Wooohah

Anyone here ever actually have to do a drivetrain (or related) warranty claim with a car that has an ECU remap/ tuned engine?
I'm really wanting to do the Softronic remap for my 2022 model, but not having warranty support if an issue occurs is a worry for me.

I talked with service manager today at Porsche Bellevue where I bought my car.
He said ECU remaps would likely void the warranty and its not up to the individual dealer to decide but rather Porsche NA.
Went as far as saying it might void the warranty on non drivetrain components as well. Said an upgraded air intake affects warranty too (any modification to the engine).

He said with some ECU remaps it could cause problems with reading error codes with check engine lights and if that happens they wouldn't be able to service the car or cover whatever was wrong.

He said that every time it comes in for service that requires diagnostics to be plugged into the car, the diagonistics logs are automatically uploaded to Porsche and periodically they may review it.

He mentioned whether or not they honor a warranty claim is partially up to the dealer, but Porsche NA does come and audit them every once and a while. If they find they honored the warranty on a car with a modified engine, they may retroactively remove funding.

So I'm a bit worried with that. Theres another Porsche dealer about an hour south of me that I'm planning on asking the same question to, but I have a feeling the answer will be the same. So I'm looking for personal experience anyone has with warranty claims on modified Porsches, doesn't have to be a Macan.

jbx2

Sounds like the guy you talked to has a tune. I'm not going all Moss Magnusson, but the ECU tune has nothing to do with quite a bit of other equipment on the car. Also I've been on forums for year and have yet to see an actual case of someone blowing an engine due to a tune. I'm running a Cobb 91 tune in our 2018 2.0 Macan without issues.

Wooohah

I think you're right on both accounts. Guy said he was from the independent side and was very familiar with mods. He had a look on his face immediately when I started asking about a tune.

ECU tune definitely has nothing to do with a lot of stuff, but the guy was talking like an ECU tune would put practically everything that required a diagnostic plugin for to be in jeopardy.

I don't think a simple stage 1 tune is going to cause the engine to explode either. But I'm honestly just wondering about warranty claims in general now with an ECU tune (minus things like lights and windshield wipers of course). The guy was making it sound like they may not service any kind of warning message or check engine light with an ECU tuned vehicle.

Magnuson Moss warranty act protects us legally as consumers, but... if they deny warranty coverage, its going to have to go to court. A lot of the times, legal fees may end up costing more than just paying for it out of pocket.

By the way, how long have you been running that Cobb tune?

signde

Magnuson Moss act is great in theory, however in reality it doesn't do you any good unless you want to take <insert big auto manufacturer here> to court. Good luck with that.

I have had an ECU tune on all 6 VAG vehicles I have owned in the past decade. I am very aware of the pay to play model when doing so.

Audi denied a warranty claim on a leaking water pump on my RS3 because my car had a tune. If you go on the Audizine RS3 forum, there is a thread a million miles long on the water pump as it is poor product and prone to leaking. It is the most high failure item on the car, including a great number of bone stock cars. Yet Audi HQ, who authorizes the repairs because they ultimately pay the dealership for the work, demands a scan before any drivetrain warranty claims and if found it is deny, deny, deny.

If you really care about warranty, one option to consider is APR Plus. Yes it costs more than the base tune but it is offered to cover this exact scenario. It will match the factory warranty and cover anything drive train related the OEM denies due to the tune. I fortunately went with this option on my RS3, and when Audi denied, APR picked up the repairs no questions asked.

Wooohah

Yep... and that is unfortunately pretty sad since that water pump is completely unrelated to your ECU tune. APR Plus is on the top of my list right now. They don't list compatibility with the Macan 2.0 Base (2022), only up to 2020. However I'm emailing them to see if they can reprogram it if I send it in to them rather than get it done through the OBD port (Like Softronic does with 2022 models).
Doubling the cost is fine since I was originally going to go with Softronic (which costs the same as the APR+).

Out of the six VAG vehicles you've tuned over the past decade, did you ever run into any major drivetrain issues or any problems that were likely directly, or semi-related to an ECU remap? Did you do milder stage 1 tunes? Or did you do more aggressive tunes? I'm honestly fine with paying out of pocket for smaller stuff, I'm only worried about the (unlikely) event where I need a new transmission or new engine. To my understanding, even with APR+, the coverage is only up to $10,000. So if I need a new engine, it won't cover it entirely.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Nickshu

If you are worried, don't tune it. Just get a pedal commander and call it a day.

This topic has been discussed SO many times, search and you will see 1000 opinions.

VAGfan

Or, do a piggyback tune module, which can be easily removed, when bringing the vehicle in for service.
I have a Burger Motorsports JB1 on my 2.0.

signde

I've had different levels of tunes but never something as aggressive as stage 3 with an upgraded turbo. I was doing Stage 2+ before APR dropped their stage 2 program. Have never had a drive train issue over 100k+ miles now. YMMV, but stage 1 is generally considered a safe zone.

Where did you see APR Plus is limited to $10k? I read the terms and conditions multiple times over before I purchased it, I don't recall ever seeing that as it would have given me pause. I purchased 4 years ago though, perhaps things have changed.

That's a shame they don't have your model year listed. It's likely because they haven't had a test car to develop a tune for your ECU's box code, since I assume the changes from 2020 to 2022 should be minimal in regards to the ECU.

Wooohah

Key words, 1000 opinions. I'm not going off of speculation or guessing, I'm very specifically asking for firsthand experience like in the case of @signde.

Playing it safe would be not getting the tune and calling it a day with my pedal commander. But I dont want to leave noticeable performance increases on the table if the realistic consequences are negligible.

jhbrennan

So what happens with a denial of warranty coverage? Is there a form or a process that needs to be followed. Dealer is just going to deny and then I guess the car owner bears the responsibility to contest claiming violation of M/M Act - is that right? Seems like dealer is in charge and all he is going to do is nothing other than deny coverage.

DBH

It's a dealer-by-dealer thing. Some are more conservative than others. For instance, my local dealer strongly recommended not getting a tune until after the warranty expires. However, they were more than willing to install headers, sport cats and a high flow air filter on my 911 as they felt these wouldn't lead to warranty claim issues. Go figure...

OBTW, the manufacturer can deny a warranty claim for almost any reason. If you want to fight it, it's up to you to prove them wrong.

Wooohah

You're right, I re read the entire contract, nothing about 10k. Someone had mentioned that somewhere, I must've mis-remembered or misread

Wooohah

Wow your dealer would install a high flow air filter? According to my dealer a high flow air filter voids engine warranty 🤣

No clue how increasing airflow to an engine can damage it, but it seems like my local dealer is extra strict. Theyre owned by autonation, so im assuming smaller dealers owned by individuals are a little more lenient than a large corporation

VAGfan

A freer flowing airfilter lets more dirt into the engine.....

itsyaboypg

It depends on the dealer, some are mod friendly and other aren't. The SA at the dealer I ordered my Macan from suggested Cobb to me as that dealer won't void any of the warranty for those tunes. Unfortunately, they are no longer my local dealer so during my 10k service I asked my new dealer and their SA advised against the tune for warranty purposes. You can always flash it back to stock before taking it to the dealer and as far as I can tell there isn't a consensus on whether or not the dealer can detect the old tune after the stock reflash (if anyone has a definitive answer to this please reply because I'm also curious). I have a Cobb 93 stage 1 on my '22 S and haven't had any issues yet, but have accepted that if something breaks I might be stuck with the bill. Sorry this isn't a more definitive answer, but it really is a YMMV situation