Does the viper alarm void any warranty if installed?

[thanhfrommd]

So I just picked up my black trd pro and plan on getting a viper alarm installed and HIDs for headlight and foglight. Just wondering if the viper alarm will void any kind of warranty that I should know of.

 

[AudiTech]

So I just picked up my black trd pro and plan on getting a viper alarm installed and HIDs for headlight and foglight. Just wondering if the viper alarm will void any kind of warranty that I should know of.

I'll answer this with a lot more info than you're really asking for and with a much broader explanation of warranty.

Will it flat out void your new car's warranty... absolutely not.

A "voided" warranty isn't necessarily black and white.

Technically when you bring a vehicle in for any complaint, no matter how new or how low the mileage is, the service adviser is supposed to have the customer authorize $X for diagnosis before a technician gets the vehicle. If the cause for the complaint is covered under warranty, than the manufacturer covers the expense and the customer never pays a dime. If it's not something that warranty will pay for (parking sensors inop because you hit something and damaged a sensor, check engine light because a rodents chewed wiring, mass air flow sensor is burnt out from an over oiled aftermarket filter, suspension vibration from mud or ice caked to the inner barrel of the wheels, etc, etc.) then the customer pays for the techs time via the diagnosis they authorized from the beginning.

In the real world it's very common for service writers not to get time authorized or a "warranty" vehicle because they are assuming the problem is a going to be a warranty repair based in nothing other than the vehicle is still within it's warranty period. When a vehicle has been modified or has non OEM accessories the probability of you being told you need to authorize time up front goes up exponentially.

Your warranty cannot be voided simply for adding things or modified the vehicle. If your modifications are the cause for an issue, or if they cause something to operate outside of it's designed specifications and that item fails, that will not be covered by your warranty. If you add HIDs and it overloads the headlight circuit and melts a harness or burns out a switch, that would not be covered by the warranty. If your installation is shoddy and it's causing electrical interference, or you ran a screw into a control module, those problems would not be covered by your warranty. If you add HID's and your rear diff blows up, those are completely unrelated and your diff would be covered by warranty.

Now the next thing to add is the often misconstrued Magnuson-Moss Act. People love to talk about the it like it's some golden ticket to modify cars. People love claiming the dealership has to "PROVE" your modifications caused the problem/failure. That is simply not true. The purpose of it is so manufacturers can't void a warranty for using aftermarket parts without proving it was the cause of failure. The confusion is with the term "aftermarket". It does not apply to modifications made to the vehicle, it applies to direct replacement and maintenance parts. If Toyota tries to tell you your warranty is void because you got your oil changed at Jiffy Lube instead of at a dealership, the Magnuson-Moss Act would protect the you against that and they would have to prove that the aftermarket oil change blew up your engine. If you modify their product to perform outside of it's original range they have zero obligation to "prove" that was the cause of the failure. It's as simple as "it wasn't designed for that." It still holds true they can't deny warranty coverage on something unrelated. If you have a chipped ECM and your radio craps out they still need to cover your radio under warranty. But when you modify it to add power the burden of proof is no longer on them because the engine and drivetrain wasn't designed to handle a higher loads and stresses than the factory stock XXXhp provides.

I know it's kind of a wall text with alot of info but hopefully that makes sense.

 

[Ducmonsta]

One other thing about dealers and factory warranties. Dealerships can choose to work on your modified vehicle or not. I'll use the common Ford 6.0l head gasket failure as an example. It's very well documented that the Ford 6.0l has head gasket and head bolt failure and was being covered under the factory Ford warranty. But if a dealership did not want to repair it because it had a 6" lift and 37" tires, they didn't have to based on the claim that they were not comfortable in dealing with the aftermarket wheels and tires. I've heard of dealerships that won't work on it because of height. It required the technician to work over the hood that was an additional 12" taller.

 

[thanhfrommd]

Thanks for clearing this up for me.

 

[Erkelbot]

All good points here....

Yep -- There's no absolute answer here. Some cars, particularly ones that are heavily modified under the hood, will leave an electronic paper trail that tells the dealer that they have no obligation to service it. Audi is a good example of this, where Audi flags your car as TD1 -- a car that has been modified from stock to generate more power. In this instance, they argue that the modifications made may have/have contributed to systems malfunctions and that they are therefore not liable for the damage or warranty work.

Your question is a bit different though... The short answer in my experience is no. That is, unless you are doing the work yourself. As long as the work is being performed by a trained technician who will back their work -- a specialist -- then you should be fine.

Additionally, I will note that not all warranty issues are equal. For instance, if you bring in the car for a parking brake malfunction they cannot really argue that your stereo caused the PB to stick. Or if you bring in the car for a knock, it'd be a tough argument to make that your alarm would have contributed to anything like that. It's all about root cause. If the work in question could be a contributing factor, they *could* argue they are not responsible. However, since you had a quality installation of the Viper done, you'd be fine...

 

[AudiTech]

All good points here....

Yep -- There's no absolute answer here. Some cars, particularly ones that are heavily modified under the hood, will leave an electronic paper trail that tells the dealer that they have no obligation to service it. Audi is a good example of this, where Audi flags your car as TD1 -- a car that has been modified from stock to generate more power. In this instance, they argue that the modifications made may have/have contributed to systems malfunctions and that they are therefore not liable for the damage or warranty work.

Your question is a bit different though... The short answer in my experience is no. That is, unless you are doing the work yourself. As long as the work is being performed by a trained technician who will back their work -- a specialist -- then you should be fine.

Additionally, I will note that not all warranty issues are equal. For instance, if you bring in the car for a parking brake malfunction they cannot really argue that your stereo caused the PB to stick. Or if you bring in the car for a knock, it'd be a tough argument to make that your alarm would have contributed to anything like that. It's all about root cause. If the work in question could be a contributing factor, they *could* argue they are not responsible. However, since you had a quality installation of the Viper done, you'd be fine...

It's funny that you brought that up, I was the one who initially broke the news to internet about the TD1 codes and it spread like crazy through the VW/Audi forums.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

Yes and No.

The Dealership/Manufacturer has to prove that the modification has resulted in the component failure to void a claim on that component under their warranty terms.

So it is possible if someone who didn't know what they were doing and tapped into the wrong wires, which resulted in modules being shorted and/or communication lines being damaged would result in those components most likely being voided.

But most of the time it usually just ends up being, "we want to remove the aftermarket stuff and see if it fixes it... yup its fixed, don't install the alarm again."

 

[Ducmonsta]

But most of the time it usually just ends up being, "we want to remove the aftermarket stuff and see if it fixes it... yup its fixed, don't install the alarm again."

And if this happens, you're still paying the dealership to diagnose and repair it, so you're still paying out of pocket.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

And if this happens, you're still paying the dealership to diagnose and repair it, so you're still paying out of pocket.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that... If warranty denies the claim and/or diagnostics show that an aftermarket item may be interfereing with proper function, they won't cover the diagnosis and the customer is liable for it.

and I gots to get paids for mah works yo! :loco:

 

[thanhfrommd]

Sounds like nothing major and I'll probably take the leap sometime next month as I just got it back from him so he could install hid for my headlights and foglight also factory match tint for my front windows.

 

[cmoore50]

I bought my used 11' LE in October, It came with a dual Python remote start and security system. The previous owner had it installed. The dealership pointed out that it was better than the Toyota OEM remote start. Python and Viper are the same company.