im really intrested in doing the grounding mod on my car next, but i am worried about the warrenty being void becuase of something like that. do any of you have any experience with this?


Thanks alot
~SGD

guess not.

~SGD

I have the DIY grounding mod and I'm taking my car in for warranty work for the tranny. Didn't say a thing about it. Shouldn't effect it at all. Unless it's something electrical that goes wrong, then they might blame that. hope this helps

thanks, im gunna ask the service guys for a official answer just to make sure.

~SGD

Stop this silly thread now!
There's no way a grounding mod is going to affect warranty coverage (unless you "ground" to the positive terminal of the battery or something equally stupid). Also, whatever the service guy says won't matter unless you get it in writing, and no one in their right mind at the dealer will give you something like that in writing.

If you are worried about it just improve on the stock grounding points. Don't think its really the wires themselves, probably just bad chassis mounting points.

just my opinion, anyways....

-anders

aov-yah, i agree. the strut top bolts are real good grounding points so i found out. :)

Originally posted by armand1
Stop this silly thread now!
There's no way a grounding mod is going to affect warranty coverage (unless you "ground" to the positive terminal of the battery or something equally stupid). Also, whatever the service guy says won't matter unless you get it in writing, and no one in their right mind at the dealer will give you something like that in writing.

wow, sorry mr highnmighty. :rolleyes: not all of are are as knowledgeable about warrenty coverage as you are oh mighty one. now drop the elitist additude and be nice.

Thanks for the other replies....they helped.

~SGD

just remove it when u take it in, takes 5 min. dont need the ristk

Sorry about the harshness SGD, but the real world is harsh at times.
I was trying to make two commonsense points that are often overlooked by newbie modders:
1) If you don't understand the theory behind a mod and what the mod does, you shouldn't be doing the mod. Anyone who understood what a grounding mod is would realize that it's about as likely to damage anything as would changing the paint color on the car.
2) Anything the dealer/"official" technician *tells* you (not in writing) will not in practice be binding upon them, unless you have a tape recording of it, or a bunch of credible witnesses that they said it. No dealer/technician in their right mind would tell you *in writing* that any mod that you do will not void the warranty, because they have no control over how you do it.

Conclusion: Because of (2) above, nobody can tell you with *authority* that any given mod will not cause warranty problems. Thus, you and only you can decide whether you want to risk your warranty by doing a specific mod. So (1), you'd better understand exactly what the mod does before you decide to do it.

Have fun with your mod! :D

Should be ok as long as the techs see black wiring and not red. You'd confuse them. :lol:

Subaru of America included the following notice in this month's newsletter it sends to all dealers' service departments:MODIFICATION TO VEHICLES

A modification is defined as ANY unauthorized component or alteration to the vehicle that is not designed or tested for manufacturer specification. This is included but not limited to air filters (such as K&N or anything other than OEM), aftermarket ECMs, oil filters and spark plugs.

If the vehicle has been modified and you feel the condition is caused by the modification, it is the customer's responsibility to return the vehicle to its original condition. Before the repair starts, please advise the customer to return the vehicle to manufacturer specifications. If the vehicle arrives and there are any signs of previous modification, it is imperative that you notify the technline support representative. If they do not know that the vehicle is or has been modified, their suggestion to repair the vehicle may lead you in the wrong direction (TIME IS MONEY). Failures caused by modifications to are not a matter for warranty.So if the service manager thinks whatever problem you have might be traceable to a poor or improper ground, then he can refuse to work on your car until you return it to stock. And then, when he's tracked down the actual problem and phones Techline for a warranty repair authorization, he'll tell the Techline support rep about your previous mods, who'll flag your service records with the information.

Originally posted by Jon [in CT]
Subaru of America included the following notice in this month's newsletter it sends to all dealers' service departments:So if the service manager thinks whatever problem you have might be traceable to a poor or improper ground, then he can refuse to work on your car until you return it to stock. And then, when he's tracked down the actual problem and phones Techline for a warranty repair authorization, he'll tell the Techline support rep about your previous mods, who'll flag your service records with the information.

Bingo! This should be tatooed on all the n00bs foreheads. :p

those are very helpful posts thanks alot.

i knwo what this mod does however im not positive as to what effects it can have other than performance. i guess i have not done enough homework yet. i dont plan on doing the mod for a while. so in the meantime im gunna research it more.

thanks again
~SGD

MODIFICATION TO VEHICLES

A modification is defined as ANY unauthorized component or alteration to the vehicle that is not designed or tested for manufacturer specification. This is included but not limited to air filters (such as K&N or anything other than OEM), aftermarket ECMs, oil filters and spark plugs.

If the vehicle has been modified and you feel the condition is caused by the modification, it is the customer's responsibility to return the vehicle to its original condition. Before the repair starts, please advise the customer to return the vehicle to manufacturer specifications. If the vehicle arrives and there are any signs of previous modification, it is imperative that you notify the technline support representative. If they do not know that the vehicle is or has been modified, their suggestion to repair the vehicle may lead you in the wrong direction (TIME IS MONEY). Failures caused by modifications to are not a matter for warranty.

I think we should all re-read this quote. I think we are conditioned by all the warranty-denial horror stories that we may not be reading this quote for what it is. This is a fairly consumer-friendly quote. What they are saying is that in order to do warranty work, they want the owner to, for example, replace a K&N filter with a Subaru filter before continuing with diagnosis. Note that this quote is not about denying warranty services! The implication is that the intent to diagnose is still there, only that there are ways to make diagnosis easier.

So to answer the original question, this quote would imply that yes, you should go ahead and do the grounding mod. But if you ever get a problem that might be remotely attributable to electrical problems, the dealer may ask you to undo the grounding mod before going ahead with any additional diagnosis work.

Unless SOA is providing free replacement air filters/cartridges, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975 prohibits vehicle mfgs and dealers from voiding your warranty for using aftermarket items like the K&N filters.

No, the M-M only applies to aftermarket items *that meet OEM specs*. There has been some good evidence that K&N filters let through more particulates than the OEM air filters, so they may not meet the OEM spec. I believe K&N has a warranty on the use of its filters, but you may end up having to rely on that instead of the Subaru warranty.

Originally posted by jnmarshall
Unless SOA is providing free replacement air filters/cartridges, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975 prohibits vehicle mfgs and dealers from voiding your warranty for using aftermarket items like the K&N filters.

Yes. I was pointing out, though, that the quote says NOTHING about voiding your warranty. Read it again!

The quote only says that for ease of diagnosis, it is best to return everything to OEM state. That's all! Presumably, you can put back that K&N filter after the diagnosis has been finished (and assuming that replacing the K&N filter with an OEM filter did nothing to aid the diagnosis).