Reconciling Mods and Factory Warranty?

I got busted for my non TRD supercharger and fart-can exhaust

 

In general, you will bear the burden of proof if you have a modification made to your car, and then your car has a failure that might be related to that modification.

If you for example install an aftermarket antenna and then your radio stops working, the antenna is the first item that will be suspected. Expect to be charged for the time needed to rule out the antenna as the problem.

 

It always depends on your service advisor to honor your factory warranty with mods. Whatever mods you add on your vehicle is the leverage of the service advisor to get some $$$$$ if something goes wrong that is tied to your mods.

 

I've always understood it to be the opposite, that the burden is on the warrantor to prove that a third-party part caused the failure. After all, how would you ever be expected to prove a negative?

And in your hypothetical, I believe they can only charge you for that diagnosis time if it turns out that the antenna did somehow cause the failure (how that could ever possibly happen, I have no idea).

I personally would never trust what the dealer (or any other company) tells you about their warranty.

 

Here's an interesting website:
Keeping Your Mod's Warranty Intact - For Dummies

See the following excerpt: "That being said, if you choose to modify your car, and suddenly the fancy new electronic control boxes that you added to your car make it run rough, not start when cold, or buck like a bronco, the dealer can and will charge a diagnostic fee to find out what is wrong with your car. If it turns out that your modifications are the cause of the problem, the dealer has every right not only to charge you for the diagnosis and repair, but to also void the portion of the warranty that has been compromised by the use of those aftermarket parts. Likewise, a dealer may refuse to service your car if it is adorned with aftermarket parts to the extent that its technicians cannot reasonably be expected to diagnose what is wrong with your car."

How could an antenna cause failure of the radio? A shark fin antenna is probably going to be an active antenna, which has a preamp built into the base. If the electronics in the preamp provide excessive voltage to the input of the radio, that could cause the radio to fail.

When I said the burden of proof rests with the owner, I meant that the owner must pay for the diagnostic work to determine the source of the problem. Politburo is right that the dealer must demonstrate that the modification resulted in failure of a part that would otherwise be covered by the manufacturer's warranty. However, the owner is required to pay for the dealer tech effort behind this demonstration.

 

The sharkfin antenna is just two pieces of wire that happen to be
folded up in a peculiar way, as "fractals," to fit into a smaller space
than the OEM antenna. The sharkfin replaces the two wires that make
up the OEM antenna.

The signal generated by both the OEM antenna and the sharkfin feed
into a powered amplifier in the same OEM conical antenna base. The
worst thing that the sharkfin can do is provide a smalller signal than
the OEM antenna. I can not see how the sharkfin could even remotely
lead to the failure of the radio...

Unless you are a actually afraid that the car will be hit by lightening...

In which case the radio will be the least of your worries:

(Keep in mind that the sharkfin antenna is smaller and less tall
than the OEM antenna.)

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...ooting/50833-thunderstorms-prius-help-me.html

The dealer probably hasn't even a clue what the sharkfin is.
Wear hip boots if you insist on going back. Better yet, find a
knowledgeable service writer/team at another dealer.

There are a number of mods that could reasonably lead to warranty
issues. These include aftermarket EV mode switches and temperature
hacks. These essentially mess with the data/control inputs to the HSD.
But the sharkfin doesn't do that.

 

+1

Here are pictures of the underbelly of the sharkfin antenna (from darelldd's evnut.com site). Just a couple of different fractal antennas there that get screwed on to the conical base of the OEM antenna:

[IMGLINK]http://evnut.com/images/prius/antenna/antenna_shark_fin04.jpg[/IMGLINK]

[IMGLINK]http://evnut.com/images/prius/antenna/shark_fin02.jpg[/IMGLINK]

If you are paranoid about giving your dealer a pretext to deny a warranty claim related to the radio then you could remove the sharkfin antenna -- it's stuck on with 3M automotive foam tape -- before going for warranty work. But then you'd have to get new tape to stick it back on. Personally, I wouldn't bother doing that and I'd just be prepared to push back hard if my dealer gave me trouble.

 

OK, I agree that since the sharkfin antenna does not include any active electronics, it would not be able to damage the radio. However, seeing what it does consist of, I can't imagine why a Prius owner would spend $$ for an antenna that will perform worse than the original equipment short whip - unless cosmetics are high on the priority list and functionality is low on the list.

 

Reception is definitely diminished with the sharkfin.

But it's not noticeable if you live and drive in areas with strong signal radio stations and those are the stations that you listen to all or almost all of the time.

However, you will notice the diminished reception on weak signal stations (whatever the reason for the weak signal -- distance, terrain, weak transmitter, etc.).

For me, the diminished reception is noticeable on only one of the stations that I listen to with any regularity. So I didn't have to sacrifice much functionality in exchange for cosmetics.

The loss of functionality varies with the individual and her circumstances. For many, there's no loss of functionality. For others -- those who live or drive in areas with generally weak or problematic radio reception -- the loss can be near total.