For almost 2 years now, we have had the protection of the new laws concerning software rights....and consumers rights to tinker. I assure you not all dealerships are keeping their techs up to date on this legal stuff..

Do not let dealers tell you ECU mods automatically void your cars warranty in the USA. They don't. A member on the F-Type forum was refused warranty due to a ECU tune on a CPO, and we think that dealership got into real trouble with Jaguar Corporate as well as violating laws of the USA and is very likely under lawsuit for misrepresentation of product and such, forcing our forum member into legally mandated 'Radio Silence'. (Good luck Pixel!)

Here is the real deal, we have the legally protected rights to ECU tune.

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/m...-software-now/

Simply put, car manufacturers must PROVE IN A COURT a tune is directly responsible for any breakage they might be inclined to deny warranty on. Very expensive for them, and damm near impossible to do. Also bad for reputation. (We build a great product, but that breaks every time its pushed 120 pct. in the lab) Right....do you think they want THAT published?

As well as some more recent consumer victories over industry titans

https://repair.org/legal-corner/


If you have a warranty refused by Dealerships/Corporate due to non-factory ecu programming, contact these folks! They are always looking to log new battles as precedents. You are not alone.

www.repair.org

To be fair: My Jaguar service department here in Austin Texas has been EXCELLENT so far with warranty services after my ecu tune...21K miles and going strong. But we are a Tech-centric community here in Austin, so maybe my Jag service techs are more forward-thinking and better informed?

That being said...if you mod you ecu, DO expect resistance from SOME dealerships that live in the past, and be prepared....

Pixel came to the fourm as a newbie and because of advice from many perspectives he armed himself with knowledge and at the very least got an concession offer to repair from the GM which he refused, and more likely will walk away with much, much more.

Don't let the dealerships shove you around on this matter. Lawyer up if you have to.

 

I would be curious to know things like:

What is the average cost/timeline of taking a dealer to court to fight something like this?



Do those lawyer costs gets covered in the lawsuit usually?


In general, how many times is a manufacturer taken to court in the U.S. for denying a claim due to a tune causing the failure?


How successful have automakers been with defending themselves and proving a tune was the cause? (Certainly there is a point where too much HP or a bad tune caused a failure of some sort)



I'm all for standing up to the "big guys" that just blindly deny warranty, because tuned or not engines can fail and you shouldn't have to pay for something that would have failed regardless.

 

I'm no lawyer, but I went through a lawsuit with an automaker personally, as well as a class action...

The cost to retain and pay your lawyer is nothing to spit at. I had a personal lawsuit against an auto manufacturer, it took like $1500.00 personally out of pocket up front and 8 months to settle..at a mediation. The $1500.00 was returned to me after the settlement, and the Lawyer got his balance of like $4K then too... This was over a decade ago, so adjust for inflation.

But, If you win the mediation or in court all your atty. fees are covered, as well as other directly incurred fees (I had several thousand in rental car fees in my case). This is ONLY if you can prove they "done you wrong", put simply.

So I'm guessing you'd get the cost of the repair and the fees, or in some cases treble damages if they cause provable distress or hardship.

I've no idea how often Auto manufacturers are taken to court, but its often enough they have a special management team member that will usually fly out and try and talk you out of it (suing) first (A Manufacturers Rep), and they have a team of lawyers through a law firm that will get hired to represent, that have various levels of experience. I got a rookie from a giant Law Firm, he was torn to pieces in mediation, but we knew my case was strong.

Best advice I have is if you feel like you are getting the screws put to you unfairly and perhaps are being taken advantage of by any Big Corp, get with a local lawyer referral service and get a free consultation from a hungry young lawyer out of a good law school. They will look up your state laws, and if they think you have a case they will tell you.

A smart lawyer is not likely to waste their or your time on a 50% or less likelihood-to-win case, IMHO. And I am no advocate for frivolous suits.

Finally, if you trash your Drivetrain after an ECU tune well beyond established specifications, this is where they might have a legitimate objection to warranty repair. Or superboost - nitro feed (or whatever the next craze will be) you supercharger or anything stupid like that to a point where your engine is clearly beyond capabilities.

But if you use a good, reliable tune, pushing your HP up to levels that that same engine is already performing at and proven at in other Jag models, they'd have no case and no justification to deny warranty service, other than to save themselves money. But there is always the risk they will....they put up wall after wall, you got to climb them all.

Some people just don't know they have most warranty rights still retained, or do and and just accept the risks themselves. Common sense always plays a big role in these cases too...

In the case of this sweet v6, they simply de-tuned the engine various ways so they could sell it in the XE in several various models (S (380HP), Non-S (340HP) in 2017), while it happily runs Jaguar tested, approved, and marketed.....safely and reliably giving over 400 HP in the F-Type.