does installing a chip void the factory warranty? thanks for your help

 

No it does not. Your rights are protected under the Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act. Ford must prove that the mod you did caused the damage you are trying to get warranty service on. If they prove it they can only void the warranty on that specific item, not the rest of the truck.

www.sema.org

http://www.enjoythedrive.com/content/?id=8128

 

mx52 The correct ones to ask about factory warranty is your local ford dealer. We are told by Ford at my dealer not to even work on one that has a chip or programmer installed. Most (i dont know about all) chips set a code po605 which means ROM failure and indicates the computer needs to be replaced. Most of you know that hypertech tells you to remove your program before taking you truck to your dealer. They dont tell you that it also erases valid codes and leaves behind a p1000 (pass) I have seen warrntay denied on several trucks and no one has yet to challange it legally.

 

Yeah if you have a chip and one of you leaf springs starts to sqeek, they cant deny your warranty, because you have the chip on your truck, unless they can somehow prove that the leaf spring went bad because of your chip.

 

Yea beastie, I agree with you about that.

 

What a dealer will tell you will vary from one dealer to another. If you don't get satisfaction from one, go to another. You should remove your superchip before service because the computer codes can't be read with it installed and if they don't know you have a superdhip they will start changing things out and when they finally find out you have a superdhip they give you a bill. No fault of the chip, just ignorance of the fact that you had a chip. If a superchip causes your commputer to go bad, superchips will warranty their product.

 

question? why remove the chip if it has no effect on warranty?

 

Hi Guys

Something to think about....as this recently happened to me.

99 with a/t. "TCIL" light flashing. This is the o/d light. Erractic flashing. Driving in town. One trip..o/d flashing..next trip..no flash. This went on for about a week. I finally noticed a slight chg. in a/t shifting.

As mentioned many times on this site..i decided to remove my schip. before going to shop. NOW...for the fun part..remembering we live in the age of the almighty "PCM" computer.

Others probably already know this...it hit me right after i did the disconnect/remove chip...it erased the trb. code. That was verified by shop over phone. I told them i just had to chg. battery etc...guy said...gotta wait until the "tcil" starts flashing. Now, remember the almighty "PCM" is controlling the situation for the time being.

It took another 50+miles around town...for the "tcil" to start flashing. NO freeway driving..geez! OK...With non-Ford ext.warranty..was told to call this shop in town.....They couldnt read the a/t codes...only the OBDII DTCs, i talked to tech...no codes on his scanner.

OK...went to their authorized tranny shop. They had Ford specific programmed scanner to read the codes set when "tcil" flashing.
A code was set for bad solenoid. Did ask a few questions...but new solinoid fixed the shifting. They were satisfied it was ok..so i said ok..next day..yeah i know 600mi trip..no problems.

Point of all this..no error code set because i took chip out...when scan done on a/t..only code set was for a bad solenoid..nothing else. No OBDII codes set. If other codes were read, i was not told about it.

Oh....i know about the M/M act SEMA etc..This is just what i did to eliminate any hassle or confusion at shop. Now..not to say you cant go in chipped..i just didnt. With any after market parts i think its always been buyer BEWARE.

Point being...following specs..disconnect battery to remove chip..it will erase (ck engine light) OBDII set codes..and also
the a/t codes "tcil" o/d light flashing.

Question: Could you remove chip without battery disconnect? If so...then a set trb. code wouldn't get erased?

Sure was a bummer waiting for tcil to start flashing. I assume if i had break down/towed in..no trb. light flashing/tech. would be able to figure out whats wrong. I guess the computer does make life easier, but does it really?

Good luck...OT

BTW...not big repair but saved $250..with my ext. warranty.

 

danny owens-

Just to answer your question, The Superchip is a modification that tunes your vehicle, enabling your engine to utilize a higher octane gas. You remove the superchip prior to installation because the Techs at Ford will more than likey connect your truck to a diagnostic computer. You should always have your truck worked on at the original factory settings. That is exactly why the superchip can be removed by simply unplugging it.

In no-way can the Superchip void warrenty. Our family friend is a Family Ford dealership owner, and he even has a chip in his Supercrew, not to mention a FIPK and exhaust.


Mike T. is the guru of Superchips, not to mention one hell of a nice guy! I'm sure he will set any fears to rest.

Keep rollin!

 

This has been gone over here many, many times before, not just by us, but also be various industry pros, even a number of attorneys, etc., have dropped by to give their professional advice & interpretation, which has always been very clear: Thanks primarily to teh Magnuson-moss Warrant Acy, the only way a warranty claim can *legally* be denied over the use of any aftermarket part is if the automaker can prove the aftermarket part was the actual *cause* of a failure.

It doesn't matter what Mike says, or what a technician says, or what Ford, or GM or Volvo says, what matters is the *law*, and each individual owner has to stand up for their own rights, nobody can do that for them. Most have enough sense not to allow themselves to be bullied by those few dealerships who will as a matter of blanket policy deny warranty claims just because an aftermarket part is installed. That is *illegal*, and specifically, it's illegal under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, and that has in fact been challenged and won long ago, thise laws have been with us for years, it's not new. A good link to get to the heart of this is here:

www.sema.org/fedleg/warranty

That's a few years old, so if they've remapped the site & that doesn't take you there, just start out at www.sema.org
& drill your way down to warranty info. Also take a look at Norm's links (thanks Norm!)

Thanks in large part to the good folks at SEMA & elsewhere, there is proper *Federal* legislation in place that provides for recourse when any warranty claim has been unfairly denied, in addition to all the various state statutes & provisions on a local level. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act is enforced by the FTC (www.ftc.gov).

As to this issue of teh simply P0605 code..............

Again, this has been covered ehre literally countless times before, and setting a P0605 code happens exactly as it is supposed to anytime any performance chip is connected to the J3 connector of any EEC-IV or EEC-V PCM. Any technician worth their salt knows that a P0605 code with a chip present does *NOT* mean the PCM is faulty in any way, shape or form. Unless that P0605 code is *also* present with the performance chip removed, that P0605 code means nothing other than the circuit is operating properly. Some techs don't know how the J3 circuit actually works or even why it's there, as they don't do PCM repairs at the dealership level, and neither does Ford for that matter, they just slap a new board in the case & out it goes as a remanufactured unit. The J3 connector & circuit is a leftover remnant from the early EEC-IV design, as the EEC PCM's have always used a non-socketed eprom to store the factory program, thus there was no way to remove it or to change it's programming. So Ford designed in the J3 circuit as an external override data path to allow them to change software revisions & do various tuning/calibration changes that are always required in the R&D of any vehicle. Performance chips simply take advantage of that design, and use that circuit to deliver the performance program to the PCM.

Here's the beef: When you connect anything with the proper pinout to the J3 connector, the EEC PCM will turn off it's internal eprom (which causes the P0605 code) with it's factory instruction set & seek it's instructions externally, via the J3 connector. Once the performance chip has been removed, the PCM turns back on it's internal eprom & the P0605 code is gone. Very simple. All of that is fine, and in and of itself causes no problems with proper installation. The bottom line is, with any performance chip installed in any EEC-IV or EEC-V PCM, that P0605 code is *supposed* to be present.

It really gets down to a matter of just what kind of products are installed and how good those products are, along with the quality of installation and how knowledgeable the dealership service people are. Those who are honest & are looking out for both the consumer's rights and Ford's rights under warranty generally don't cause their customers problems by illegally denying warranty claims. There are a few who, motivated by the fact that they get paid far less to do work under warranty than if the customer has to pay out of pocket, will do anything in their power to deny any warranty claim, & they're usually pretty easy to spot and avoid.

In fairness to dealership service departments in general, automakers reimbursement rates under warranty are one of the single biggest problems in the industry affecting the customer in everything from proper troubleshooting & diagnosis to proper repair, and this drives both the consumer and the poor service people trying to do their jobs nuts. Nobody can work for nothing, yet you cannot unfaily penalize the customer. The best dealerships get the job done & take care of their customers properly, and keep them coming back to buy their next vehicle, and their next vehicle, and their daughter's college car, etc.

Know your rights under the law, use *quality* aftermarket parts, and maintain a good working relationship with your service department, as they're human too, and you generally won't have problems. Treat them right & you'll usually be treated right in return. There's another side to this coin, too, which is, don't unfairly expect the automaker to stand for modifications that do cause damage or that push components beyond their design limitations. Meaning, slap on a blower or nitrous oxide, & you can probably kiss your powertrain warranty goodbye.

Remember, dealerships don't determine the rights of vehicle owners, our politicians do, and have done so very well in this case, giving us the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.

To answer Danny more specifically, anytime you take your vehicle in for service we always recommend returning the PCM to stock trim whether the vehicle is still under warranty or not, simply because there are some PCM modifications that can sometimes interfere with diagnostics & troubleshooting, especially WDS. Us telling our customers to remove their Superchips prior to service has absolutely *nothing* to do with warranty considerations, as anyone who has been here any length of time knows, and as anyone who has ever purchased a Superchip from us knows. Anyone making that assumption is dead wrong.

In reality, we tell our customers to remove their Superchips prior to service for several reasons, none of which have anything to do with warranty. One of the reasons is because of things like a technician who doesn't know how the J3 circuit works in relation to any performance chip seeing a P0605 code with a chip present & then telling the customer there is something wrong with their PCM. In reality, there is almost never anything wrong with the PCM when a performance chip is installed and the P0605 code is present, which is easily verified by removing the performance chip & rescanning. It might surprise you just how many techs will not do that properly and go scare the customer into thinking they need a new PCM, when in fact nothing at all is wrong with the PCM. That is just one of several of our reasons why we say to remove any performance chip prior to service in our documentation, in case diagnostics need to be done, whether they are under warranty or not. Anyone who has read our documentation knows that we recommend this whether under warranty or not. It's a *service* issue, not a warranty issue, in other words, and we want to try to avoid having you technicians chasing non-existent problems, that isn't fair to you, so we also tell our customers that if they leave their Superchip in place, make sure to *tell* the technician of it's presence so you don't go thru extra unnecessary work.

Thanks to Danny & everyone else for their comments. This has all been hashed out many hundreds, if not literally thousands of times before here, so rather than reinvent the wheel for the 2768th time going over all of this yet again, I'd suggest using the excellent search feature here and read those threads. We've had countless attorneys, industry pros & others here over the years going over this up and down, who have all said the same thing: it all gets down to the law, and you have the right to install any aftermarket part you want on your vehicle and have your warranty remain intact **as long as what you do/install does not *damage* the vehicle**, and as long as you properly maintain the vehicle, of course.

Review the links that Norm has so kindly posted on this as well, as between those links and all the years of work that has already been done here, this has all been covered very, very thoroughly, all that info is right here for anyone that wants to check it all out.

Our bests to all,

 

Just my .02 on the issue.

The Magnusson-Moss act as it applies to vehicle warranty issues and in specific aftermarket performance parts was discussed in depth on a local community site. Several attorneys were involved in this discussion, along with a couple of vehicle owners who ended up getting their repairs done under warranty, but were facing problems initially.

The attorneys gave some very strong advice, to avoid entering in a case that you might lose. There basic advice was that if your tranny bites the dust, and they deny warranty wihout inspecting the internals, then keep pushing for warranty claim. If they have in fact inspected the transmission internals and continue to deny warranty service, then most likely they have legit cause.

With the cost of litigation being so high, a dealer has very little to gain by denying warranty service, other than the wage differential (more accurately potential income limits) as Mike pointed out above. That being said, the local attorneys stated that in the majority of cases they had seen or had knowledge of, the dealer would not go to court unless they had a strong case.

Based on that, their recommendation was to ensure that proper inspection was done to determine the cause of any failure, and if desired have it inspected by a third party professional opinion.

 

That's excellent input Signmaster (as usual, of course), its especially nice to see that from another group that included several attorneys, etc.

It's always nice to see legal interpretations and to have that knowledge & experience shared, as it's not often that the average vehicle owner really gets a chance to see what the legal profession thinks about this and to hear their experiences, etc.

Thanks for your post!

 

yea just make sure to buy a real tuner, I just got suckered in by voloperformance. I bought this junk off ebay thinking it was the real deal but it's just an iat sensor mod, caused my engine light to go off and said my iat sensor was out of range. ruined 2 of my O2 sensors and ended up costing me over 250.00 to fix, they have an f2 f3 its all snake oil, so do not buy a Volo fuel saver chip off ebay or their site - save your money and buy a real tuner, not this junk
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2006-Ford-F-150-OBD-Fuel-Gas-Saver-ECU-Chip-/220640219044?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Model%3AF-150&hash=item335f2e8fa4

 

Do you realize this thread died 11 years ago?

However, it's always worth the warning about those junk "chips".