Alarm/Auto Start voiding warranty?
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From: Chicago
Alarm/Auto Start voiding warranty?
I want to get an alarm/autostart for my car but I always wondered if installing on would void my warranty....I've ask a couple of my buddies and no one really knows...Might seem like a stupid question but I'd rather be safe than sorry
Old Fart
Joined: May 2004
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From: kelowna, bc, canada
Re: Alarm/Auto Start voiding warranty? (eskribble)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by eskribble »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I want to get an alarm/autostart for my car but I always wondered if installing on would void my warranty....I've ask a couple of my buddies and no one really knows...Might seem like a stupid question but I'd rather be safe than sorry</TD></TR></TABLE>There are no stupid questions, just stupid answers 
One question, do you mean warranty on the alarm/autostart or warranty on your car?
If you mean the alarm/autostart, most manufacturers give you a "lifetime" warranty if installed by an authorised dealer, or 1 year if not.
If you mean the car, no it does not, the cars manufacturer and dealer can't void any of the cars warranty unless they can show that what was done is causing or is the cause of a problem that would normally be covered by warranty, [and its on them to prove and show that it is, and not you to prove that it is not].
94
One question, do you mean warranty on the alarm/autostart or warranty on your car?
If you mean the alarm/autostart, most manufacturers give you a "lifetime" warranty if installed by an authorised dealer, or 1 year if not.
If you mean the car, no it does not, the cars manufacturer and dealer can't void any of the cars warranty unless they can show that what was done is causing or is the cause of a problem that would normally be covered by warranty, [and its on them to prove and show that it is, and not you to prove that it is not].
94 
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From: Beavertown, OR
Re: Alarm/Auto Start voiding warranty? (fcm)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by fcm »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
[and its on them to prove and show that it is, and not you to prove that it is not]. 94
</TD></TR></TABLE>
This is generally true, but all it takes is one idiot tech to go screaming to the service rep because he cant figure the problem out. Automatically it gets blamed on the equipent because the tech doesn't want to look incompetent.
Happened to me once my integra kept throwing evap leak codes. Tech tried to tell service it wasn't under warranty because he found electrical tape on the main wiring harness. There was nothing spliced or connected, but had the tape that surounds the wire loom to hold it together. Service rep called me said its not under warranty. I came down and quickly pointed out the entire harness had the tape he was referring to. It obviously was installed from the factory like that. In any event service is a pain in the *** when they dont know what they are doing. If they cant figure it out they look to blame anything other then there own skills to debug a problem.
You only recourse is to sue and that is something I would rather not have to deal with sold the car bought my NSX. I dont know if the new owner ever got that worked out under warranty. I hope so because it was a warranty item.
This was Ron Tonkin Acura have had nothing but bad experiences from that place. I stay far away and would recommend the same for anyone in my area.
[and its on them to prove and show that it is, and not you to prove that it is not].
94 </TD></TR></TABLE>
This is generally true, but all it takes is one idiot tech to go screaming to the service rep because he cant figure the problem out. Automatically it gets blamed on the equipent because the tech doesn't want to look incompetent.
Happened to me once my integra kept throwing evap leak codes. Tech tried to tell service it wasn't under warranty because he found electrical tape on the main wiring harness. There was nothing spliced or connected, but had the tape that surounds the wire loom to hold it together. Service rep called me said its not under warranty. I came down and quickly pointed out the entire harness had the tape he was referring to. It obviously was installed from the factory like that. In any event service is a pain in the *** when they dont know what they are doing. If they cant figure it out they look to blame anything other then there own skills to debug a problem.
You only recourse is to sue and that is something I would rather not have to deal with sold the car bought my NSX. I dont know if the new owner ever got that worked out under warranty. I hope so because it was a warranty item.
This was Ron Tonkin Acura have had nothing but bad experiences from that place. I stay far away and would recommend the same for anyone in my area.
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Thread Starter
Honda-Tech Member
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From: Chicago
yeah I meant the car....the reason I ask is because I hate when techs can't figure something out and just blame it on something that doesn't make em look bad...heard multiple stories on tons of stuff
Old Fart
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 26,173
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From: kelowna, bc, canada
Re: Alarm/Auto Start voiding warranty? (JSPECSIR)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JSPECSIR »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">magnuson-moss warranty act. google it.</TD></TR></TABLE> Ditto that.
we have the same up here, it's in our consumer protection act.
nsxxtreme is correct about dealers blaming everything on anything aftermarket installed in the car, although up here all I have to do, [and have done many times] is go to the dealer and ask them to show me how the install has anything to do with the problem the car is having, so far I am batting 100, the last one was a brand new Tiburon, [05] that I installed an alarm on, the park lights where intermittent, they would cut in and out going over bumps and got progressively worse over about 2 weeks.
Customer came and seen us, I checked it and could not find anything wrong, [lights always worked with the alarm] but where cutting out when I wiggled the plug into the fuse box that had the wire I tagged into for the park lights, told the customer the problem was in the fuse box and he would have to go back to the dealer, he did so, and they charged him $280 to look at it, tell them it was not a warranty problem, and it was because of the alarm install.
Needless to say the customer came back to us a little pissed as he had a bill for $280 and an estimate of $2900 for a new fuse box, $600 of that was labour to swap the box.
With the customer in the shop I pulled the fuse box, [.5 hr] opened it up found and repaired cold solder joint on pin for park light output plug, repaired it , reinstalled it in the car, customer was out of my shop in less then 1 hr and went back to the dealer, [to vent I assume] got a call from him saying he was at the dealer and they where telling him it couldn't be the fuse box because of the stringent QC the manufacturer had on its parts, and definitely could not be a cold solder joint because of the system that is used to solder to circuit boards, and under no circumstances where they going to give him his $280 back....
So I grabbed my Makita a ten mm socket and went to the dealer, found customer with service manager, he got their "electrical tech"to explain to me how there can be no cold solder joints in the fuse box, [his word was "impossible"] so I went out to the car pulled the fuse box, [only took about 15 min. brought it to the service counter, popped the lid and asked the "electrical tech" what he thought of the solder connections of the rest of the pins for that plug, pointing out the obvious solder repair I had done to the one pin, he found 2 more broken/cold solder connections.
I must say both him and the service manager put on their best "well I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it with my own eyes" faces booked the customers car in for a new fuse box, returned his $280, and got a bill from us for 2 hr. labour.
This was an extreme case as all I normally have to do is go to a dealer show them how and where connections are made, sometimes unplug the alarm/starter or whatever they were blaming and ask how the install of that aftermarket unit was causing the problem.
94
we have the same up here, it's in our consumer protection act.
nsxxtreme is correct about dealers blaming everything on anything aftermarket installed in the car, although up here all I have to do, [and have done many times] is go to the dealer and ask them to show me how the install has anything to do with the problem the car is having, so far I am batting 100, the last one was a brand new Tiburon, [05] that I installed an alarm on, the park lights where intermittent, they would cut in and out going over bumps and got progressively worse over about 2 weeks.
Customer came and seen us, I checked it and could not find anything wrong, [lights always worked with the alarm] but where cutting out when I wiggled the plug into the fuse box that had the wire I tagged into for the park lights, told the customer the problem was in the fuse box and he would have to go back to the dealer, he did so, and they charged him $280 to look at it, tell them it was not a warranty problem, and it was because of the alarm install.
Needless to say the customer came back to us a little pissed as he had a bill for $280 and an estimate of $2900 for a new fuse box, $600 of that was labour to swap the box.
With the customer in the shop I pulled the fuse box, [.5 hr] opened it up found and repaired cold solder joint on pin for park light output plug, repaired it , reinstalled it in the car, customer was out of my shop in less then 1 hr and went back to the dealer, [to vent I assume] got a call from him saying he was at the dealer and they where telling him it couldn't be the fuse box because of the stringent QC the manufacturer had on its parts, and definitely could not be a cold solder joint because of the system that is used to solder to circuit boards, and under no circumstances where they going to give him his $280 back....
So I grabbed my Makita a ten mm socket and went to the dealer, found customer with service manager, he got their "electrical tech"to explain to me how there can be no cold solder joints in the fuse box, [his word was "impossible"] so I went out to the car pulled the fuse box, [only took about 15 min. brought it to the service counter, popped the lid and asked the "electrical tech" what he thought of the solder connections of the rest of the pins for that plug, pointing out the obvious solder repair I had done to the one pin, he found 2 more broken/cold solder connections.
I must say both him and the service manager put on their best "well I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it with my own eyes" faces booked the customers car in for a new fuse box, returned his $280, and got a bill from us for 2 hr. labour.
This was an extreme case as all I normally have to do is go to a dealer show them how and where connections are made, sometimes unplug the alarm/starter or whatever they were blaming and ask how the install of that aftermarket unit was causing the problem.
94
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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 6,416
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From: Seattle
Re: Alarm/Auto Start voiding warranty? (suspendedHatch)
We had a somewhat similar scenario with an 05 nissan titan recently. Installers had to completely disconnect the alarm before the dealership would work on the truck. 
Old Fart
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 26,173
Likes: 18
From: kelowna, bc, canada
Re: Alarm/Auto Start voiding warranty? (suspendedHatch)
I would do as JSPECSIR mentioned... <TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JSPECSIR »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">magnuson-moss warranty act. google it.</TD></TR></TABLE> thats what I have had do sometimes, drop the consumers protection act, [relating to motor vehicles] booklet in front of the service manager and tell him the book mark is on the page that has the section about new car warranty, only a couple have looked. 94
94
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Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 7,072
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From: Connecticut
Re: Alarm/Auto Start voiding warranty? (fcm)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by fcm »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> Ditto that.
we have the same up here, it's in our consumer protection act.
nsxxtreme is correct about dealers blaming everything on anything aftermarket installed in the car, although up here all I have to do, [and have done many times] is go to the dealer and ask them to show me how the install has anything to do with the problem the car is having, so far I am batting 100, the last one was a brand new Tiburon, [05] that I installed an alarm on, the park lights where intermittent, they would cut in and out going over bumps and got progressively worse over about 2 weeks.
Customer came and seen us, I checked it and could not find anything wrong, [lights always worked with the alarm] but where cutting out when I wiggled the plug into the fuse box that had the wire I tagged into for the park lights, told the customer the problem was in the fuse box and he would have to go back to the dealer, he did so, and they charged him $280 to look at it, tell them it was not a warranty problem, and it was because of the alarm install.
Needless to say the customer came back to us a little pissed as he had a bill for $280 and an estimate of $2900 for a new fuse box, $600 of that was labour to swap the box.
With the customer in the shop I pulled the fuse box, [.5 hr] opened it up found and repaired cold solder joint on pin for park light output plug, repaired it , reinstalled it in the car, customer was out of my shop in less then 1 hr and went back to the dealer, [to vent I assume] got a call from him saying he was at the dealer and they where telling him it couldn't be the fuse box because of the stringent QC the manufacturer had on its parts, and definitely could not be a cold solder joint because of the system that is used to solder to circuit boards, and under no circumstances where they going to give him his $280 back....
So I grabbed my Makita a ten mm socket and went to the dealer, found customer with service manager, he got their "electrical tech"to explain to me how there can be no cold solder joints in the fuse box, [his word was "impossible"] so I went out to the car pulled the fuse box, [only took about 15 min. brought it to the service counter, popped the lid and asked the "electrical tech" what he thought of the solder connections of the rest of the pins for that plug, pointing out the obvious solder repair I had done to the one pin, he found 2 more broken/cold solder connections.
I must say both him and the service manager put on their best "well I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it with my own eyes" faces booked the customers car in for a new fuse box, returned his $280, and got a bill from us for 2 hr. labour.
This was an extreme case as all I normally have to do is go to a dealer show them how and where connections are made, sometimes unplug the alarm/starter or whatever they were blaming and ask how the install of that aftermarket unit was causing the problem. 94</TD></TR></TABLE>
Wow man thats awesome. I'm a former installer and that is great. I would love to have seen their face!
we have the same up here, it's in our consumer protection act.
nsxxtreme is correct about dealers blaming everything on anything aftermarket installed in the car, although up here all I have to do, [and have done many times] is go to the dealer and ask them to show me how the install has anything to do with the problem the car is having, so far I am batting 100, the last one was a brand new Tiburon, [05] that I installed an alarm on, the park lights where intermittent, they would cut in and out going over bumps and got progressively worse over about 2 weeks.
Customer came and seen us, I checked it and could not find anything wrong, [lights always worked with the alarm] but where cutting out when I wiggled the plug into the fuse box that had the wire I tagged into for the park lights, told the customer the problem was in the fuse box and he would have to go back to the dealer, he did so, and they charged him $280 to look at it, tell them it was not a warranty problem, and it was because of the alarm install.
Needless to say the customer came back to us a little pissed as he had a bill for $280 and an estimate of $2900 for a new fuse box, $600 of that was labour to swap the box.
With the customer in the shop I pulled the fuse box, [.5 hr] opened it up found and repaired cold solder joint on pin for park light output plug, repaired it , reinstalled it in the car, customer was out of my shop in less then 1 hr and went back to the dealer, [to vent I assume] got a call from him saying he was at the dealer and they where telling him it couldn't be the fuse box because of the stringent QC the manufacturer had on its parts, and definitely could not be a cold solder joint because of the system that is used to solder to circuit boards, and under no circumstances where they going to give him his $280 back....
So I grabbed my Makita a ten mm socket and went to the dealer, found customer with service manager, he got their "electrical tech"to explain to me how there can be no cold solder joints in the fuse box, [his word was "impossible"] so I went out to the car pulled the fuse box, [only took about 15 min. brought it to the service counter, popped the lid and asked the "electrical tech" what he thought of the solder connections of the rest of the pins for that plug, pointing out the obvious solder repair I had done to the one pin, he found 2 more broken/cold solder connections.
I must say both him and the service manager put on their best "well I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it with my own eyes" faces booked the customers car in for a new fuse box, returned his $280, and got a bill from us for 2 hr. labour.
This was an extreme case as all I normally have to do is go to a dealer show them how and where connections are made, sometimes unplug the alarm/starter or whatever they were blaming and ask how the install of that aftermarket unit was causing the problem. 94</TD></TR></TABLE>
Wow man thats awesome. I'm a former installer and that is great. I would love to have seen their face!
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