Warranty Denied Tuning thread.

Does a 'tuning upgrade' void the warranty on a Gen 3?

 

They can tell if it's been flashed even if you go back to stock before taking it in for warranty repair. Odds are very high that in the event of engine transmission or smog system issue they will scan the computer.

 

Throwing a lot of codes with that tune box. I would be more interested in a supercharger addition to our Tundras.

 

Say what? You wanna take out the turbos and put a supercharger? Lol

 

This

 

Yea but again not needed lol slap some bigger turbos nice intercooler etc. keep it simple.

 

But they can't deny warranty coverage because...

 

Because:

 

If you tune the engine out of OEM specification and experience major/minor mechanical failures in the engine or drivetrain warranty should be denied. You choose to juice up your engine for a faster drag race from stop light to stop light, you need accept responsibility for actions. If the OEM's covered warranty claims for damaged attributed to tune's, that is a major cost that is passed onto to the other consumers who choose to either enjoy their vehicles as they were designed, or take ownership of the failures and go after market for correction. It really is fraud to tune your truck, blow the motor, remove the tune and try to pretend like you are a victim. I blew the motor on a BMW M5 Competition (cylinder catastrophic failure) with JB4 tune, and footed the bill for rebuilding everything because I caused this to happen.

Yes there are stupid warranty denials for things that can clearly not be attributed to some change a customer makes, but tuning the engine is a crap shoot. Especially early on in a new product life cycle where tuners are learning as they go as well. I know most on here will not agree with my point of view, and that is fine. But I'm trying to offer another perspective.

 

How hard is it to prove that your tune making an extra 100hp and 100 ft-lbs over stock might have damaged something on the truck?

 

I can tell you that, even after 12 or 13 years, there are still a lot of tuners on the Ecoboost platform that have no clue what they are doing and yet tune a lot of trucks. Hell, even the tuning software isn't always right. Me, as a person who only tunes in their free time, has found tables that were not mapped correctly in HPTuners.

 

I believe it, it's a reason I will never tune a Raptor or any ecoboost platform. First I don't think they are underpowered at all. Second, why compromise reliability and warranty for a .05 second faster 0-60 or something trivial like that? Third, I know Ford won't make it right even if it isn't tuned in a lot of cases, so why give them 100% deniability.

 

I do think the 2nd gen 3.5L is able to handle some more abuse(although the Raptor is turned up from the factory). The 1st gen 3.5 like I have is not IMHO, especially if you tow. I learned my lesson. After having my truck tuned for 70000 miles I will now only run it on the stock tune. The tuners are clueless and lift limiters out of the way that shouldnt be touched. EGT limiters, turbo speed limiters, etc. I had a tune where the company completely eliminated the turbo overspeed maps. Because I am at 6500', my truck was throwing underboost codes because the PCM was trying to make power like it was at sea level. At around 38 lbs/min the turbos would start to choke up and the PCM would try to close the wastegates to keep the boost up. I would be at 100% Wastegate duty cycle at 5000 rpm. Luckily Ford tuned the vacuum actuators to let the gates blow open in case of a failure and it worked perfectly and kept the turbos safe, but that wouldn't happen on the new electric gate trucks or the Tundra. Those electric actuators can keep the gates closed no matter what.

 

So the current JB4 tuning looks like it would not be detectable by the dealer. I'm no expert on passenger vehicles , but I can tell you I would have no idea if you did a removable tune like that, on a Mack , Cummins , Paccar, International ect. It may show codes for faulty sensor readings but that doesn't prove anything.

 

I would agree with this, but to @DFS point, your a butthole if you have a JB4 on your truck and then try to claim warranty on a driveline failure like you did nothing wrong. That kind of attitude is why we can't have nice things.

 

Yes, but some people are on leases or want the dealership to fix the cars for free if chit hits the fan.