I just got my new Mini Cooper S last week and I've looking carefully for accesories and modifications to the engine, alta has been the best choice so far and I was just wondering if you put any of the alta mods such as the air intake, the unichip or just anything to the engine, will it void the car's warranty immediatly or what happens??? can you just place the stock parts whenever you take it to the dealer and they will not find out?? any opinion or experience in this is appreciated, thanks a lot guys.

 

A question that's come up quite a bit lately in a couple other threads:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=123143

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=123232

Bottom line answer in all questions legal... "it depends".

As stated elsewhere... a dealership cannot blanket "void" your total warranty due to the mere addition of aftermarket parts and products.

BUT... If you have somthing go wrong... and the dealership wants to point to somthing you've added and suggest that it contributed or caused the problem... you're going to be looking at a service bill or a legal fight on your hands proving otherwise.

Some dealers have been pretty mod-friendly.

Others... not so much.

Mine is fine with bolt on parts (intake, exhaust, suspension parts). Any engine management stuff (ECU) other that JCW or Dinan (Dinan only for the 1st gen, obviously) are historicly a "no-go".

So what has your dealer said? Have you told them what you're thinking of doing and asked for any recommendations? They'll be your first point of contact if anything goes wrong. Might be nice to know what their general position is ahead of time.

Then again, you get what you pay for... and this is free advice, so take it for what its worth.

 

Very good advice msh441!

I have been putting off modding my car, mostly to allow more options into the market. Your advice at the very least has motivated me to call my dealership and hear their stance on the situation.

Thanks!

 

good answer msh441!

 

Well talking to the guy that is the mini rep on my dealer (also a bmw dealer) and the only one in Puerto Rico that gives service, he told me that an intake was fine, also asked about exhaust and he told me even the downpipe could be changed if it had a cat. He had a special likeing to Alta parts. Also aked about other stuff suspension will void bushings and other related parts, gauges he told me depending on how clean the install is and took note specially on the wiring. But as others had mentions it all depends on the specific dealer and what goes wrong at that time...

 

Good replies all! If I can answer any specific concerns PLEASE let me know! Thanks again for the interest in ALTA Performance!

 

Thanks a lot guys that helped a lot, first thing im gonna do is call my dealer and asked them about alta, I hope they are allright with it haha thanks again your answers helped a loooot!

 

If you are really worried about warranty (and you should be), then go with Dinan. figure out how long you plan on keeping your car. If you want piece of mind, go with products that will not void warranty. Not to deminish Alta, I have their pulley and CAI and like them very much. Dinan was not avialable at the time and I kept calling Steve and he did not have an update. If I could do it over, i would go with Dinan or get a GP. No matter what the dealer tells you, they will try to find a way not to cover something under warranty.

my $.02

-Michael

 

Sadly... no Dinan products or tuning availible for the R56 just yet. No hints of any to come, either .

Also, in fairness... it might be wise to see if a mod can change the thread name to "Aftermarket tuning / Voids warranty or not ????" I don't think the question or replies are necessarily limited specificlly to Alta. Opinions provided would probably apply towards ALL aftermarket tuners/vendors. I would hate to think it was percieved that way, either. Just a thought.

 

Good point MSH441

Last time I spoke to Dinan they were not that far from R56 mods. Maybe Ill cal them and find out. My brother wants a 56 and that would be a deal breaker for him.

 

Does anyone know if the dealer records what mods you have installed if you have your vehicle serviced?

like, if I brought my car in with a bunch of aftermarket stuff on it to fix a stereo problem (obviously not related to engine bolt on parts), do they record the parts on file so if I DO have a problem in the future, they'll claim that I had parts on the car at a previous point.

 

not sure about mini, I don't think they do. Subaru is notorious for this and denying warranty claims, they're a bunch of dicks. It all depends on your dealer I guess..

 

I asked my dealer today about the alta intake and exhaust and he told me that it's fine as long as I keep the stock stuff and if anything happens to the engine that I should just change it back to the stock parts and everything should be allright and I don't think anything will happen to my engine for 50,000 miles sooo I ordered the intake today

 

I thought about it... worried about it... hesitated...

THEN I DID IT AND I LIKED IT.

and oops... I did it again!

then my 16 year old sister did it...

 

I totally know how it is. I'm not gonna be stupid and say 'screw the warranty' or something along those lines, but these mods are just too much fun and quite addictive! I still haven't fathomed the courage to pull the trigger on the ECU tune (not yet available yet for the auto anyway, so I have time ) but honestly for the bolt-on parts one can only worry so much...

But your 16 year old sister has a MINI? Perhaps I missed something.

 

That you missed the joke is a good thing. It means you're not paying any attention to the hollywood media buzz.

I can't imagine how bolt-ons would void the warranty unless something went terribly wrong with the aftermarket part and causes damage to OEM equipment.

Alta warranties their product, so should anything go wrong that relates to their mods, you would go to them first. The currently available R56 mods are all very harmless. The day will come when major powertrain components are available aftermarket and that will be a different story, but for now, don't stress... and if you do, you can always pay extra for JCW and still get a great ride.

 

When I had my 03 MCS, I had my entire warranty "voided" - by Mini, not the Dealer.

Before the OP starts following a bunch of speculation and bad advice - here's the bottom line:

Regardless of Federal Law, the manufacturer will void your warranty. That doesn't mean they legally can, it means that they will.

I had an extremely cooperative dealer that had no issue with my mods until MiniUSA informed them that they would no longer reimburse them for any warranty work performed on my car - regardless of whether it was linked to the mods or not.

Let me repeat this again - please do not tell people it's on a dealer to dealer basis because that is recklessly bad advice - period. The local PUMA reps will nail dealers who perform warranty repairs on modded cars - it is Mini USA policy.

I attempted a lawsuit under the Magnussen-Moss Act and was advised by a retired federal judge and my lawyers that the track record for these types of suits do not favor the consumer. In fact, I dare any of you to do a search and find one instance where someone was successful pursuing this course of action. Remember that next time someone glibly states that your are protected under Federal Law - that law favors the manufacturer. Don't believe it? The Vendors are telling you you're safe? Well, find out the hard way............I sure did.

If you are worried about your warranty - do not mod or race the car. I was tagged on both counts. If you must mod - go JCW.

Lastly, Dinan parts are not warrantied by Mini - they are warrantied by independent Dealers and Dinan. MiniUSA can opt to not reimburse the dealer for repairs done to your car if it is noted that Dinan parts are found.

In other words, let's say Mini of Bum-Butt has an agreement with Dinan - you then move to Alaska where the Mini dealer there has no such agreement and the nearest Dinan service center is in California. Where's your coverage now?

The bottom line is this - Dealers do not warranty cars - the manufacturer does. Mini, as a manufacturer, is very intolerant of modded cars, raced cars, etc. In fact, there was an old TSB floating around with the Gen 1 mini basically advising dealerships to report modded cars to their local PUMA reps.

Anyway, here's a link to the thread outlining what I tried to do and where it ended up:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...highlight=PUMA

 

Wow, that definitely makes me think. Especially when it comes to non bolt-on mods - ie piggback ECU which I'm highly considering.

So what was the end result? Dropped the suit and what happened to your MINI???

 

I ended up fixing the harness myself and selling it.

 

Well that was an awfully scary read... particularly (IMO) the issue of racing/tracking/autocrossing potentially voiding the warranty as well.

My dealer (in conjunction with the loacal MINI club) pushes a "vehicle dynamics workshop" on all new and existing owners. Somtimes includes it with the purchase if there's one in the cominig 1 or 2 months. It's disturbing to think that could throw a wrench into things for some ill-informed owners out there.

Hmmmm... (sorry if that's a little bit of an off-topic observation).

 

Buy the alta ecu when the pnp harness is done. Remove when at dealer.
There you go, no more bad mod.

 

Damn, I won't even ask you how much that ended up costing you... Truly sucks! So even after getting it running without a problem you preferred not to keep it???

Well that is my tentative plan, but has anyone gotten a definitive answer on whether the ECU logs boost levels, timing, etc. for more than just very short periods of time? Because if not you risk the dealer clearly seeing that you messed with the ECU in some way, even if the unit itself is not present.

Not to mention this guy who is facing potential warranty issues just from installing ALTA bolt-on parts (boost tubes and turbo inlet hose).

 

Same. Apparently most vendors are running into serious problems 'breaking' the factory ECU thus far. That said, I think we should be seeing a couple solutions in the not too distant future. One can only hope, at least...

 

The engine harness itself was relatively cheap - maybe less than $300.00. The problem is that it takes about 8 hours to install it. At dealer rates, that's a $1,200.00 fix. I bought the part and did the labor myself.

At that point I was so ticked of at Mini that I sold the car. I was having a bunch of smaller issues that were typical of the early R53s and just could not reconcile that at 8K miles, I would have to fight for every repair.

 

Well, alot of the dealers here were taking part in track days when the Mini first came out. MiniUSA's official stance is that if the car is used in a motorsports event, your VIN can be flagged........

Both Subaru and Mitsubishi were famous (infamous?) for sending their regional service reps to auto-crosses, HDPEs and other track events and writing down VINs for later warranty denials. I found out that my VIN had been flagged for motorsport activities by Mini - which leads me to believe that they do the same exact thing.