Possible Warranty Voiding

oh bah. they'll tell you that to keep you out of your car's guts.

if you had the chance to talk to a regional rep, their story is a little different.

edited to add: presuming you're talking about adding an EV switch, that is...

 

A friend of mine joked that when I opened the hood for the first time he was expecting a huge sticker saying, "NO!"

 

Well, with all that plastic in the way, opening the hood almost
tries to say "really, nothing to see here"...
.
What did you want to mod in the EV side, other than the usual?
.
_H*

 

:lol: I bet they will tell you that adding aftermarket alarm and/or stereo voids their warranty too.

Remember, they will have to prove that your aftermarket equipment caused the damage. For some of the EV switch installs, they are from Toyota (Japan)... what aftermarket?

 

There's actually a warning on the Toyota web site which seems pretty clearly to say that turning the Prius into a plug-in hybrid voids the warranty. Your dealership may be reading more in to that than is there.

That said, each dealership will make its own decisions regarding warranty coverage. If they refuse, you could go to another dealership for service, or you could contest their decision in court.

It would be EXTREMELY hard for them to argue that implementing a function WHICH IS ALREADY BUILT INTO THE CAR by simply adding the switch that is left out of the North American version of the car, is really a modification of the system.

If you install the EV switch you are not really modifying "the EV side" of the car. What you are really modifying is the user interface, to give you access to a function Toyota put in the car, and then decided to deny to one geographical area.

However, making the Prius into a plug-in hybrid definitely would void the warranty. Thus, CalCars and HyMotion are both doing mods that leave you without warranty coverage. But even that would only apply to service issues that could be reasonably connected to the mod. I.e., if you get the HyMotion mod and then an axel bearing goes out, they'd have to repair it regardless of what your dealership said.

 

IMHO, a switch that would prevent the ICE from running at all (unless the switch was thrown back) would modify "the EV side" of the car.

 

So far, there is no such switch. The EV-Mode button does not prevent the ICE from running at all... the computer decides when the ICE is necessary or the battery is depleted and automatically drops out of EV-Mode.

The fact that there is a computer with sophisticated software in between the switch and the drivetrain makes for a really complex question of what is and is not a "modification".

Toyota would have a stronger argument in favor of voiding the warranty if they didn't offer EV-mode in other parts of the world as a consumer feature. If the software was dormant and not offered anywhere, they could claim that there was a good reason not to have a switch that enabled it. But now they are in a position of having to explain why it is not a warranty-violating thing in Country A but absolutely violates the warranty in Country B.

- Bob R.

 

Exactly!! I merely wanted to mention something that would mess the car up.

 

It's the same as saying Regions that don't get leather interior will void their warranty if they add it. Even though other regions have it.

(Well, sorta) :lol:

 

What did your regional rep say about it?

 

All,

The MSRP was set based on cost analysis of repair within warranty period. The use of EV switch (even though allowed in other countries) was not factored into the cost computation of MRSP price in US. Even though the Prius computers still control the range of battery charge (upper and lower bounds), however, doesn't the use of EV switch does increase the charge/discharge frequency, therefore shorten battery life span? If so, Toyota would have a point against such modification. Don't you think?

 

It would be a good trick for Toyota to successfully claim any extra workout the battery gets HERE from EV mode is bad, while the same extra work where EV is standard is just part of the way the car works.

If you track down the name of a Japanese engineer in charge of knowing how EV works, and get him/her to testify that only in certain geographic areas like the US does EV mode constitute harm to the car, then I'd say the warranty is in trouble.

Still waiting for the first lawsuit over such a warranty issue to see what story does come out...

 

Link, please?

 

This might be what he is referring to http://www.toyota.com/vehicles/2005/prius/faq.html
That would be #25

 

Thank you.

Interesting, so use of the ICE is not counterproductive for air quality. Okay.

Well, it's not something I plan to use a lot. Mainly to move it a short distance, not on a daily use. To be honest I was against the EV mod for some time. It's only recently that I found uses for it.

 

I think they are putting the world on notice not to use either the PHEV or EV switch mods. Are they bluffing? Why would they do that?

 

Why do they make you press "I Agree" every time you first use the map during a power up? I can see if a battery is abused they shouldn't be compelled to drop in a new one. What tipped the scales for me was the fact that the EV will not operate if the conditions aren't met.

This is probably one of those "Agree to Disagree" situations.

 

To me "to be a plug-in Hybrid and run on electric mode only" sounds A LOT different than the EV mod. Notice the "and," not "or." Even EV mode is much different from electric mode only.