Mopar Warranty

[Matt Dillon]

I just got one several months ago & was wondering How some of you guys say that you've gotten Headers, Hi-Flow cats, Tunes, etc..... Without it Voiding your Warranty! I've been told that you CAN'T Do ANY of these Minor Mods without it voiding your warranty? JW

[JonB ~ PartsRack]

The most important thing is this, bar-none:

DEALER COOPERATION in SERVICE DEPT. [esp if they sold you the warrantee and the car] Also matters a LOT if dealer profited / installed the mods.


Dealers net more $$ if YOU pay retail, vs what dealers get reimbursed for warrantee work. If the goal is long-term-customer building, the dealer will often look away at bolt-on-mods. If its PROFIT motive, they will FLAG your car / vin

I look forward to BillP'inion

[02192viper]

I was told high flow cats are ok. I was also told as soon as you mess with the PCM, that throws up an automatic red flag and it will void the warranty. Apparently there are a few different computers in the car and if they don’t read the same mileage, it shows you messed around with them. I was told that info when I inquired about the arrow PCM that everyone seems to have.
Again, this is just what I was told. In process of putting on high flow cats this week.

[SLP]

My 10yr 100k warranty went down the drain when I had my car red flagged by the regional rep. I went through an 11 month dispute with my local dodge service shop and the srt corporate team trying to fix a clutch/transmission warranty issue. If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't even want a "viper tech" to touch my car.

What happened in a nutshell is 1) my viper had a dragging clutch which caused transmission issues 2) the viper tech in the service shop failed to fix it 6+ times and in trying to, caused more problems than they fixed. 3) I pushed for proper service through their corporate "resources" and 4) the regional rep got mad and flagged my car because "the problem is the customer, not the hardware." I wouldn't trust FCA one bit. I know that does not exactly answer your question but I hope it gives someone reading something to think about.

Lithia Dodge in Roseburg Oregon does not know how to properly service a Gen V viper and will do anything they can to deny warranty claims.

https://youtu.be/cextONW4jU8

[Martin]

My 10yr 100k warranty went down the drain when I had my car red flagged by the regional rep. I went through an 11 month dispute with my local dodge service shop and the srt corporate team trying to fix a clutch/transmission warranty issue. If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't even want a "viper tech" to touch my car.

What happened in a nutshell is 1) my viper had a dragging clutch which caused transmission issues 2) the viper tech in the service shop failed to fix it 6+ times and in trying to, caused more problems than they fixed. 3) I pushed for proper service through their corporate "resources" and 4) the regional rep got mad and flagged my car because "the problem is the customer, not the hardware." I wouldn't trust FCA one bit. I know that does not exactly answer your question but I hope it gives someone reading something to think about.

Lithia Dodge in Roseburg Oregon does not know how to properly service a Gen V viper and will do anything they can to deny warranty claims.

https://youtu.be/cextONW4jU8

Bummer - sorry to hear that. In the future, if you can, go to Northwest up in Beaverton. I used to use Timberline when I lived up there, but they got screwed during the bankruptcy mess, and then they lost all of their very awesome Viper techs. I believe some are still at Northwest, but I'm not sure now that I fully relocated to Silicon Valley.

Jon is right - the dealer makes all the difference in the world. I bought a Gen II from a dealer called Stevens Creek Dodge down in Silicon Valley way back in the day, and I got treated like royalty. The rep there said "as long as you don't crack the engine open, we don't care what you do." Then, the service manager left to start his own Viper shop, then the owners sold to some wonky new owners, and that place was a nightmare to get anything done. Tried a few other dealers, and got the run-around every time (they even left me with a nearly empty cooling system when I brought the car in for a faulty fan module).

In any event, I wouldn't touch these new cars with mods unless I had a solid agreement with the dealership that they'd treat me right. When it comes to any emissions stuff, well, we'll just have to see if Trump's declaration that CA emissions violate Fed laws ends up surviving in the courts. If it does, then I'm going to do everything that I want to do with the car.

[Martin]

I was told high flow cats are ok. I was also told as soon as you mess with the PCM, that throws up an automatic red flag and it will void the warranty. Apparently there are a few different computers in the car and if they don’t read the same mileage, it shows you messed around with them. I was told that info when I inquired about the arrow PCM that everyone seems to have.
Again, this is just what I was told. In process of putting on high flow cats this week.

From a warranty perspective, you might be OK with aftermarket cats. From a California emissions perspective, I'd hold off until we find out if our Peoples Republic of Kalifornia emissions laws are going to revert to the Federal standards. That's going to be a Newsome vs. Trump fight in the courts, so don't count on passing smog easily until we know for sure. I get stuck going to a referee station almost every time for stupid little things... Also, on that note, the hi-flow cats will likely throw a CEL with the stock PCM. If you don't mind the CEL, and you're willing to do what it takes to keep it away (generally running at high load for quite a while until it resets), they're great - but if that's going to become a pain, you might want to wait...

[Scott_in_fl]

^^^ There is another thread about a few of us recently doing the hi-flow cats and finding no CEL's. However, I did use one of the O2 extenders that I bought off of Amazon. I don't know if it is year dependent on how sensitive the car is to throwing a CEL, but mine is a 2017.

[ViperSRT]

When it comes to any emissions stuff, well, we'll just have to see if Trump's declaration that CA emissions violate Fed laws ends up surviving in the courts.

It is the CO2 portion of the CA emissions that frustrate the federal government, most automakers and as you stated Trump. It essentially makes fuel economy state regulated and has nothing to do with the rationale for California to have unique emissions requirements due to smog, etc. I hope Trump wins as it was overreach for EPA and the Democratic friendly courts and DOJ to determine CO2 as a pollutant covered by the clean air act.

[Martin]

^^^ There is another thread about a few of us recently doing the hi-flow cats and finding no CEL's. However, I did use one of the O2 extenders that I bought off of Amazon. I don't know if it is year dependent on how sensitive the car is to throwing a CEL, but mine is a 2017.

It really is a bizarre phenomena. I've heard of people throwing CELs constantly, and some that never threw them. A lot, I think, depends on how you drive the car. If you're almost always "on it" you won't get a CEL because things stay hot enough for the cat to burn everything off. If you are stuck in traffic (like I always am in Silicon Valley) you'll most certainly get a CEL. On my Gen IV, for the first few years I never got a CEL after installing hi-flows. Then, there was a period of time where I was using it as a daily driver, and the CELs went crazy on me. It took a long time of driving at highway speeds at high RPMs to get the CEL to go away.

The spacers may indeed work. I never tried them, but I've heard good things about them.

In my case, though, with the smog check experiences I've had recently I'm not going to remove the downstream cat. The risk of getting failed and having to deal with making an appointment with the referee station (after re-installing the stock system) just isn't worth the few extra HP and the better sound. Maybe I'm just getting old, lazy and crotchety

[Martin]

It is the CO2 portion of the CA emissions that frustrate the federal government, most automakers and as you stated Trump. It essentially makes fuel economy state regulated and has nothing to do with the rationale for California to have unique emissions requirements due to smog, etc. I hope Trump wins as it was overreach for EPA and the Democratic friendly courts and DOJ to determine CO2 as a pollutant covered by the clean air act.

Agree 100%. Let's just hope they don't reach some kind of compromise and unwrap the emissions piece of the suit from the CO2/economy piece. That would suck - we'd lose the stupid "everything will be electric by 2030" push, but we'd also have the draconian emissions crap to deal with every two years.

Next, maybe Trump will unscrew our ridiculous gun laws - but I won't even get started with that. Probably better for another forum....

[JonB ~ PartsRack]

........The risk of getting failed and having to deal with making an appointment with the referee station (after re-installing the stock system) just isn't worth the few extra HP and the better sound. Maybe I'm just getting old, lazy and crotchety .....

Who You Callin' Old, Lazy, Crotchety?!?

One of the primary motivators to swap from SRT 4 cats to our 2-cat option is HEAT, especially on lighter-colored cars where paint discolors badly. Rare/No CELS are a bonus.

[Martin]

Who You Callin' Old, Lazy, Crotchety?!?

One of the primary motivators to swap from SRT 4 cats to our 2-cat option is HEAT, especially on lighter-colored cars where paint discolors badly. Rare/No CELS are a bonus.

Hahaha - you've probably never had to deal with the smog nazi inspectors here in CA I agree that the heat reduction would be worth the price of admission. But, after wasting many hours and days trying to convince them that actual CARB certified mods were indeed OK, and still having them give me grief, I'm keeping the car stock until the laws change to sensible ones (instead of keep getting more and more restrictive). I don't mind saying it again - I'm too old, lazy and crotchety to deal with drama every two years when the smog test comes due (especially when they see a high performance car and immediately send me to a STAR station - those are the worst).

[Matt Dillon]

I Could NOT Imagine having to deal with the California driving/smog laws, I Couldn't even imagine living in California!

[SRT_BluByU]

Hahaha - you've probably never had to deal with the smog nazi inspectors here in CA I agree that the heat reduction would be worth the price of admission. But, after wasting many hours and days trying to convince them that actual CARB certified mods were indeed OK, and still having them give me grief, I'm keeping the car stock until the laws change to sensible ones (instead of keep getting more and more restrictive). I don't mind saying it again - I'm too old, lazy and crotchety to deal with drama every two years when the smog test comes due (especially when they see a high performance car and immediately send me to a STAR station - those are the worst).

must be hard living in a state like that.. no thanks!