SCT x4 easily detectable by ford? Makes me think twice about tuning so early

[RustedAngel]

Hey r123070,

Modifications won't necessarily void your warranty. If a Ford part fails or is damaged by a modification you make to the vehicle, even using a Ford aftermarket part, you're responsible for the cost of that repair. We don't automatically void the warranty on your MyFord Touch screen for a mod to the exhaust though.

If you have any questions in the future, please feel free to send me a PM.

Rachel

For everyone's reference...

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[SVTFreak]

For everyone's reference...

Yep!

Good luck proving that piston failed for some reason other than the tune that was installed though. Magnuson moss or not, it still comes down to pay to play and will you have the bank to fight ford of they decide not to cover it.

 

[dgc333]

That won't matter - Ford Rep on this very forum stated that it doesn't matter if it was released through Ford, it's considered an aftermarket part and as such, if it causes a failure, the failure is the responsibility of the owner to cover damaged caused by their addition of Aftermarket parts.

The only upside is that Ford tunes are going to be very slight and as such, much less likely to cause a failure.

When you purchase a tune through Ford Racing and have it installed by a Ford Racing Authorized installer Ford Racing covers any failure caused by the tune for 3/36. It's all in black and white on the Ford Racing Web page.

 

[RustedAngel]

When you purchase a tune through Ford Racing and have it installed by a Ford Racing Authorized installer Ford Racing covers any failure caused by the tune for 3/36. It's all in black and white on the Ford Racing Web page.

This has been beaten to death - and it actually states it in the Limited Warranty from FRPP, but the service rep quoted above nailed it down again. It's an aftermarket part - and anything aftermarket can cause a warranty denial and good luck to you fighting your way out of that denial.

The warranty is worded vaguely on purpose, and the choice is yours to take - but Ford does not consider their FRPP line, nor dealer work to install it, as OEM, and as such, places you in the responsible party to pay for failures they deem to have caused it.

It's right there.

 

[likeaboss]

Exactly why I'm waiting for the Ford Racing tune before I make any decisions.

 

[Blk2015GT]

Sigh, AGAIN Ford Racing is aftermarket parts. It states so right in their own warranty policy.

FRPP warranty REPLACES your factory warranty on that part of the car. It does not mean bring the car to the dealership with say a loss of compression, and the dealership can attribute that to the tune, and they will fix your engine under factory warranty. You will be SOL. FRRP will have to replace the tuner/tune but that's about it. FRRP is warrantying its parts and not the OEM Ford parts. They are not one and the same entity.

Same for a supercharger. If part of the supercharger breaks you are covered under the FRRP warranty. Blown piston/catastrophic engine failure/etc? You are SOL. The FRRP warranty covers failure of ITS part under a limited warranty. Nowhere in the FRRP documentation does it state it does not disrupt for factory warranty or make Ford liabile for failures caused by its parts to the car's systems. All that exists is what is in the documentation; that is the full agreement and terms and no other exist or can be assumed.

It is up to your dealership at that point, no matter whose tune you are running. Obviously if a window motor stops working that's covered under warranty. But the dealership can certainly deny warranty work on the engine even after a FRRP tune.

 

[Budwise]

The Ford Tuner always voids your factory powertrain warranty and substitutes in the FRPP 3 year 36K one. So you still loose 20K miles in warranty.

 

[VTECSAUCE]

It makes me hesitant to pickup a tune and intake after checking into the Focus ST world. My friend had a common problem where cylinder 1 piston lost ALL compression @ 40k miles after running a mild street tune for only a year. cylinder 1 was making 5 psi of compression after we tested it this weekend.

he is VERY scared of ford denying the warranty claim due to having a tune. apparently it is quite easy for them to detect a tune and they have an entire blown engine thread on the forum, with a majority people getting their claims denied due to being tuned, despite taking the sct x4 off putting the car back to stock before taking it in.

in my 135i and mazdaspeed3 it was very easy to just flash the cobb back to stock, or remove the piggyback tune, and there was 0% chance of your tune getting detected afterwards.

what do you guys think? are there safer tuning options to look at for our car?

HA! I know somebody who did the same thing to his Focus ST his motor blew twice, somehow covered by Ford the first time (I think he got lucky with that particular dealer). Second time Ford caught him and voided the warranty @ 19k miles. I just paid $40k for my car, I can wait for the warranty is up before doing any drastic modding. But like everyone else said, any reflash to the ECU will be detected.

 

[MagneticMan]

It makes me hesitant to pickup a tune and intake after checking into the Focus ST world. My friend had a common problem where cylinder 1 piston lost ALL compression @ 40k miles after running a mild street tune for only a year. cylinder 1 was making 5 psi of compression after we tested it this weekend.

he is VERY scared of ford denying the warranty claim due to having a tune. apparently it is quite easy for them to detect a tune and they have an entire blown engine thread on the forum, with a majority people getting their claims denied due to being tuned, despite taking the sct x4 off putting the car back to stock before taking it in.

in my 135i and mazdaspeed3 it was very easy to just flash the cobb back to stock, or remove the piggyback tune, and there was 0% chance of your tune getting detected afterwards.

what do you guys think? are there safer tuning options to look at for our car?

why would you do a tune, have the tune blow the engine, then blame and try to collect from Ford for the tuner's fault. It's fraud.

 

[Blitz]

Pay to play...

if you cant afford to fix it dont mod it:cheers:

 

[stoli]

why would you do a tune, have the tune blow the engine, then blame and try to collect from Ford for the tuner's fault. It's fraud.

I never have understood this mentality in the car world. I don't think there is any other segment of retail products where people feel entitled to use and abuse a product out of spec and then feel entitled to free repairs.

Back when overclocking of cpu's in desktop computers was popular, no one ever expected Intel or AMD to reimburse you when you fried the cpu. (Over)Tuning an engine is no different...we do it by choice and should expect to foot the bill if it goes wrong.

 

[foghat]

why would you do a tune, have the tune blow the engine, then blame and try to collect from Ford for the tuner's fault. It's fraud.

I never have understood this mentality in the car world. I don't think there is any other segment of retail products where people feel entitled to use and abuse a product out of spec and then feel entitled to free repairs.

Not saying it is right, but you really can't understand why someone would do this?

As an aside, just because an engine that has a tune on it goes bang, does not necessarily mean the tune was the cause. Talk to all the sti guys about the #4 ringland.

Back when overclocking of cpu's in desktop computers was popular, no one ever expected Intel or AMD to reimburse you when you fried the cpu. (Over)Tuning an engine is no different...we do it by choice and should expect to foot the bill if it goes wrong.

I'm sure there were some who set the jumpers back to 'stock' settings and tried to get a replacement cpu. Not to mention there is pretty big price difference between a cpu and an engine.

Again, not claiming it is okay, but you can't really be surprised that people are trying to get blown engines replaced on the manufacturer's dime. In fact if I were a betting man, I'd bet the majority of people would try just this.

 

[stoli]

I never said I was surprised; what does surprise me is how pissed people get when they are denied for something they knew would not be covered.

 

[foghat]

I never said I was surprised; what does surprise me is how pissed people get when they are denied for something they knew would not be covered.

By saying 'surprised', I was replying to your 'not understanding the mentality' comment.

Of course it can run both ways - tuned engines can blow/have issues through no fault of the tune; and the manufacturer could quite likely deny the warranty claim because of the tune even in cases where they have seen the same problem on non-tuned engines.

Either way, I hear you what you are saying.

Whether the tune caused the problem or not, with a tune you take a risk of having engine warranty claims being denied.

 

[Monster_Load]

Has anyone on this forum actually had any damage done to their engine by a SCT tune? I hear a lot of "I know a guy" claims, but really I'd like to hear first hand accounts. Broken piston rods, damaged heads, etc...

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