possible warranty issues

AZSpeed said:
**** the dealerships.

Werd.

See how mod friendly your dealer is. Talk to a few service departments in your area and see how they feel about the mods.

Some won't say anything about even major mods, but others will pinch-a-b**** if you swap in an air filter.

Personally, I'm gonna keep it mild for a while... probably an intake and see how long I can resist the temptation to mod.
 
I still can't believe all of the people who aren't using the search button to look up warranty information. I feel like I'm beating a dead horse.

First thing about warranty information....did you sign an arbitration agreement?? If so, then you're ******. Don't mod.

If not, then they have to prove the mod caused damage. They cannot deny WORK to your vehicle, but they can deny a warranty claim.

Here's the final thought on ALL warranty issues. If they can **** you, they will. If you can't afford to repair it yourself, DONT MOD IT.
 
boostisgood can you tell me who sued mazda and who from sema did it.. i may need some help in my case as well.

Also can you point me in the direction to find out where mazda was sued by sema? I havent heard abou that but i am not all that involved with sema if you know what i mean.

Who is sema really? Arent they just an advocacy group fighting for our rights to mod cars without penalty? The have no legal jusidiction and I find it hard to believe that mazda will take them seriously.

I love what sema is trying to do and has done all ready but that consumer's bill of rights stuff is just a statement made by sema not a legal document. It wont fly in court.

Now the mangson-moss act is a legal document and is helpful.

This is just what i feel. Please enlighten me if i am misdirected in my approach to the issue.

Thanks
-B
 
the comsumer bill of rights is a more detailed and "car-guy friendly" way of explaining the magnason-moss act. It goes into detail about the fact we can do waht we want to our cars and they must prove it was our fault.

We are still innocent until proven guilty.
 
Regardless of SEMA or Magnason-moss act all mods will void your warranty unless you are willing to get a lawyer, spend countless hours of effort and money trying to get a modified car warrantied. They could care less about your rights as a consumer and there goal is to void the warranty as quickly as possible. I just got done hearing from my dealer that gauges void your warranty. Unless I felt like getting a lawyer over this crap I'm pretty much stuck doing the work myself or using an outside mechanic. Magnason-moss act may come in to play but not until you decide to fight in court and hire a lawyer. So good luck getting things fixed under warranty with most dealers as they could give two s**** about your rights or concerns as a customer.
 
thanks for adding in your $.02. It's nice to see someone else has tried to take this on head-first and hit the same walls I did. My dealer gave me the same crap about adding a boost gauge voiding my warranty!! what crap. just go to an independent garage or fix it yourself. It sucks, but that's what you get for beleiving that a warranty meant anything.
 
well mazda said my warranty was denied for three reasons.

1.) improper maintenance of the car

2.) Misuse of the car

3.) Modification of the car

They said i didnt ever change my oil, funny because i have records showing they did it twice.

They say i misused the car by the tread on my tires or lack there of they said. I guess they dont know when your driveway is gravel and you stop more abruptly than most your tire tread can decrease more rapidly as well.

They said i modified my car. I had a hole cut in the engine bay near the drivers side fender area lower to release hot engine air into the atmosphere as well as introduce cooler air into the engine to keep it running cool. I also cut a hole in the slash shield underneath to get cool flowing air comming into that hole. I had two holes drilled in my front part of my engine bay on the frame where i made a custom bracket to hold the radiator in lplace since it was shaking. The bracket dint work as i planned so i didnt use it any more. I had holes in my a pillar where i kept a notepad toy write down peoples phone numbers on the go but it was tacky so i removed it.

Upon these pieces of modification they are attempting to deny warranty work to my car. it is complete bogus crap and they know it too.

We faxed them the reciepts of mazda dealers oil changes on last thursaday but they have yet to get back to us. (probably because they know it was a problem with the car.)

Anyways mazda says they try to protect themselves by putting consumers through this, really what they are attempting to do is protect thier pocket book.
 
505zoom said:
The last 2 times I went to the dealer, I was given no hassle about warranty work for any of my mods. I have since installed my SSQV, but my dealer knew that I had a ongoing boost leak and that I was going to change it.

Striker- You should inquire to your dealer about their reasoning in this matter. The original setup used hardpipes, and I can't see any reason why a larger IC or a set of hardpipes would void the powertrain warranty.

BlkZoomZoom- What sort of problems may arise from making the car breathe better with a larger exhaust, and providing colder air for the engine via larger IC+CAI??? I don't see what a dealership could prove in court to justify voiding the entire warranty. I mean, say I had a problem with the turbo not getting oil, for whatever reason. You're telling me, that your service manager would claim that one of my mods caused this, without a doubt???





Nothing is set in stone....different situations cause different results..

Just so you guys know All manuf. deal with mods in the same basic way.....for ex. I worked on a '03 VW GTI today.... Check engine light was on.....It had a code for a rich a/f condition, I traced it down to the MAF sensor being bad, The car had a K&N filter on it, Since it had an aftermarket airfilter I couldn't warrenty the MAF therefore the cust. had to pay for it..by the way the GTI only had 650miles on it.
 
I'm telling you, we as consumers need to somehow rebel and demand that the warrenty on a new car be an OPTION -- if you want it you pay and extra $X for it. That would allow the people that realize the warrenty is complete BS to not bother wasting our money on it. The way it is now you pay for a warranty and get nothing in return - it's worse than insurance!!
 
my friend's dad works for acura. all he does is inspect cars with large warranty claims, IE blown motors, destroyed trannies etc

one day he had to look at a GSR with a bad motor. he took off the stock plastic intake, wiped his finger on the TB butterfly and found water. turns out the owner hydrolocked his motor with a CAI, but had taken off the CAI before towing it to the dealer.

i'm sure mazda has "special claims" mechanics too.
 
mx3ownzj00 said:
my friend's dad works for acura. all he does is inspect cars with large warranty claims, IE blown motors, destroyed trannies etc

one day he had to look at a GSR with a bad motor. he took off the stock plastic intake, wiped his finger on the TB butterfly and found water. turns out the owner hydrolocked his motor with a CAI, but had taken off the CAI before towing it to the dealer.

i'm sure mazda has "special claims" mechanics too.

Mazda usually sends the Rep. around on iffy cars.
 
hey blkzoomzoom if you found a bunch of metal shavings in the oil pan of a car complaining of a knocking sound when starting and between 2500-4500 rpms what would you think the deal is? Do you think the rod bearings were shot? I had a previous oil problem with my oil being low earlier on in the life of my car but mazda once again denied the warranty work since they said "i had mods."

I think my oil problem caused my bearing to spin and now my rod is knocking. If mazda would have fessed up and fixed it to begin with i dont hink i would be having this problem.


I think the oil pump was bad on the car and my bearings spun as a result. haha mazda tried to blame it on me not maintaining the car. They changed the oil both times and the car has less than 9K miles on it. What a crock of crap.

So what do you think? Do you think that a lack of oil could have spun the rod bearing? Also have you heard of anything like an oil pump going bad so early on in the life of a car?

Any input is appreciated.
 
they didnt even send a rep out to look at my car i believe. All they did was take pictures of my exhaust and tires and holes and email them to the rep and the rep said no.

I am fed up with this crap. Turbo matty P had the same problem. I rep was walking under his car to look at the engine but he saw that he had removed the resonator and said "OP nooooo warranty!"

As we all know Matty's motor threw a rod and the rep didnt even look at the engine before determining whether to fix the motor or not.

Why offer your customers a warranty if you do not intend to honor it? OH i know why, because it helps you sell more cars....

s***, i mean the dealership even gives people with no mods the run around, so it isnt only those with "mods" that get it from the dealer.

Ok i am done ranting.:D
 
Everyone denied warranty work needs to pool their funds and hire a super lawyer -- like Johnny Cochran or something.
 
azian6er- That theory sounds pretty sound to me.... To tell you the truth I asked a couple of older tech's they told me they couldnt remember the last time any Mazda came in with real motor problems(I've never dealt with any).

I'll tell you this if I wasn't a tech I wouldn't have bought a new car just because of the warrenty. I was told by my S.M. if I blew up the MSP he wouldnt warrenty it......I hope he was kidding though.

Oh by the way I got the info. you wanted about the difference in MSP motors.....actually they make a book with every difference between a MSP and a unleaded protege. Very Sweet,
 
as for the K&N filter and ruined MAF. I would've sprayed some brake parts cleaner on the hotwire and cleaned all of the excess oil off it. Re-installed it and I bet it would've fired up! I can't recall how many bad running cars I fixed by throwing the stupid K&N filter. People don't know how much to oil those things and the excess gets sucked through and coats the hotwire. Once that happens it's going to create all sorts of problems.


OWNED
 
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