Warranty and Decatting advice
 

Hello (anyone with any of the cats removed from a warrantied car that may visit a respected dealer just outside Edinburgh),

Spoke to the boss and others at the Subaru dealer about removing the small cat nearest the backbox and how this relates to warranty. The reply was very straight forward along the lines of:

"Touching the cats or any other similar work will immediately null and void any remaining warranty and stop any further warranty work. Removing even one cat will lead to meltdown of piston/cylinder number 4 and this would not be covered, nor any other damage.

It's your car and you are entitled to do whatever you like to it, but you either do what you want or you do it properly and get the PPP fitted."

They also discussed trade-ins and cars brought into the dealers for sale and they said they would not touch them with bits changed and added and taken away such as decats!!?! :(

They would service decatted cars and do work on them, but NOT under warranty.

I will now be sticking with both hands to all three of my restrictive cats to save my warranty. On a car costing 10's of thousands I will not be paying for repairs unnecessarily. The car is fast enough for me :D

I thought it best to ask for a straight answer from the horses mouth and I got it - ANY changes to the cats etc will void the warranty. It seemed a question he had been asked many times before.

Just some info for y'all,

Brian :D

Screw the warranty!!!

Ain't worth the paper they are printed on.

"removing even one cat will lead to meltdown of piston/cylinder number 4 and this would not be covered" Unlikely,however you may get slight overboost.
Engine failures recently seem to be associated with the dealers not carrying out oil changes correctly

Get a decat, fmic, and remap and tell the dealer to go jump. ;) :D :D

And if my engine should blow up?!?

Or I should need any other similar bit replaced? The reason for buying a new and UK car is for the warranty.

:D

Hey teach you're too sensible!! ;)

It won't blow up!! 108k+ and I'm still trying to BLOW UP mine!!! :eek: :D

I think I would rather wait until it was out of warranty and then risk blowing it up as I have nothing else to lose then!!!

Dougs - were I too sensible then I would have bought a Nissan Micra!!!

How's life anyway Dougs?!

Brian.

Nissan Micra!! Suits you sir.

Life is good. looking forward to Jim Clark rally over the w/e!!

bri, why not just save your money up till the warranty stop's, then go cash crazy spending?!?!?!?!?!?!?:D

Sounds like a good plan to me - Full decat, Remap, brakes, mmmmmmmmmmm

Good plan Dave,

Brian.

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Brian, my last car (heavily modified Seat Ibiza Cupra Sport 16v) was always serviced and all warranty claims accepted by Arnold Shark!!

Warranty had even run out at last stage of tune (190+bhp with ecu, remus full system, induction, suspension and brake mods) and Arnold agreed to replace yet another clutch cable and wheel bearing.

Dealers will hit you with any cock and bull to make their lives easier. (apart from the one my girlfriend works at obviously, in HYNDLAND and she drives a HONDA!!! ;) )

tis true and we all know whar AC is like:rolleyes:

Agree with you totally dougster, hence why i've have a 5 month old car that is fully decatted and remapped.
Warranty, piss, not worth the paper its written on. People will only realise this when they are faced with it. Talking from experience, dealerships will try there damm best to get out of a warranty claim, and if they do take it on you'll be carless for several hundred weeks, cos they wont bother there arse chasing parts required and they aint going to be in any hurry fitting them. Believe me? And at the end of the day its not all down to dealerships, most of the time it will be down to IM digging there heels in questioning and questioning about the realibility of the claim.

So thats why i bought an import,£3000 grand saving, plenty to spend on mods, and if the fecker blows up, so what, i'll phone a freind and get it repaired, and not at the £3000 subaru will quote for a fecked engine.

Dealerships always attempt to lay pressure on these things, its there bread and butter after all. Ask them how you can make your car quicker than it is at present, and i bet you they can come up with a few ideas, and at a costly price.

Dougster if my car is still going as quick as yours goes at that mileage, i will be more than happy.lol.

Paul.

Cheers Paul.

The wagon is still tight and needs some more miles to really get the best out of the engine.

The only failures to date are a power steering pump and a radiator. In my three years of ownership of a (std when I got it) MY97 UK turbo, nothing major has HAD to be replaced. I can and have taken one little hose off and it will run at 1.25 all day!!!!

TD04 still holding up (how hard is it to break ffs??)

I don't use fancy oil, but do get it changed regularly and was never run on Optimax 'till I got it.

If I can I'll keep it. If not I will sell it with confidence that someone else will get 1000s of more miles of enjoyment!!!

Only wish more people would read a post like yours dougster. Too many people home into the 1/1.000.000 horror stories, that sets the alarm bells ringing, and thats it, ultimate panic?. Yeh take yer chances, and yours is living proof, thrash them hard and make them last. lol.

As me old man has said in all my days of happy thrashing, regular oil changes son?(could be bollocks, but there you go).

Paul

Brian,

per my mail I have 8 months left on the warranty. My question is what additional performance will you get from adding a de cat centre section to your aftermarket b/box?, and is that worth scrapping the warranty for ?

I'm beginning to think its an all or nothing decision. No mods plus warranty or the whole hog, screw the warranty and get as much power out as you want/can afford.

Keith

Dougs - were I too sensible then I would have bought a Nissan Micra!!!


Brian,

You still can young man..... the old girl hasn't been to johnny dealer yet ! ;)

Keith

I think i will be changing dealer then:mad:

"Touching the cats or any other similar work will immediately null and void any remaining warranty and stop any further warranty work. Removing even one cat will lead to meltdown of piston/cylinder number 4 and this would not be covered, nor any other damage.

It's your car and you are entitled to do whatever you like to it, but you either do what you want or you do it properly and get the PPP fitted."

How much b&llsh!t can they talk ??!?!!

Do they have evidence to substantiate the claims ???

TBH Peeps the main reason most dealers will tell you this is because there is a difference between there retail rate (what they charge us) & there warranty rate, depending on the dealers reputation then it can range from a £1 less an hour upto £20 less an hour !
Its better off for them to find any reason that its not waranty, makes there margins higher & keeps IM smiling (any manufacturer) as there is less money coming out of there pockets
Dealers are judged on there Claims, costs & targets !!!!!!!
The less claims the higher there warranty rate & the more stars from IM !!

I for one would fight any case that affected me !!!!!

On another note, if i knew that i was going to do as much mods to my car when i had bought it it would have bought a JDM & took even more money away from these despicable people that are meant to keep us the customer happy

May i also add that previously (in a past life) i had a major say on warranty issues were i last worked & i have to say that i 9/10 would always get the Manufacturer to pay for it:D

Just my 2p's

Stephen

just to throw my hat into the ring, ive been running a full decat for the last three years on two my00's and have had no problems at all,apart from a reduction in hearing abillity and a permanent grin every time i turn the key.o,and pissed off girlfriends parents when arriving home at 1am!!! in fact when i picked up the second one i already had the new exhaust ordered and waiting,cant recomend it enough for improvement in torque and feelgood factor,in fact currently trying to decide which exhaust to go on the sti8,from dealer, if i do make the jump.

I would say time to find a different dealer,naming no names but with the exhaust on ive had two full sets of discs, clutch release bearing, clutch and flywheel all done under warranty from two dealers,one not a million miles from me...

Hi Brian,



I think it’s easy to comment and say what you would and wouldn’t if it where me type scenario, it’s not there car nor there money.20k!



I n my opinion it would a silly and a brave move to invalidate you warranty, for 15-20 bhp, very little gain in performance for a risk of a 3-4k rebuild.



As you know I had both wrx-ppp and sti-ppp and sure you get screwed for the ppp, But!, if it all goes horribly wrong, and your warranty/service history are intact, they haven’t got much scope for refusing a warranty claim.



After all the ppp give you around 260bhp and a good bit more torque, makes the wrx a real match for an sti, and most other modded scoobs.



Use your head and don’t be talked into a potentially costly mistake.:(



AIMHO.



Chris:D

Thanks Chris,

The advice is very sensible and very much appreciated. Nice to read balance. My car is sitting at 245 or whatever it was the last time at Star and I am not bothered by 15 Brake gain for £1600 anyway. My back box was being redone anyway so it seemed sensible to take away the baby cat as it did not much anyway. I'll be sticking with it but removing the silencer back from the back box as that is beyond the cats anyway. Bit more grunt and noise to go with my angled exit back box going on!!!

Brian :D

Hay Brian,

You could do what the others do at the next R/R, pump in gallons of octane booster:D , pump yir tyres upto 60psi:D , and blast the intercooler with a fire
extinguisher:D (lol), then you could get a false reading of say 270bhp to show everyone.

Dont get to wrapped up in all the ****e mate:D

Been there done it Chris?!

How is the 22 then?

Brian.

Going to go mental with it looking to have 600bhp and 700ft lbs, canny wait!, eh, only kidding of course. cars good mate,no real plans for any mods, cos i'm skint buying and selling scoobs(lol). Going to try and keep this one, hhm hmm.

Chris

Just had it confirmed when i pushed them they are talking balls;)

I will post when i am in the office !

on site at the mo

Brian,

Also remember that the total BHP isn't the be-all and end-all. What you want is more driveability. There's no point in getting an additional 15bhp (or even 100bhp) if it only appears in some ridiculously small range.

The PPP gives the car more torque, so it's a much better drive. It is overpriced for what you get, but it does maintain the warranty and should make the car more saleable in future.

I've never had any bother with certain mods and warranty, but times have changed and IM are much stricter. Hopefully, the Dealers have kept some common sense and will only void warranty claims actually caused by a mod.

Personally I feel the PPP makes the car and they should come straight out the box with them. That includes the WRX and the STI's.

Stefan

Cheers Stefan,

I am not too bothered about PPP due to insurnce increase and the car I find good nyway. Would the dealer do a discount on it? I really don't want or need the exhaust parts!!

Brian.

You have to buy the whole PPP as a kit. It's more the ECU increasing boost that releases more power and pushes up the insurance.

You'll get a 10% discount from Nobles for sure. Anymore than that and you'll need to get Colin on a very good day.

Stefan

Cheers,

Not really wanting to pay circa £1500 for an ECU - I'd rather wait a year or two and get it remapped then for much less.

Brian.

Yep, I agree. Makes sense if you can wait and will keep the car for a few more years.

Thanks Stefan,

Just need to get people to stop encouraging me to "F**K THE WARRANTY" etc etc!!!!

Brian :D:D:D:D

Stefan,

I am amazed when I look at your website and read that A F Nobles fitted your decat downpipe - how things change.

Brian.