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Performance chips Jeopardize GM Warranty

Written by Paul Hrynew

Category: GM Service Information

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Before you decide to “chip” or “reprogram” your vehicle for better performance or fuel economy, consider the implications to your vehicle warranty.  General Motors has recently introduced new warranty procedures designed to detect unathorized alterations to a vehicle.  They will terminate the warranty on the powertrain and related components if they discover these types of alterations.

For many years aftermarket or performance based companies have offered increased performance and/or fuel economy by electronically adjusting the engine parameters. They do this by adjusting the timing, fuel pressure, the amount of fuel injected, transmission shift points and other calibrations to the vehicle to get what they think the customer is looking for. 

In most cases this will effect the durability and emissions that the driveline was designed and engineered for. It doesn’t mean that the vehicle will fail immediately, but it can lessen the life of a driveline or a component resulting in increased warranty costs.

Effective August 2009 a GM Dealership must verify that the computer system in the vehicle hasn’t been tampered with prior to completing warranty repairs on the powertrain of a vehicle (especially trucks). This is done by scanning the vehicle and checking for a non-GM calibration downloaded or written into the computer of the vehicle. The computers in today’s vehicles keep a record of programming history. We have to forward a screen shot of the scanner to GM and have it verified that no tampering has been done prior to honoring a warranty repair. In the past, you would be able to set the vehicle back to factory standards prior to getting any warranty work done and the dealer or GM would never know, not anymore.

With today’s powertrain warranties of 5 years or 160,000 kilometers, this could be a long-term costly modification as it could affect warranty coverage and trade-in value.

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