If a part meets or exceeds OEM specs your warranty can’t be voided. The whole part of MM act is that car companies can’t hold you hostage to their OEM parts if an aftermarket supplier is making them to the same specs cheaper. However things like Racechip yes if they cause a fault can be grounds for warranty denial for the affected parts.

If you added aftermarket brake pads and rotors, for example, that meet or exceed OEM specs and your ABS has a problem you are fine.

Moreover, if you install a Racechip, and you have a suspension failure, they can’t deny you warranty on that because it is an unrelated part not affected by the Racechip.

Some dealers are more “mod friendly” than others as well. Ask questions frequently.

 

If you make a mod and it screws something up, remove it and put the OEM part back on before taking it to the stealership for a warranty claim. Personally, my car has never seen the dealership since I drove it off the lot and it never will. I don't trust them. I trust me.

 

This.
ECU tunes are a no. Piggybacks are fine, as is any bolt on part you can remove. Just keep the factory part around to avoid issues.

 

I put aftermarket rotors and brakes on my GT. I don't expect Kia to fix any problems with my rotors or brake pads under warranty.

I installed a Takeda intake. I don't expect Kia to repair any part of my Takeda intake under warranty.

I installed an Evilla Exhaust. I don't expect Kia to fix any part of the cat-back exhaust under warranty.

If you use a piggyback system, blow the engine, and Kia discovers you used a piggyback system, they have every right to refuse warranty service. The piggyback increases cylinder pressures and Turbocharger boost levels - why should Kia have to honor a warranty in that case?

Fact is I have seen dealers repair/replace engines knowing the owner did modify their cars - and raced them (many of them due to nitrous oxide use). Just depends on the dealer.

All the modifications I have done the dealer knows about. I let them see the mods. They get a kick out of them because so few people mod Kias. I don't have the mods to race - I have them because I like to tinker on my car - it's my hobby. I would like to put my GT in car shows but I'm burned out on car shows - from going to so many car shows through the years.

 

I am going to talk to my local service department when I go in for my first service.
Does the car retain any record of the piggyback having been on the car? If you remove the piggyback before taking the car in, will they be able to tell it was on there?

 

No, it does not leave a presence once you remove it.

 

Brakes and suspension are considered wear items so you're in the green there and don't need to revert to stock.
Piggybacks are nice because they go between sensors to trick the computer into thinking everything is good when it's actually making more boost and power. If you take them off before going to the dealer, they have no way of knowing. With a traditional tune, there's usually traces of a tune being flashed onto the ECU, and they will deny warranty stuff because of it.

 

You are not protected under the moss act if your motor blows while running modifications that alter the dynamics of the engine, or engine related components. You are not protected under the moss act if your transmission blows while running modifications that alter dynamics of the engine or transmission performance.. I hate fools that scream MAGNUSSEN MOSS when their car is no longer covered under warranty due to their own risks they chose to take... if you can’t afford to fix your car don’t modify it....

 

heh in my opinion doing any sort of performance modification AND expecting the manufacturer to warranty engine/clutch/gearbox/whatever is pretty foolish. Sure you can plug in a Racechip or JB4 and remove it before it goes in for a service etc, but the warranty doesn't cover that. Also as someone who's studied metalurgy and mechanical engineering (and my father was a professor of both and regularly consulted with car companies on a variety of areas) if you do mechanically damage to an engine or gearbox, it's actually not that difficult to figure out why it happened (increased boost pressure, lean mixture, etc etc)

For example, the DCT in the forte is rated to around 250ft-lbs of input torque. The stock engine puts out around 195ft-lbs - that's a safety margin of 25% and it would be highly irregular for the DCT to have any sort of mechanical failure at those torque levels. However, plug in a Racechip or similar and run the car at one of the higher settings and your torque output from the engine will be over the level the gearbox is rated for. It's trivial for a metalurgist to look at a broken gearset and visually see why it failed.

I'm all for modifying cars and increasing performance and so on, but if you're going to do it then you do so at your own risk. And if a car isn't fast enough/has enough power it can be traded-in for something that does (an I30N or Veloster N, for example).

 

A simplified version if it went to court is if any “assumed risk” takes place on the alteration, modification, addition or removal of anything related or indirectly related to the failed, compromised or damaged component/components then all liability, responsibility, warranty or guarantee is void.