aftermarket items and warranty

[bastion]

I am desiring to make some modifications to my 2002 camry. But I also started thinking about how certain modifications might affect my warranty. Obviously some stuff does not, such as the aftermarket LCD's I've installed in the headrests and in the front, as I haave since had warrantied work done. But at what point would aftermarket equipment start affecting my warranty?

The specific item I am wondering about right now are the new Vogtland springs I got. I was all ready to slap them in till my fiancee asked, "will this void your warranty in any way?" and I had no idea. Would it? I tried asking the dealership, but they said I would need to speak with the service manager, and I got his voice mail. Still have not heard back from him. Anyone got some info for me on this? What about items like short rams and aftermarket exhausts?

[kocho]

Originally posted by bastion
I am desiring to make some modifications to my 2002 camry. But I also started thinking about how certain modifications might affect my warranty. Obviously some stuff does not, such as the aftermarket LCD's I've installed in the headrests and in the front, as I haave since had warrantied work done. But at what point would aftermarket equipment start affecting my warranty?

The specific item I am wondering about right now are the new Vogtland springs I got. I was all ready to slap them in till my fiancee asked, "will this void your warranty in any way?" and I had no idea. Would it? I tried asking the dealership, but they said I would need to speak with the service manager, and I got his voice mail. Still have not heard back from him. Anyone got some info for me on this? What about items like short rams and aftermarket exhausts?

Not sure about Vogtland and other aftermarket springs, because they are not OEM replacements.

TRD springs (and other TRD stuff) on the other hand are endorsed by Toyota: if installed by a dealership, they give you the same warranty as OEM stuff. Meaning, if a TRD spring installed by a dealer fails and as a result you damage your hub and brakes, you get warranty coverage for all these. If you (another shop) puts them in, the only warranty is on the part itself, not other parts damaged by it if it fails. In the same situation as above, where you spring fails, you'll get warranty coverage on the spring, but not on the hub and brakes...

I asked this same question about TRD springs to toyotaparts4u.com and got a pretty good answer, but I can't remember all details - I tried to summ it up above, but shoot them an e-mail asking about the warranty of TRD springs to get the whole story...

Generally, with aftermarket stuff if anything goes wrong after you put it in, your original warranty should only be declined if the aftermarket stuff caused the problem, but getting this enforced may be more difficult than it sounds... Dealers would hang for a straw (e.g. your aftermarket stuff) and may try to tell you all your problems come from it, regardless of the actual reason... YMMV, depending on the particular dealership too.

[Phi]

Kocho pretty much summed it up nicely.

Apparently there's some sort of legal Act or Statute that address this very issue;
http://www.camryclub.org/forums/show...&threadid=7260

[bastion]

Well there is no way I'm getting these installed at the dealership. They want $600 for the labor, not including the alignment. Yea, I read through the Magnuson-Moss act, and I still need to check my warranty verbage, but it seems like they can only deny warrantable repairs if the damage was a direct cause of the aftermarket part. So if my McPherson struts went out, I could not claim them under warranty due to the aftermarket springs (though the shocks would wear out eventually anyway). That's about the only thing I could think of.

[V6LE]

Well..If you were to put coilovers on your car..I would think that the factory waranty that covers your shocks/springs would be void. It should not effect anything else though..

Mike,