What if I don't want a warranty?

[WanderingCanuck]

It probably seems unthinkable to most, but perhaps less so to some here.  The idea is that if I were to purchase a new or nearly new van and make modifications to the engine cooling and electrical systems, there are probably going to be some arguments when something fails and I'm trying to get it replaced under warranty.  I understand this from both sides, and I'm not about to make a warranty claim for something likely to be my own fault.  But I know that there are lots of different sorts of people and many who wouldn't know they messed up even when they did. It would be my word against theirs, and the pessimist in me already knows who's going to win.

So what if I'm willing to take on the risk myself and have the warranty voided up front?  There is undoubtedly a certain amount of a new vehicle's purchase price allocated to the average amount of warranty work expected, so it seems reasonable that there is a significant amount that should be credited back if I were to decline the entire (new) or remaining (used) warranty.  And yes, I know the warranty covers more than just the systems that I'd be modifying.  Engine and drive train problems are potentially very costly, but maybe a credit of the built-in warranty cost would be worth the risk.

Dreaming?  Probably.  Anyone ever heard of such a thing?

 

[tx2sturgis]

Vehicle manufacturers are 'on-the-hook' for certain warranty repairs whether you want those or not.

Safety and emission systems are a couple of the big ones.

I would choose to leave whatever warranties are included and then IF I want to modify something related to electrical, mechanical, body, or frame, etc, then the burden is on the manufacturer to prove I did something that caused a problem. 

For instance, if I cut a hole in the roof, that would not affect the transmission if it failed two days later. 

They would have a tough time proving that the two were related.

 

[John61CT]

Of course up to you.

But in that situation, I would prefer to start with a less expensive vehicle out of warranty.

Note with more modern - fuel efficient, less polluting - vehicles where lots of systems are controlled by the computer, fewer mods are even possible anymore.

Even changing tire size can radically modify the effectiveness of the transmission gearing.

Some vehicles warn you X times and then refuse to be driven any further, require a tow.

So make sure you know what you're doing.

 

[WanderingCanuck]

Most of the modifications I'd be interested in would be related to the body control module and would only be reading the status of vehicle parameters. But everything is interconnected, so if you have something connected on the CAN bus that isn't "approved" by the manufacturer, it's ripe for blame if anything else goes wrong.

That, and of course the electrical system. I had one sales person at a Ford dealership suggest that I'd need the factory battery isolation option to avoid warranty claim issues when tapping into the electrical system. He wasn't sure, but it does raise the concern and got me thinking about how valuable that warranty actually is for someone wanting to do a conversion themselves.