E55 Rocket

Hi all,

I am new to the forum, and just picked up a 2004 E55, and I must say it is AWESOME! I noticed that many of you have modified your cars (in some cases dramatically), and am wondering how to get around vioding out the factory warranty. Are there specific manufacturers that sell parts that dont compromise the warranty? Also, who does the work? MB? Or does the actual manufacturer of the aftermarket parts perform installation.

Who do you recommend? Kleeman? Lorinzer? Carlsson? other?

Thanks,

Allen

Gid_E_Up

Allen--welcome to the club. As a Kleemann customer, I am very satisfied. The tuners are all a bit different and also the same. You have to do your homework and pick who and what mod is best for you (I picked Kleemann after my research).

WRT to warranty, this is a gray area that needs furthur research for you to understand what you're really up against. I suggest to you that you ask each propspective tuner the warranty question and get THEIR unique answer.

Congrats and good luck.

DerekFSU

Do what I did and move next door to the MB dealer so he'll hook you up after you void the warranty. Other than a personal relationship/deal cutting, I don't know what you'll do.

Vetluver

My dealer told me that they would continue to service and warranty my vehicle if I had Kleemann upgrades. If something went wrong with the Kleemann stuff they would send the defective part back to them for repair or replacement. They have worked recently with Kleemann and have several cars they service under "dual warranty". Just need to work out the kinks with your dealer and Kleemann. My dealer is an independant dealer therefore has some wiggle room. MB owned dealership may not be so understanding.

VMotoring

Some tuners may be willing to put the stock ecu/program back in if you need major warranty work, but finding a "friendly" service adviser is your best bet

E55 Rocket

Thanks a lot to all of you whom responded to my inquiry; much of the information shared between members of this forum seems to be quite valuable and accurate (though there are some questionable characters out there as well). In any case, thanks again.

nasdaqsam

To my knowledge a company can not deny warrantee due to aftermarket products being added to the vehicle, "unless" they can prove the product caused the issue. If they can and do prove it caused the issue then it would be expected to not be covered anyway.

This was proven in court by a company called Banks. They are a huge aftermarket builder of performance enhancing items for trucks, motorhomes, etc. They went to court against either Ford or GM because people were being denied warrantee if their vehicles had any aftermarket parts on them. They went to court and won. I use to have the case book marked but I can not find it right now. I'll see if I can find a link to it.

lorinserbenz

The dealer can't VOID your warranty for performance upgrades, its against the law to. (Magensen somthing act)
Lets say you change the pulley on the blower and the motor blows up. MB would have PROVE the pulley was at fault not to cover the repair. They cant refuse to fix your car because you added something to it.

R. Range

What you're referring to is the Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act, and it does generally say what you're saying, i.e., a manufacturer can't refuse to honor its warranty unless it can show that a modification caused the problem. But what's written in the statute books doesn't necessarily rule in the real world, because the dealers & manufacturers can effectively put the burden back on the consumer to sue. In other words, if you take a car with an engine problem and an aftermarket supercharger (or in our case say an aftermarket pulley designed to make more power) in to be repaired, 95% of dealers & manufacturers will simply deny the claim and blame the modification. Many will do this even if the problem appears unrelated to the modification (say you have an aftermarket supercharger and the car has a brake problem). This leaves the consumer in the position of paying for the repair, or paying an attorney to pursue a lawsuit, and the litigation costs will exceed the cost of the repair most of the time. Not to mention the time involved. Moral of the story: it is extremely important to develop a close relationship with a dealer, because a "friendly" dealer who will ignore most mods and try to help you with warranty coverage is worth his weight in gold. Failing that, if you've got obvious engine mods and think you've got a serious problem, you may want to consider removing them before you take the car in to be diagnosed.

E55 Rocket

Great input guys! I guess the next order of business is to make friends with my local Services guy...