So when I was at the dealer today, I talked to the business manager, who was trying to get me to buy these accessories. But thanks to the forum I know where to get a lot of them cheaper and when I asked for the lower prices he balked so I just didn't get them.

But he told me that any electrical work I have done by a third party - ie, aftermarket stereo, alarm system, remote starter, etc - voids the honda warranty on my electrical system. He was saying it's to protect them in case they install it wrong and botch it, then they're not going to fix it. I countered by saying "What if they install it perfectly and nothing is wrong with it, but separately a faulty part put in by Honda gives out on its own?" and he insisted that if they see any aftermarket parts attached to the electrical system, it voids the warranty on the whole thing.

Is that just a bunch of dealer B.S. to get me to buy stuff from them or is that true? I've never bought a car new enough to have a warranty before so I'm not sure.

 

Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.

Magna Charger manufacturers intercooled supercharging systems for late model GM and Ford cars, trucks and SUVs utilizing OEM quality Eaton hybrid superchargers.

 

BULL! if you have something done to the electrical system and something unrelated happens say a motor mount comes loose, they have to fix it. in order for them to deny you warranty coverage, they must prove your modification caused the damage. if they can not do that they are legally obligated to honor the warranty.

 

Oh I know that, but I mean... Ok so this guy was saying, if I get an aftermarket stereo for example, and then my air conditioning fan stops working or my dashboard lights go out or my computer screws up, because I have an aftermarket part attached to the system, anything involved with electrical on my car is no longer under warranty. It sounded like bull to me, so don't think I'm arguing against you, but I just wanted to be clear. He wasn't saying nothing would be covered, just nothing to do with electrical. Does that sound normal? He said if I brought it in for warranty repair on something electrical and they looked and saw anything aftermarket, they wouldn't do anything and I'd be on my own.

I mean I would think they'd have to prove that what was wrong had to do with the aftermarket part, but he was pretty adamant about it. :/ Not that it got me to buy anything. He wanted way too much money lol. He was charging more for the accessories than the MSRP on Honda.com itself!

 

the OP is asking if it'll affect the warranty on the electrical system though. i'm not sure about this one really. it would probably get kinda complicated if you had some electrical work done and then something failed in your electrical system. i could see the car owner getting denied warranty repairs in this case...but who knows.

 

Just as a followup to my own question (now I'm going to sound crazy answering myself), but in case anyone else searches for this topic and wants the real answer - now that I actually have a physical copy of the Fit's warranty and read the whole thing, there's nothing in there that says you void your warranty by putting in aftermarket parts. Honda doesn't extend their warranty to the things you add through a third party, but that's to be expected. Nowhere does it say that anything added to the car voids the entire electrical warranty. However anything broken by that third party part if it DID cause problems with other systems, if they could show it was the aftermarket part's fault, would not be covered. But that also only makes sense.

So basically, if you put other things in, Honda won't cover those things if they break, and also won't do free repairs to anything that breaks due to the thing you added. Standard stuff.

 

anything will void your warranty as far as im concerned. if they really want to void your warranty for an aftermarket part, they'll find a way. just my $.02

 

^ No man what are you talking about! Aren't car salesmen known for being honest, trustworthy helpful people?

If you are really worried about it I wouldn't chance it, I'm sure they will find some BS way to screw you out of your money...

 

Honestly, it really depends on the dealer. I wouldn't worry about it to much.

 

It has been my experience that the business managers at car dealers tend to be overly dramatic drama queens when it comes to matters of warranty work. I would suggest you check out the service department, and manager, to see if they have a similar attitude. If they do, then its time to visit other Honda dealers. As hondaFORlife implied, every dealer has different degrees of latitude on this type of issue.

 

My son put in some under-dash LED lights...not very long after that, the TPMS light came on and my fog lights stopped working....not too hard to figure out that something went wrong. I took it to the dealer and just told them the TPMS light was on and the fogs were out...They did note that the LEDs were there, but they also worked for a couple of hours trying to figure out why the electrical glitches had happened...I was not charged for labor. I have now removed the lights and have to get it back to the dealer so they can truly fix it. I'm thinking my son hooked the fuse into a space that was empty, but that the computer had reserved for some other accessory, so it may have blown that fuse box (inside the car). At any rate, I can tell them it started before the LED lights now that I recall...

Don't let the dealer intimidate you! They *have* to fix the problem unless it really was caused by your mod. And if they can't *prove* it was caused by your mod, they still have to fix it.

Reminder to self and others: Always request that they keep the old parts so you can examine them.

 

As far as accessory pricing Honda.com pricing does not include installation (if any). Just retail price for the part. As for warranty claims yes the problem must be directly related to the modification. I have seen aftermarket stereos void portions of the warranty. I've seen where they weren't the problem.

 

I have retro fitted HIDs in my car and the JDM taillights, I brought the car into the dealer because my airbag light was on. Talking to the service guy I told him the only electrical thing I have done was the retro fit. I had the airbag light fixed under warranty no problems at all, though that might have been because the problem was something that was recalled.

I could see if you got a aftermarket deck I cant see them being able to void the entire electrical warranty, now maybe any thing that might be tied in with the deck or dash they might be able to.