing with a 20K+ GT350 engine that isn't exactly bulletproof to begin with.

 

[Rubyred17]

woman.driven
stangmode

Think about the woman driven situation if you were Ford. I think she was pretty public about tuning it and if they would have honored the warranty that would have opened the door for every tuned car that experienced problems to be warrantied.

just looking from a different perspective. If you were an electrician and wired a house and warranted it would you honor the warranty of the owner added or modified circuits.

again, just thinking about this like Ford probably does

 

[JAJ]

...In the warranty exclusion clause, the word is damage. Damage caused by track use. What is damage? Damage could be a verb, a noun, an adjective...

Well put. Basically, warranties are provided to protect the new owner from manufacturing defects, like valve heads that detach after 200 miles of street driving. They're not there to ensure that Ford takes responsibility for alterations to the vehicle that the owner makes. It's simple, really.

 

[Tomster]

Think about the woman driven situation if you were Ford. I think she was pretty public about tuning it and if they would have honored the warranty that would have opened the door for every tuned car that experienced problems to be warrantied.

just looking from a different perspective. If you were an electrician and wired a house and warranted it would you honor the warranty of the owner added or modified circuits.

again, just thinking about this like Ford probably does

I remember that very well. She put a tune on her 350. She tried to cover it up and remove the tune and then brought it into the dealership to get it fixed under warranty. She also removed her decklid because it had a big ass wing on it. It was almost comical, bringing a car in for an engine warranty replacement with parts of the car missing that screamed "track car".

Its people like this that caused Ford to address the warranty issue. I honestly don't think Ford is trying to exclude legitimate warranty claims. Ford has changed the wording of their warranty to give them the discretion to turn down a claim when the evidence is such that the car was used in a manner that is against the terms of the warranty.

What I don't like about the way the warranty is now written, is that they can use that discretion against you. Will they? Who knows. But what Doris did was out and out fraudulent. She tuned her car and then tried to cover it up to get a 20K+ engine replaced. It is because of instances like this that Ford is taking a closer look.

 

[Frank.Herbst]

Easy answer, if you tune then plan on the warranty being denied. That way you know what the worst outcome could be on a warranty claim.

 

[Rubyred17]

I have read some of your threads on this subject and the only reason I can see they would do this is to plug actuary number differently. Considering almost everyone uses nonGAAP, the ability to shift cost can reduce the balance sheet float for warranty claims.

That said I don’t expect Ford to deny warranty claims for track use unless their balance sheet starts to look bad again and they need to start tightening the balance sheet screws the easy way.

Considering the massive databases that are being compiled pretty much everywhere now, I expect Ford could, subscribe to a database that complies tag numbers of cars that are at a track. That would be the simplest way to deny claims since they would also have proof.

As for the warranty on a tune - Ford could at any point change their stance on this subject. One bulletin to check ignition counts before any service work is performed is all it would take. Once a history of a tune has been confirmed it is permanent.

This all boils down to how much warranty cost Ford wants to roll off their balance sheet with workarounds.
https://fordauthority.com/2020/10/ford-needs-to-focus-on-curbing-warranty-costs-ceo-jim-farley-says/

never did I imagine that we would be discussing GAAP and financial statements on this thread (said by a CFO)

 

[JAJ]

never did I imagine that we would be discussing GAAP and financial statements on this thread (said by a CFO)

Time to switch to IFRS.

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