True story. Earlier this week I stopped in to the dealer I do business with and from whom I bought my '17 RGS. I spoke with the services manager. I reminded him that when I first bought the bike last fall, we had a very long discussion about engine upgrades... pistons, cam, etc. and I wasn't sure how all of that jibed with all the chatter on the web about warranty voiding and the like. He nodded his head and said he's been getting lots of questions too. In short he said they (at that dealer) go out of their way to do anything and everything to prevent warranty issues like that. He even mentioned wanting making sure that whatever tuner I end up going with has the ability to reset to a factory authorized tune at the touch of a button, so they can run their computer diagnostics strip to show that factory tune is there so the warranty will be enforced. Then at the push of a button I can go back to whatever performance tune I want to run. He said the bigger issue is if I'm far from home and have a catastrophic engine issue and end up at an unknown dealer who puts the moco ahead of the customer. Made sense. At least I know where I stand, so I'm just gonna make sure whatever tuner I use, has that feature so I can hit a panic button in the event of a breakdown far from home.

 

many dealers that sell you said products + install them can profit hugely + they should stand behind you as much as possible. a highly modified engine could be different, but again using all OE parts + having the stealer do the work if you can afford it should make a difference. dealers can go out of their way when they make big profits from you thru the life of the bike, only for those with deep pockets apply!!! when i bought my sporty i bought a factory service manual at the same time, dealer asked what for + my reply is i like to know about my bike! dealer never serviced it but bought a few parts from them. i enjoy DIY + the thousands you can save in the life of your bike, thats just me!!

 

ummm no. I was asking about after market headers and if they have cats in them. I am pretty sure that the sinister undertones of this thread do not exist. lol

 

Dealers are in a tight spot.... they want to say whatever customers want to hear to make a sale.... and yet, they have a lot at stake if they are caught violating their agreement with the MoCo... the warranty requirements have tightened since the EPA settlement with MoCo...

It's not a matter of putting MoCo ahead of the customer. It's a matter of fulfilling contractual agreements and holding onto your livelihood....

Most customers have a rather entitled attitude about all this.... they want to mod their bikes the way they want to and yet feel the MoCo owes them a warranty, in spite of their choices...

If the MoCo looks deep enough, there are many ways to tell if an engine was run outside of allowed parameters, other than what tune is on the ECM when brought into a service bay...

Certainly, no one will be prosecuted for the fraud they commit doing this, but they do run the risk of having a warranty issue denied....

I have modded all my bikes, one within 3 months of purchase, most around a year or so.......

In all cases, I realize that once I cross that line... I'm on my dime...

From what I read on this an other forums, no one will agree with me. However, I think it is dishonest and shows a lack of integrity, for someone to choose a mod that they know violates the warranty, and then try to hide it, to receive warranty benefits they no longer deserve or qualify for... yeah, yeah, many spout out reasons to rationalize "cheating" the warranty, really doesn't change a thing...

If a new bike (any brand) is underpowered, runs poorly, or doesn't fit your expectations...

1) Don't buy it....

2) If you want to mod, and maintain your warranty, there are ways to do this... maybe they're not the most cost effective or best performing mods, but tests have shown many available for the M8 that are much better than OEM.

3) If you buy it and want to mod it to your personal preference... have it at, but at least take responsibility for your choices...

Bikers used to be the type that took responsibility for actions, right or wrong..... times are a changin...

 

PREACH ON BROTHER HAT! AMEN!

Cheers....

Eagle Out

 

that's a fair assessment, and although Harley's are different animal in terms of the scope and magnitude of modifications available..if you bought a new Toyota truck and modified it with TRD parts you would expect to be covered..if you put K&N, Magnaflow, some aftermarket chip in, would you really expect Toyota to say 'no prob, we got ya' covered"..common sense stuff to me anyway

 

Amen to that Brother,about 90% of the bikers I see now are not the type of Biker I grew up with!

 

Brother. You don't know what any of these people were told by their Harley Dealer sales. The last thing you should be doing is classifying their ethics.

FYI my dealer told me, when I specifically ask at purchase, nothing has changed from previous years. 40K later, 5 months later, they are still trying to figure out just what is the ruling and how to keep me please as they were ill informed.

I'd do a little more worrying about yourself and your bike. There are many cases out there that aren't quite that simple to "classify" people or dealers judgement calls.

 

The buck stops here with me, I answer for my actions. Having said that I do have a problem with the EPA taking a successful American company to task and then forcing them to comply by making the customer the punching bag.
Using a company to hold a gun to the head of its customer base is a sad way for the EPA to get enforcement even under the "O" admin...........I need a drink.
Oh yeaah, I forgot that HD was the only company out there that sold race tuners.

My dealer bought a PowerVision set up for their dyno once the Race tuner went away and have no issues standing behind their mods. It's the dealership that I have to deal with if I am not close to home. I wrestling with the decision of getting rid of the stock header even with an EPA tune.

 

This topic of honoring a warranty versus mods seems to be as subjective and varied as our respective HD dealers are. And it's one thing to discuss ones' own ethics, but it's a hornets nest and something wholly other to stand in judgement and be discussing another person's ethics.

The purpose of me going to my dealer on the warranty issue was to get the skinny on their take and their mindset on the whole warranty honoring in combination with aftermarket mods. And most importantly in my case, the reason I wanted my dealer's take was because it was my dealer's service manager who was chatting me up on the potential mods for my '17 RGS.

So naturally I was a bit surprised after hearing all the chatter over the winter, when while I was there in fall for my first round of what I'd call mostly cosmetic mods, they were talking to me at length about cracking open the engine for mods (pistons, crank shaft, custom tunes and so forth) which seemingly conflicted with the warranty voiding buzz. And my dealer was recommending I wait to see what comes out in the aftermarket arena and how those products are reviewed, before I made any decisions because they did not recommend I jump at the SE stage upgrade kits, at least not that soon after the release of the newly designed M8 release and before it had really been tested.

So, since they were talking about doing these engine mods with non MoCo parts, it left me confused how they would do those mods and still honor my warranty if I had a catastrophic failure locally or across the country.

That's where I was coming from. It wasn't about my ethics or what I was willing to fudge or dance around in order to keep my warranty valid, it was how my dealer was going to do all of those mods and maintain the effectiveness of my warranty.