Can I Mod and Still Keep My Warranty Intact?
 

I have had a 2012 MR for about three weeks now, and I am very satisfied with the vehicle overall. My two major complaints are the interior and the acceleration. For the interior, I am trying to get bids from people in the DC area to redo the interior in a high quality suede (Alcantara). For the acceleration, it's definitely not that the EVO is a slouch, but I am just accustomed to something better. I know that the EVO's are well known to be easy to mod, however, I would like to keep my warranty intact. Any suggestions, as far as the most bang for my buck, while not seriously voiding my warranty? Thanks!

Really depends on the dealership... The shortanswer though is: Anything that you can easily remove before going to the dealer haha. Some dealers are ok with intakes and exhausts, though if you ever break something BIG, they will likely blame that.

I have an intercooler/intake/pipes/turbo back exhaust ( catless) and my dealer has warrantied stuff like a coolant leak and an oil leak ( though it was very obvious my mods didn't cause these issues) if I blew my motor then I would expect them to deny it.

Some dealers will really treat you like garbage if you're modded, some only care when it costs them money. If you are worried about it, I would maybe just stick to an intake and catback ( the catback has no bearing on the car other than sound, and the intake can be swapped to stock in like 20-30 min)

Edit: Seeing your other car, NONE of this is going to make the car comparable to a GTR. MAYBE if you had full bolt-ons and a tune it may START feeling like it haha ( though a tune will invariably void any warranty since just about every issue can be traced back to the ECU if they chose)

^ yep he said it well. Generally most dealerships don't say much with:

-- Intake
-- Upper and Lower IC Pipe
-- FMIC
-- CBE

The three first mods people usually get that put it over the line and cause denials are:
-- Tune
-- EBCS
-- TP

The tune has lots of threads on here you can search about, however the in-short answer is; The dealer won't be able to prove your tuned unless their tools are locked out from flashing the ECU, so if you have an AP in the installed mode, or EcuFlash that's set to lock the ECU, they'll know something's up. However if you have an AP and uninstall it before you go in, or an OpenSource flash that doesnt have anything locked out, they'll have to figure out if you're tuned with some social engineering and you making statements that you shouldn't. "My tuner said it's not my tune", I'm sure has unknowingly caused people to get denials. People get nervous when they see a huge repair bill.

There's the ethics if you are tuned and something blows too. Going in expecting warranty coverage after being tuned is poor in form.

Anyhow, enjoy the car, let us know how you compare it to your GTR :)

I had a ctsv and Evo and then traded my v for the gt-r. Dealerships won't be able to tell flash count such as the gt-r. Even minor bolt ons aren't going to make you "happy" with the mr. I got the fp green on stock exhaust with fmic upic and cai and am putting 380 whp because coming from my torque monster v, the stock mr/slightly modded mr really felt like a civic. The stock tranny is fine and is prob at the limit now but the car really feels like a "mini gtr" now.

If you have a GT-R why even bother modding anything else you have? Because thats only gonna make you yarn more to be inside your GT-R, or break the current driver car because you modding it to at least meet stock settings of the GT-R. Now mind you thats MO based off you saying that acceleration was one of your compliants, i can only guess it's because when you accelerate in the GT-R you now except nothing less in any other car you drive?

and for Mods, dealer here said.. Anyting after the "Cat" and before the "Maf" is completely fine.

Depends on the dealer ship, and this topic has been discussed at lengths. Check the stickies, there is an entire section in there about this.

drop in filter, CBE, and a Cobb AP, That way you can put the car back to stock when you need to instantly. Thats Safest route id say

the answer is no. next question!!!

in a nutshell... No, won't happen. Its hard getting something fixed under warranty on a stock car.

MBC will kill you...if you get a drop in filter/CBE and IVEYtune, for instance, dealership is too stupid to find out...at lest that was the case when I had one...

The Evo X does feel slow as hell stock IMO. Coming from an SRT-4 and MS3, the Evo X was very lackluster acceleration-wise. After the tune it was a monster. The dealership never gave me trouble after I got the tune (obviously I didn't tell them). With a tune alone you will gain 50 horsepower or so and it completely changes the feel of the car. But jesus christ dude, it's not gonna feel like that 2009 CTS-V you had until you add a ton of mods lol.

I'm sure in a race that stock X would still prove to be a monster among those 2 cars despite that lackluster start up..{thumbup}

A local guy had one of his cams break and he had intake, TBE, EBCS and tune.

The local dealer took care of him without hassles. So really, "it all depends on the dealership".

It's a multi part answer with technical, ethical and subjective elements:
- the answer is yes, to the extent that changes to the car don't affect the performance of parts under warranty. There are a number of laws you can review in addition to your warranty language itself. An air freshener is, for example, a mod for which you can rest easy knowing it won't affect the car's warranty
- the answer is no, to the extent that the changes do affect parts or related parts such that they are subject to increased wear or likelihood of failure. So, modifications to your motor that increase torque such that your clutch wears prematurely, or you put on an intake or tune that works the engine components harder, you void the warranty on those parts. Obviously, if you remove those parts after something breaks in a fraudulent attempt to pretend you haven''t voided the warranty you have a moral and (possibly) legal issue.
- the answer is maybe - in that the dealership can apply some discretion and subjectivity as to how they interpret an affect certain modifications may have had on parts or related parts. So, they might say your intake and cams had no affect on your rod failure, or they might say, of course, they did and thus choose or not to cover certain repairs.

There is only one true axiom you can rely upon in connection to your concerns over warranty coverage.

"You have to pay to play" and to expect anything else is foolish.

Oh I know, but the Evo X still flatlines at 4k RPMs stock. It doesn't feel fast, even if it's a fast car.