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FCA just cancelled my warranty because of "aftermarket stuff"

DanW

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I find this thread to be pretty scary. My JLR has a stock drivetrain with full aftermarket H.D. steering components, full suspension/body armor, Mopar lift and 37" tires. Sounds like I'm up the creek if drivetrain warranty issues arise. It might behove me to drop to 35" tires. 1 extra inch won't be much of a lose till the warranty's up. Haha
Depends on the dealer. Mine replaced the transmission on my JK at 116k miles under the lifetime warranty even with a 2 inch lift and 33's. They also installed my JL Mopar lift and confirmed they'd cover it under the lifetime warranty. I'm running 35s. They know I off-road with both Jeep's.
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cosine

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I find this thread to be pretty scary. My JLR has a stock drivetrain with full aftermarket H.D. steering components, full suspension/body armor, Mopar lift and 37" tires. Sounds like I'm up the creek if drivetrain warranty issues arise. It might behove me to drop to 35" tires. 1 extra inch won't be much of a lose till the warranty's up. Haha

yes and no as for the scary part. there nothing wrong in modding the jl the way you want. its just the reality that everyone have to keep in mind if something arises that could be covered under warranty or not.

like i mentioned in an early post. in the early days of jeep, dealership will work with you and work on the wranglers modded or not. todays time fca doesnt see it that way. which its ashame on fca part beause thats the wrangler lifestyle. today wranglers lifestyle is split right down the middle between mall crawler and trail riding / exploring.


not to pick on you, but are you the one that have the silver ram rv. which is pretty cool and like to know more about it. you do flat tow your jl, which is no problem. not modded or not, if you pulled in to the dealer for warranty work, i wouldnt be suprise that the y will point the finger to the flat tow equipment and might word the voiding or flagging your jl in the data base because of the flat tow. just saying but that could come up since fca will nick pick anything.
 

Notorious

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I disagree with your definition of normal use. What's normal to one is not to another. Many, many members here have removed their dash panels to personalize their Jeep. If they were to have issues with their airbag after this, would you then put full culpability on them? I don't understand how removing and then re-installing a part suddenly makes that part no longer warrantied. It's an absurd premise in my opinion. But we can agree to disagree on that point. The dealership is still faulty for lying about the work that they didn't perform, but claimed to.
We can agree to disagree. I’m defining “normal” use as what’s listed as such in the Jeep owner’s manual. Next time you purchase something electronic, I invite you to read the owners manual and supporting documentation that comes with it. Read what it says about the manufacture’s warranty and the things that void it.

Re removing the dash and having the airbags not work, is their warranty void? Probably. More so because if they’re involved in an accident and their airbags don’t deploy and people who the airbags were supposed to protect die, guess who’s coming after Jeep and guess who’s going to assign responsibility back to the owner?

To be extra clear, I’m not pro dealership or even pro consumer. At the end of the day, it boils down to the dealership on whether or not they choose to honor warranties. But it also comes down to owner’s knowing what voids a warranty, what doesn’t and that they roll the dice when it comes to mods and warranty claims.
 

cosine

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Depends on the dealer. Mine replaced the transmission on my JK at 116k miles under the lifetime warranty even with a 2 inch lift and 33's. They also installed my JL Mopar lift and confirmed they'd cover it under the lifetime warranty. I'm running 35s. They know I off-road with both Jeep's.

that is true and the sad part of this is that there are far to few dealership that are willing to work with wrangler owners. you got pretty lucky to have adealer that works with you. in my neck of the woods, i have a 50/50 shot and that being nice.. its more like 60/40 or worse.
 

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aldo98229

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The issue in this case is a dealer unwilling to acknowledge that there is a problem, find the root cause of problem and then solve for the problem. I’m sure @Stormin’ Moorman is well aware that if it’s determined that the cause of failure is the result of his mods, then he’s going to be out of pocket to fix it. Which, to be honest, it sounds like it is but we don’t know because the people who were supposed to look at it never did.

But if it’s not, which very well may be the case, then he deserves to be taken care of under the manufacture’s warranty.
Indeed. It is all about dollars and cents: FCA pays dealers a lower rate for warranty repairs. If the service department is too busy it will prioritize other types of work orders for which it can get paid more per hour.

The problem with this is that some dealers will keep our JLs on the back burner which, arguably, is no way to treat a customer.

Over the past 10 years FCA set out to (1) grow Jeep sales and (2) drive up transaction prices. By all reports it has achieved both. But FCA has given no consideration to the upgrades in the dealer infrastructure required to cope with the increased service traffic of more expensive, more complex vehicles.

To make matters worse, by introducing a two-tier pay scheme by which warranty jobs get paid less, we now have Jeep service departments that are bursting at the seams prioritizing non-warranty work while neglecting, and many times denying, legitimate warranty claims.

There’s no indication that FCA cares one bit to fix the poor service we receive. So things are bound to remain the same, or get worse, in the foreseeable future.
 

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Best thing is to drive stock until you are comfortable you have a bug free vehicle, then modify. My brother had one with the thrumming noise. He left his accessories in storage and tried to get Jeep to fix it. Jeep tried a few things and said it was fixed, even though it wasn’t. They weren’t going to find the problem. He jumped through the necessary hoops to force them to buy it back under Georgia’s Lemon Law. For everyone that holds their feet to the fire and forces them to honor the warranty or buy back the Jeep, they sucker several into living with the problem or fixing it themselves. He wound up using an attorney, and ASME certified shop, they drug him out forever, but finally made an acceptable offer (covering his extra expenses) to stay out of court. The law is the law, Jeep has to follow it. Obviously if I destroy the running gear in mine with my supercharged engine, lift, large tires, and low gear ratios it’s on me. If the electronics fail in the 4wd system it’s on FCA during the warranty period.
 

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Tell me if you removed the radio to install a switch panel, and reinstalled the radio correctly, only to have it fail a month after you installed the switches, would you feel the same way about the dealership denying warranty coverage?
Actually, I think that you hit on an example where warranty coverage may legitimately be denied. "Reinstalled correctly" may be in the eye of the beholder. In my mind, if you fiddled with a part and then it failed, you certainly may have contributed (or outright caused) to its demise.

That said, I doubt that the dealer would hold your feet to the fire.
 

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Lapis

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We can agree to disagree. I’m defining “normal” use as what’s listed as such in the Jeep owner’s manual. Next time you purchase something electronic, I invite you to read the owners manual and supporting documentation that comes with it. Read what it says about the manufacture’s warranty and the things that void it.

Re removing the dash and having the airbags not work, is their warranty void? Probably. More so because if they’re involved in an accident and their airbags don’t deploy and people who the airbags were supposed to protect die, guess who’s coming after Jeep and guess who’s going to assign responsibility back to the owner?

To be extra clear, I’m not pro dealership or even pro consumer. At the end of the day, it boils down to the dealership on whether or not they choose to honor warranties. But it also comes down to owner’s knowing what voids a warranty, what doesn’t and that they roll the dice when it comes to mods and warranty claims.
The problem with some of those electronics warranties is that, in the United States, many of their provisions are a violation of federal law. "Warranty void if removed" sticker -illegal, "Must use [our brand] accessories" - illegal. Two years ago, the FTC admonished 5 electronics companies and one auto-manufacturer for those types of statements. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/pre...panies-it-illegal-condition-warranty-coverage

US Federal law conditions warranties not on "normal" use but on "reasonable" use. Considering FCA sells 4.88 gears, and mentions 37" tires in their documentation, I can't foresee an average person believing that 4.88s or 37s are "unreasonable" given that evidence.

The issue has become, that companies want to immediately say you didn't use our parts/service or you changed something so we won't fix it and the average person can't justifiably fight the legal battle it requires to force a company to fix the issue. So these companies violate the law and harm their consumers for the purpose of saving/making money.
 

zscooby

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Are we talking about an extended warranty or the factory? Jeep legally can't "Cancel" your factory warranty (in the Untied States) for aftermarket parts, but they can refuse to fix anything that was caused by them (and when push comes to shove, you would have to prove the problem was not caused by the aftermarket).

Did you have the jeep re-programmed for the 37's?
other way around they have to prove that the mod caused the failure
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