I know you all are going to "rip me a new one" but don't you feel a little guilty about mods that you "hide" from Ford?

I bought my truck and the dealer had me sign a form that said if I mod the truck--no warrenty--period!

I'm no Saint but I like to think my word and a handshake still means something.

Let'r rip boys.


Bruce

 

I didn't sign a piece of paper that said that when I bought mine...but I haven't mod'd it yet either.

 

I didnt sign anything either. However, to your point.....

It all depends on the mod and the warranty work. If I run a tuner and blow a piston then that should be in my dime and Ford is smart enough to realize the real reason so there would be no point trying to hide it. Major engine damage is obvious.

If I run a tuner and my power windows quit working then yes I expect Ford to cover that because the tuner was not related in any way. However if I went in to the dealer with a tuner on the truck would they flag my VIN, void my warranty, and refuse any repairs at all? I could fight this because the tuner didnt cause the window but its a battle and I may have to spend a lot of time and money to win this.

So the real gray area is if I run a tuner and my EGR goes bad. Well they are going bad on 100% stock trucks so did the tuner cause the failure or not?? What if the radiator fails (very common) and the dealer says its because the tuner made the engine run hotter. There have been some fuel pump issues as well. Its possible the tuner caused these but then again stock trucks are having the same issues.

I dont run any mods other than what you see in my signature but I understand both sides of the equation. Ford says dont touch it PERIOD but if my 2 inch leveling kit voids my warranty on the transmission I would be hot under the collar. Ford can (and does) use a zero tolerance stance and ship me out the door. But anyone that knows anything about mechanics would blame a tranny failure due to a leveling kit.

the bottom line is that people need to be responsible for their actions. The reason Ford doesnt trust us and has become all about money instead of service is because too many people ran mods that caused failures and got them fixed under warranty. If people were responsible and warranty repairs werent abused then I think Ford would respond differently.

 

Just to support my previous post. I had a 6.0 with a lot of trouble. I had a set of Autometer gauges on the pillar but never ran a tuner. The fact that I had the gauges in the truck raised eyebrows and I even had a dealer away from home refuse to work on my truck because "if you have gauges you have a tuner too". My truck got bad enough that they called in the Ford engineers. They brought out their laptops because they were 100% convinced I ran a tuner since I had gauges. They searched and searched but found nothing. They wanted (and threatened) to void my warranty over a set of gauges.

Now I am responsible for my actions but if I ran a Banks (for example since that is the topic of the thread) and my power window broke I would probably remove the Banks before going to the dealer. Im not necessarily hiding it but since it has no bearing on the power window I would rather avoid the argument. But I am responsible so if I blew the engine I wouldnt expect Ford to pay for it. Not everyone feels that way though.

 

Very well put! I only only running the Banks air ram, that is approved because I have the stick that the EPA approved it but I would most likely take it off to avoid the argument.

 

We are responsible for our actions. Anyone with a 6.4 knows, or should know, mess with the engine, say good bye to the warranty. I really don't blame Ford as INT'l probably told them the same thing.

 

The Ford dealer I buy from operates a little differently.

I just purchased a 2009 Escape that they had to order--got to have all the bells and whistles

Anyway, I asked him if he wanted a deposit when I ordered the truck and he told me no, just make sure you bring a check when the truck shows up.

Truck showed up last week and they delivered it to the house (I was out of town); my wife gave them that check they were looking for. This dealership would do that for any customer. Some people will drive by a few Ford dealerships to take their cars to this dealership for service as well--wish there were more Ford dealers like this.

I didn't buy my F-250 from them (wish I had) but have not had a single problem with the truck since I purchased by in Dec 2007.

I use my Super Duty to pull a 30 foot Pace trailer loaded with car and tools. Truck runs great, more than enough power to get to the track. Besides, I need every penney I got to keep the car running

This is a great site by the way, I have learned a lot about my truck from some of the "wrench turners" on here.

Sorry for taking the thread off topic.

Bruce

 

YEP, it doesn't address the fact that if you tune, modifiy, change, and even if the dealer knows, both you and the dealer are SOL. I just heard another dealer, GMC here in the Macon, GA lost their franchise today with the GM cutbacks. More reason to not give a dealer the OPPORTUNITY to deny any warrany claim. We all know it. No reply necessary.

 

IM confused... I thought in order to install theese tuners you had to drill n tap the exhaust manifold for your probe to monitor your egts. Sooooooo,Wouldnt Ford look for that ? Is a probe/temp guage for egts a no- no according to Ford warranty AND unless im just wrong about the probe when you get tuners from spartan or sct How can there be claims that its invisible...even if you removed the probe and put a small temperory plug in the hole....Its a stretch.... Lastly with all the technology didnt someone come up with a way to monitor egts via the obd port? without the hassle of all the drilling and tapping?.....chuck

 

Not sure on the Spartan and SCT tuners.
But for the Banks, there is no probe for the exhaust.
There is no drilling or any permanent modifications required except to install the **** in the cab.

 

These trucks have 4 sensors in the exhaust (maybe only 3 but I think 4) that the PCM monitors for the regen purpose. These new tuners simply read the sensors already in the exhaust from the factory so there is no need to drill and tap anything unless you want to run a mechanical gauge, but really there is no need to.

 

As far as I know the only tuner that needs you to drill and tap a pyrometer is the SCT, and that may have changed since their initial tuners came out. The Spartan and Banks kits do not require you to drill anything. There are plenty of sensors already in palce that the information can be gathered from.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but the CARB sticker for Banks CAI is just for emission purposes. Ford Ok'in it is another story for warranty issues and can void it w/ the Banks CAI installed. Same holds true for Banks tuners and anything else they sell.

 

Well I don't think that Ford could deny the warranty, I don't know anyone who has put it to the test either.

Good question, time will tell.

 

Hey Astamp how are you liking the banks? Mine is on backorder, is it still worth the money?