Spacers Void Warranty?

[Road Warrior]

Does anyone know of any cases where the installation of spacers (to level a 4th gen) resulted in a voided warranty?
Thanks!

 

[Ohio4R]

Possibly you should probably check with your dealer though.

 

[sharp4runr]

Do a search for Magnusson Moss Act

 

[cmar]

it will void you warranty. Its up to you if you want to take the chance or not. I would, more than likley nothing will go wrong during your standard warranty, but if you bought the 100k warranty, i might think twice.

 

[Even Steven]

it will void you warranty. Its up to you if you want to take the chance or not. I would, more than likley nothing will go wrong during your standard warranty, but if you bought the 100k warranty, i might think twice.

This is 100% wrong. Please don't spread false information.

 

[sharp4runr]

Well, it's wrong and it's right. It will void your warranty, but the Toyota dealership will have to prove the addition of the spacer caused a component to fail. They can't say that since you added the lift spacer, your A/C failed. So adding any component does not affect the overall warranty on your vehicle. This is covered in the Magnusson Moss Act if you want to read up on it.

 

[Road Warrior]

Thanks to some on this site, I'm down with the "ACT". My question (I re-read it to make sure I wasn't too confusing) was asking about experiences of others, not to debate the verbage or interpretation of the law. thanks-

 

[cmar]

This is 100% wrong. Please don't spread false information.

Unless you have 100% proof that im wrong don't accuse me of being so. On previous cars ive owned this has been the case, so that is what my info was based on. (By the way i was meaning the warranty on the suspension)

 

[Even Steven]

Unless you have 100% proof that im wrong don't accuse me of being so. On previous cars ive owned this has been the case, so that is what my info was based on. (By the way i was meaning the warranty on the suspension)

I do have 100% proof that YOUR STATEMENT was wrong. You said "it will void your warranty" which is a false statement. The addition of spacers WILL NOT void any part of your warranty, unless the spacers CAUSE a warranty part to need replacement. In other words, the dealership has to determine (and substantiate) that the spacers caused another component to fail. And even then, the warranty will NOT be voided, only the affected component, at most.

In no way will anyone's warranty be voided by installing spacers. At the very most, maybe the shocks/struts will not be covered under warranty, but that's only if the spacers cause them to fail, which is also highly unlikely.

I hate to see people crying that the sky is falling when it comes to modifying our 4Runners. The fact of the matter is that leveling spacers are very unlikely to cause any problems with the 4Runner and even more unlikely to cause any warranty concerns.

BTW, I worked at a Toyota dealer as a tech, and we had no problems doing warranty work on 4Runners with modifications, including mild lifts.

 

[cmar]

you said "BTW, I worked at a Toyota dealer as a tech" so you were one of those people that 3/4 of this website B.I.T.C.H about, why should we take anything you say for granted.

 

[Even Steven]

Yeah, you're right... don't listen to anything that I say..... what could I possibly know more than the average Joe who never worked as a tech at a Toyota dealership.:bash:

 

[ProMed]

No matter what opinions you read on here, this is not truly a black or white issue. Some dealers will bend over backwards for you, others will not help you for basic problems until they are forced. It is obviously all just going to depend on your dealership. You can read stories on here all day of people getting the squeeze out of their warranty work.

You can be sure that there are dealers out there that are looking for any reason (valid or not) to send you away as quickly as possible. You may be right in the big scheme, but it could cost you a lot of pointless phone calls and/or letter writing to get resolution.

Hopefuly you have one of the reasonable dealers!

 

[Even Steven]

There's no doubt that a dealership can give you a hard time....but my point is that we should all know our rights and how to deal with a dealership that isn't following warranty law.

If we just keep walking away without standing up for our rights, then they win and we ALL lose. I hate to think this is an "us versus them" type of situation, but that seems to be pretty accurate, mostly because of all the people who were not informed and did not stand up for their rights.

 

[boston_kevin]

Since the responsibility is on the dealership to prove (or disprove) that the spacers caused the failure (if one were to occur), who would be initially responsible for footing the bill? They could state that the spacers caused the failure, and make you pay the bill. Then if you were to challenge it and win, they would only have to pay you back, but I would think that might also involve an attorney...

 

[Even Steven]

Since the responsibility is on the dealership to prove (or disprove) that the spacers caused the failure (if one were to occur), who would be initially responsible for footing the bill? They could state that the spacers caused the failure, and make you pay the bill. Then if you were to challenge it and win, they would only have to pay you back, but I would think that might also involve an attorney...

The dealership can deny you warranty coverage if they feel it is within their rights to do so. Then it is up to you, as a customer, to contact Toyota if you feel that their denial is unfounded. Worse case scenario is that you will end up in arbitration. If you read your contract, you'll see that these matters must be settled by an arbitrator....not in court ever.

But the dealer will not normally deny warranty coverage unless they are sure that they will win arbitration...otherwise it's just a huge waste of their time and money. Think about it..... they could easily replace the affected part under warranty and everyone would be happy. It's common sense....

 

[ProMed]

But the dealer will not normally deny warranty coverage unless they are sure that they will win arbitration...otherwise it's just a huge waste of their time and money. Think about it..... they could easily replace the affected part under warranty and everyone would be happy. It's common sense....

I understand you worked at a dealership, but personally I do not feel this is entirely true. I agree that they wouldn't allow their denial to make it to arbitration if they were not confident in their case. However, as we have all read on this board many times over, the dealerships will often finally do the warranty work after a regional representative is called in and/or seemingly endless complaining and letter writing/phone calls. There are always many hoops to jump through before the arbitration process is even started.

Your statement is entirely true for a honest service department. However, this is all to often not the case and they know that most people will either just complain a little then drop it or take the car to another dealership who will do the work. Almost every time I have taken my truck in for warranty work it has been at least somewhat of a hassle but eventually I was able to get them to do the work because I came in prepared... and I consider them a pretty good service department!

The bottom line is if you have a spacer or other type of lift installed (I have OME) be prepared and willing to deal with this extra hassle and factor it into your decision.

 

[Even Steven]

I understand you worked at a dealership, but personally I do not feel this is entirely true. I agree that they wouldn't allow their denial to make it to arbitration if they were not confident in their case. However, as we have all read on this board many times over, the dealerships will often finally do the warranty work after a regional representative is called in and/or seemingly endless complaining and letter writing/phone calls. There are always many hoops to jump through before the arbitration process is even started.

Your statement is entirely true for a honest service department. However, this is all to often not the case and they know that most people will either just complain a little then drop it or take the car to another dealership who will do the work. Almost every time I have taken my truck in for warranty work it has been at least somewhat of a hassle but eventually I was able to get them to do the work because I came in prepared... and I consider them a pretty good service department!

The bottom line is if you have a spacer or other type of lift installed (I have OME) be prepared and willing to deal with this extra hassle and factor it into your decision.

You have to keep in mind that a Toyota dealership really has no incentive to deny warranty work. Put simply, it's not money out of "their" pockets.....they get paid either way. They do stand to lose business if the customer walks out the door....and even more business if they alienate their customers and cause them not to return. My dealership would never deny warranty work for anything as trivial as a spacer lift. Now if a highly modified Supra came in with a blown engine, well, that's an entirely different matter. But a spacer lift? Come on..... it's just not a big deal.

I think the hype of this whole thing has been blown waaaaaay out of proportion. It's funny that I don't see many people posting that they installed spacers and were denied warranty coverage at their local Toyota dealership. Threads on the forum usually deal with "what if" scenarios, instead of past experiences. Believe me when I say that many lightly modified Toyotas came through our shop over the years and hardly any of them ever even raised an eyebrow when it came to warranty coverage.

 

[ProMed]

You have to keep in mind that a Toyota dealership really has no incentive to deny warranty work. Put simply, it's not money out of "their" pockets.....they get paid either way.

It is pretty obvious that many dealerships often have only a little incentive to actually accept warranty work as well. If the techs can bring in more money performing non-warranty work then that should be plenty of incentive right there to trim the warranty jobs. Especially when the techs are already slammed and there are paying customers waiting.

 

[Even Steven]

It is pretty obvious that many dealerships often have only a little incentive to actually accept warranty work as well. If the techs can bring in more money performing non-warranty work then that should be plenty of incentive right there to trim the warranty jobs. Especially when the techs are already slammed and there are paying customers waiting.

Good theory, but you obviously have no idea how a dealership service department works. The techs don't get paid more money for non-warranty work; their rate of pay is consistent regardless of warranty or non-warranty work.

Think about it....if the opposite were true, then only the senior techs would get non-warranty work and the newer guys would get stuck working on the newer cars still under warranty:bash:

It was a good theory though!

 

[ProMed]

Good theory, but you obviously have no idea how a dealership service department works. The techs don't get paid more money for non-warranty work; their rate of pay is consistent regardless of warranty or non-warranty work.

Think about it....if the opposite were true, then only the senior techs would get non-warranty work and the newer guys would get stuck working on the newer cars still under warranty:bash:

It was a good theory though!

Who said anything about what the techs get paid? I said the dealerships make less money on warranty work, not the techs. This is a well known fact, not a theory. Since they are paying the techs the same regardless of warranty/non-warranty, then this is plenty of incentive for the dealership management to give the non-warranty work priority.