My assumption has always been that if you use Superchips to flash your vehicle and then return it to the factory tune that your truck is back to 100% stock. The story here definitely sounds like that is not the case (i.e. the factory can tell it was tuned), although we have no way of knowing was type of product was used for tuning the truck.

Thoughts?

GM Voids Warranty On Used Truck, Blames It On Chip Owner Didn't Know Was Installed

Hit the link for the full story.

Rob

 

I've heard the diesels are a different ballgame these days. It's pretty easy to tell they've been tuned in the past. Not sure on the details, just what I came across somewhere....

 

This guy is in Canada, whole nuther ballgame up there.

But in the US, I see a couple of problems for GM.

1) If he has a written warranty, it must state what conditions must be broken to void the warranty. If they changed the stipulation after he purchased, he is grandfathered.

2) In a court of law, the burden of proof would be placed on the dealership and GM to prove it was altered AFTER the customer took possession of the vehicle from the dealership. Since GM can not tell when the PCM was altered, according to the article, they would not be able to satisfy the burden of proof.

3) In the United States you would be protected by the Magnuson/Moss Act which clearly states that the manufacturer MUST PROVE that a modification directly caused the malfunction in which warranty service is sought.


Also, Diesel tuners are a way different story than gasser tuners. Gains of over 100 HP & 100 lb/ft of Torque are common.

I do know for a fact that Furd released a service bulletin a couple of years ago that ANY modification resulting in a 1 HP or greater gain would void warranty on the 6.0 PowerJoke. Furd was being besieged by failures, most specifically an issue with the head gasket getting completely blown out following some genius' engineering decision to reduce the number of head bolts from 12 to 4!!!

To my knowledge, EVERYONE who has fought this legally has defeated Furd in court, but Ford (and I'm assuming GM with this policy) will continue to deny warranty claims with the knowledge that some people will just accept it without a fight...

 

I think this fellow here in Canada should take it to court from the looks of it he is just acceptiing it.

 

yes. diesels are a whole diff. ball game these days when it comes to tuning..... since their is generally much more power/tq gained etc. more stuff is possible to break. these days their is a lot more stuff in em to detect chips etc... from what i have heard.

 

Don't blame them at all for trying to detect chips or aftermarket computer hacks, but I feel bad for the guy if he really wasn't the one who did it.

 

this is one story where a lawsuit really is merited.

I dont know how things go in canada, but down here i would totally support a guy who decided to sue the car dealer over this.

hammer pointed out most of what i would bring up. This scares me out of buying used cars now

 

I know this guy got a raw deal and he should fight it. What I'm mainly interested in is whether there is a high likelihood of dealers detecting that Superchips was used to install a tune and then returned to stock in order to deny warranty claims? If that's the new modus operandi of dealer service centers then I guess anyone who used Superchips will be SOL.

Rob

 

Depends if the Ram does any logging of out of normal parameters. Do you think that they should not deny warranty claims that might be caused by running the engine out of spec?

 

if you put a chip in your warranty is highly likely to be void....come on you are changing how the engine performs and I even talked to the guy at superchips who told me that if they wanted to find the evidence they could but he felt most techs would never go that far...i would love the extra power but I bought this truck partly due to a LIFETIME warranty, stop kidding yourself, a chip will void the warranty if they want it to.