I like to remind consumers that warranty denial such as this is BS-
If you own a car, you know how important it is to keep up with routine maintenance and repairs. But can a dealer refuse to honor the warranty that came with your new car if someone else does the routine maintenance or repairs?
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation's consumer protection agency, says no. In fact, it's illegal for a dealer to deny your warranty coverage simply because you had routine maintenance or repairs performed by someone else. Routine maintenance often includes oil changes, tire rotations, belt replacement, fluid checks and flushes, new brake pads, and inspections. Maintenance schedules vary by vehicle make, model and year; the best source of information about routine scheduled maintenance is your owner's manual.
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0138-auto-warranties-routine-maintenance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson–Moss_Warranty_Act
Try not to let unscrupulous dealer/repair locations or suppliers give you a hosing.......unless your into that sort of thing.
OM
OM:
No...this is not about who did the maintenance.
It's about using stuff in your car/bike etc that is not approved by the manufacturer.
In this case, a very expensive Porsche ABS fried at a track day. When the zone rep inspected it, there was blue brake fluid in it. Warranty denied. Porsche does not have any approved blue brake fluid. Super Blue does not have Dot 4 rating...simply because of the dye. I'm not saying it's "bad", but it is the wrong color. Easy for warranty denial.
Viscosity is harder to detect..and there are engine events that can affect viscosity. That makes it even harder to detect. Possible that, if the oil is consistency of cold molassas and the spec is for 0w20 that they might deny warranty repairs. I've never seen it.
There is a lot of discussion about oil weights in the Porsche forums too. They are also accustomed to thick oil and the new engines use thin. I use 5w40 in my 120K mile Cayman S instead of 0w40....but I won't use 20-50. There are people who race them and successfully use thicker oil, but they've also had the engines apart and have opened up the oil channels in the block and bearings. Point is, new engines aren't made the same as the old ones...and manufactures CAN deny warranty payments if you use unapproved fluids or parts and those items can be construed to have contributed to a failure.
My '05 RT's rear swing-arm housing broke in 3 pieces when I hit a road hazard one day. They denied the warranty because I had Wilbers shocks on the bike. I was really mad about it at the time...however... The Wilbers were triple adjustable and they were set too soft for the load I had on the bike at the time. I think they bottomed. The big, fine-thread bolt that fastens the shock to the swing arm was not torqued with a torque wrench and may have been over-tightened, contributing to this failure. My insurance paid for the repair on a road hazard claim. I had to pay deductible but it was covered. I also learned that torque wrenches are important. I had skipped it because the position of the bolt made it tough to use a torque wrench. I have torque wrenches...just not the right extension for this job. Now, I do.
Anyway, fair is fair. Sometimes, the manufacturer has to protect itself. They're not just out to get us.
