NO...,. its not just a matter of being EPA compliant anymore. HD wants the aftermarket equipment “certified” on the engine it will be installed on before giving 100% assurance that the non-HD drivetrain component is covered by their warranty or ESP. There are NO 3rd party manufacturers that have certified their exhaust with the EPA “INSTALLED ON AN HD BIKE”.

 

Are you talking full exhaust, or mufflers? I am pretty sure Fuel Moto did exactly that if I remember correctly. They took their first M8 to an independent lab and had their mufflers EPA certified on the bike. They told me it was actually quite the process. Maybe Jamie can chime in to give more details or if I have something wrong.

 

You could be correct. Just check to make sure whatever aftermarket exhaust or muffler you are considering is certified by the EPA for use on your specific model HD. My point was that "EPA-Approved" is not the same as "EPA certified for a specific HD model". "EPA-Approved" means its legal to by used "on the road". "EPA-Certified for your specific model HD" means its warranty compliant which is different from being legal to use.

If the exhaust is not certified for your bike and you have a warranty claim, HD could (not suggesting they WILL) deny the claim based on it not being EPA-certified for your bike. In the current climate, HD has definitely 'tightened" their criteria for approving warranty claims. This was a view shared with me by my local dealer after running into similar "questions" about aftermarket exhausts.

 

Legally, no -- not unless they could prove that your EPA-compliant slip-ons were the cause of a failure.

But that may not stop them from doing it anyway. I had a dealer (not my home dealer, but went into one for service when I was on a trip) and he told me specifically he didn't want to work on my bike because Harley would void the warranty if they saw my slip-ons. I explained patiently that my slip-ons were fully EPA-compliant and carried a CARB-certificate and were 50-state legal. And he said "they don't care. If it's not a Harley exhaust, they'll void the warranty."

So they might, and you might have to fight them in court to get them to reverse their action.

Or, you might get ahold of a reasonable tech who understands the law.

Harley is not entitled to void the warranty for EPA-compliant parts, but they might just do so anyway. 99.5% of the time they'd be right to void the warranty over an exhaust, because there are practically no EPA-compliant exhausts out there, but S&S is making several that are EPA-certified and carry CARB certificates, so hopefully Harley will get the word that S&S is okay.