Parker B. Olsen

So I'm wanting to do some bolt-ons to my denali and see if I can't open her up a little bit. What I'm looking at is an Airaid Intake, American Racing Headers and a Borla Touring Exhaust. I know a tune can do a lot, but I was thinking if I don't tune it, then if there was a warranty issue I could bolt-off and put the stock parts back on to bring it in for warranty. Could I do the rest of this without a tune? I know they can be a huge improvement, but I'm just on the fence with the warranty deal. Whats your experience with this and what have you guys done?

91LT16SpeedFormula

iTrader: (35)

You can bolt on stuff w/o voiding warranty, you are protected by the Magnuson Moss act for that part of it. When you do a tune it changes the calibration and makes it looks like it was flashed twice and will void warranty unless you have friends at the dealer

GR8TALK

This is starting to be more and more difficult. The friends in the dealership can help in some cases but not all. It just depends what you have done and what breaks. GM is requiring calibration data more and more. If you don't tune it you will most likely be safe. I am aware of cases where claims still get denied without tunes. This involved a hole in a piston on a G8. The resources we have to fact check stories is better than most think and engineering will call bs when the old parts get returned and dealers will get charged back the money. If you have a piston, connecting rod, or crankshaft issue it could get ugly. Most other failures are not watched over as strictly. This all said I properly voided my warranty with a turbo. 25k on a 15 and all is well. If you want to play you have to pay sometimes.

gonzo 6.2

iTrader: (8)

what year is the G8 story? last year of that car was 2008? and warrenty went 5 year? Im sure they are tougher now with much better data to denied

GR8TALK

I can't remember exactly when the G8 issue took place. It was under powertrain warranty or we would have never seen the car. I am a tech at a Chevrolet store but at that time I was working at a Buick GMC store that did have Pontiac prior to Pontiac being canceled by GM. This customer accidentally left the blower pulley on the crank. Everything else was put back to stock. The new controllers allow us to see calibration events which will not match up with GM calibration records. The other way I have seen claims get denied is with freeze frame failure records. I had a car that was melted down. It had melted things that was way past any normal failure. The freeze frame data indicated the CEL was on for over 4000ish miles which I could prove exceeded the limits of the recording capabilities of the freeze frame records. This code also triggered a engine over temp warning in the DIC. The diagnostic for this code had failed and passed multiple times. Ignition cycles exceeded 200 counts. In short the customer knew they had a coolant leak and admitted to adding coolant a few times a week. The last failure indicated the vehicle speed was over 85MPH and engine load was over 80% coolant temp was at 320ish. Obviously this is not a good idea if you have a know coolant leak. Once again the only reason this even became an issue was this was an extreme case. It just didn't make sense and looked like bs. I have another story about a Z06 too. Don't try to get brake pads replaced under warranty and post incar videos all over YouTube racing at the local road course. We hooked him up 1 time but figured it out when he brought it back 3000 miles later with 4mm left on the front again. You play you pay. That dude could drive but he paid for the brake pads.

GR8TALK

Well said. From a dealers stand point we just want to make people happy and get paid. Pissing customers off is not good for anyone but eating the cost of an engine or the rebuild of one is bad. Truth be told in some cases the technician is held accountable for charge backs to the dealer. Some dealerships have no problem releasing the customer from any fault and taking every dime right out of the technicians paycheck. Legal or illegal I have seen it happen.