Dealer Installed Mod's

Keith Browning · September 1, 2005

Okay, here's one to jump all over and don't blast me - it's not my idea. Would it be better for Ford truck owners to have modifications performed at a Ford dealer by Ford technicians? I mean after all, we do know the product best and do know the real do's and dont's, don't we?

In a way it makes sense but it also contradicts what many of us have been saying about mod's and the potential liability concerning Ford's policies and warranty statements.

Jim Warman · September 3, 2005

In Alberta, we have some dealer selling SOME performance mods. Our store will do big exhausts but not much more.... though we do have a couple of customers who's VINs have been flagged... on these, the sky is the limit (you play - you pay). We don't do air filters becuase of our dust and we don't do chips.

There are other dealers that will do the whole nine yards AND do warranty.... If the warranty Nazis ever find out, how do you recover your integrity?

I do work on chipped trucks.... I will not do warranty work on the engine/trans if the chip is present. I punch (and insist on getting paid) for extra time caused by big exhausts.

It's a cloudy area and each case seems to need it's own treatment.

Keith Browning · September 3, 2005

.... though we do have a couple of customers who's VINs have been flagged...

I have heard that term before but never gave it more thought than than it implies. Having never come across this what does it actually mean that a VIN has been flagged and how does it show on OASIS?

Jim Warman · September 7, 2005

Seems to me there's a message about "verify warranty" on OASIS. I'm sure that it is flagged good and hard when the RO is generated.

Of course we are familiar with our locals but I don't recall seeing any out-of-towners...

G. Bedford · September 8, 2005

We had a '04 S/Duty with fairly low miles come in for a missing/rough running complaint a few monthes ago. Tech checks it over and finds a couple holes low on the relative compression and blow-by above specs. Runs OASIS for history and any known concerns, all up to snuff. The tech tears the engine down to find the bores scuffed severely and pieces of the piston tops broken off and floated into other cylinders causing extensive damage. Base engine is toast. Tech goes on-line and does an engine exchange request only to be told the request is denied due to after-market mods! In the intervening time between the first OASIS run and the teardown-costcap-request(maybe two days) the situation changed. It turns out this guy just bought the rig from a used car lot. The previous owner, around Denver, took it in for repairs only to have the rep deny it at the dealer there for mods. So the original owner quickly trades it off elsewhere rather than pay for the repair himself(after removing his add-ons, gotta keep those cause their so valuable, ya know!). The used car lot in Wyoming that took it in trade has access to OASIS and sees it is clean and sells the pickup to the fella that brought it to us. This poor fella is stuck. The engine is tore down and no warranty! He wants to just re-ring the two holes since he is paying for the job. This leaves quite a bit of other questionable components unchecked/not replaced. Ford says unless the repair is done properly he will still not have any warranty. No hack jobs allowed. He can't resell it for any decent coin unless it has a warranty and he knows it. The truck is down a week and he finally has a Ford engine put in it cause it is no good to him just sitting. Felt sorry for him and have no good words for the SOB that bailed on it. Most of these modders are blowin smoke when they say "you play, you pay". 10 grand for an engine sure takes the starch out of them. They will wiggle out at the first chance. It amazes me how far this rig got before the Ford system got up-dated and flagged it.