Joec500

Hi Josh, I have seen this question countless of times on various forums. At the end of the day, the answer is ALWAYS, it depends.

Some factors include but not limited to.

How many cars you bought
What the damage is
Mileage on the car i.e. if it's brand new they could be more lenient depending on the type of damage
Your Service Manager
Your dealer
Your relationship with the two above
Porsche regional service inspector
Porsche USA

Bottom line is that it's always a crap shoot.

At least with a cobb you can uninstall before you bring the car in for warranty work or service.

SeeForce

to op, it can. 100% yes.

Penn4S

Be smart if you are going to tune. Go with reputable tuners, don't over do IT. Decide what you are really looking for any performance mod to do.
I think some of this "scare tactic" about tuning is overdone. Be smart. There are many many tuned cars out there with no issues at all except increased performance.

GSIRM3

The dealer is not the entity that honors the warranty. The warranty is provided by PCNA and they decide if a repair is covered or not.

Tsobocop

Has anyone put this to the test, and (hopefully) come out on the other end whole?

Highline-Autos.com

There was a member talking about having his 992 and the motor popped, but it was discovered he had tune and was left to pay for the motor out of pocket. Rule of thumb is the warranty companies do not know what is not disclosed to them... some dealerships play the game, others do not. My advise would be not to be the one who brings it up first.

Any other warranty questions you can reach me at tgibson@highline-autos.com or (855) 924-1333.

911hammer

As said.. Proceed at your own risk. But, in my humble opinion the risk is small. I have yet to see one posting about a failure, let alone catastrophic, being caused by a standard tune, cats or headers. I personally have not seen an article about warranty being denied as a result of such changes. I'm not saying it never happened but based on what goes on on these forums it is way, waaaay less than the postings about how much of a joy the tune / mod has been. Mine is CPO'ed, tuned and get all the services done by a PNW major Porsche dealer without comments on those part.

Atheist

I copied this from a post I made to another related thread. But the gist of it is, no matter what anybody's individual experience is, or what anybody says, there is clear fine print in the Porsche warranty and every other warranty that puts you at risk if you modify your car.

I did some more research and this is directly from the Porsche NA new vehicle warranty exclusion page:

• Components and/or parts that fail as a result of competition, racing, track
use or other driving events (including Porsche sponsored events) will not
be covered by the new car Limited Warranty.
Note 1: You should also be aware that PCNA may deny you warranty
coverage if your vehicle or a part has failed to function properly due to abuse,
neglect, improper maintenance or unapproved modifications.

And this is from the Porsche CPO warranty:- Modifications not authorized by Porsche Cars N.A. or its authorized dealers.

- Improper repairs by someone other than Porsche Cars N.A. or its authorized dealers

- Abuse, accident, competition, or track use

So it appears modifications, or any track use can and most likely will void your warranty. I will assume the risk is even greater with third party or aftermarket warranties. I guess if Porsche is selling a new GT3 or GT4 track focused car that is actually tracked, the warranty will be void unless the failure can be traced and proven to be a manufacturers defect. Who would want to have to prove or argue over something like that. I'm sure the dealers have an incentive to get their customers cars covered as they get paid for the repairs. I am not sure what the dealer's obligation or requirement to Porsche NA is to get repairs approved, or if major failures require some inspection for approval. It does seem like dealers and Porsche NA have conflicting interests with regard to the implementation of warranty policy. It does seem like tracking or modifying a car certainly opens up a can of worms should Porsche NA or the dealer want to avoid the claim. The fine print in any contract is clearly there to protect the guarantor.

I even called the Porsche Experience Center in LA and specifically asked if using my car at the PECLA would void my warranty and was referred to my warranty contract. Clearly they did not want to give a yes or no answer but said if I was concerned they recommend use of their vehicles. Frankly if you don't want to have to sue Porsche or argue over getting something fixed I would highly recommend not to modify a car that is covered under warranty. As for a tune, it would be pretty easy to blame any engine or transmission issue on the fact you tuned your car to exceed normal operating factory setup guidelines. Seems silly to risk unless you are fine taking the chance because if you are concerned about voiding a warranty then it probably means you should avoid modding the car in any fashion. Considering that whether the dealer or PNA is right or wrong in denying coverage, they can in fact do whatever they want and you are left with a legal battle to rectify it. They don't put those statements in the warranty exclusion page to protect you they are protecting themselves.

DC911S

Dodge just denied a warranty claim on a Charger red eye with the owner claiming it was only modded with a mid pipe delete and his engine blew up. Well it turns out the ECU had been tuned, but the flag code for that after market tune was stored in the body module…not the ECU. The chief engineer at Stellantis described all of it. It’s on some FB page. So he’s out 36K. Soon as you go to a dealer for service and they plug into the car’s OBDII port, they will know if you’ve tuned it. This notion that some tuners say it not detectible and you can switch tunes back and forth, and thst Porsche can’t tell you’ve done it…is ludicrous.

Penn4S

Always been 2 sides to this issue on RL forever with the naysayers always saying tuning is doom to your warranty.
I bought my TTS in Pa from a dealer that Giac tuned customer cars. I have always been honest that my car has a tune and I don’t want them to screw it’s up during a service.

I’m now in Florida with a Stage 2 custom tune from Sam the man, again have been open about my tune and DSC V3 sport controller and have had warranty and Fidelity work with no issue.

Car is 9 years, old runs like the day I bought it with 54k miles. I give it all the maintenance love it needs.

Drive the car and do what you want to get it where you performance wise, it loves to be stretched to the limit.

Tsobocop

This makes me wonder though… if PNA is going to likely fight you either way, (ie the verbiage makes it feel like they could claim anything… how can they prove you raced <not tracked> the car? How could you prove you didn’t?) why not do what you want with it anyways… I don’t know if I just answered my own question hah

1CEBITN

It depends on what breaks. The service advisor will only do warranty work if they are getting paid by Porsche or Fidelity or whomever is providing the warranty. If the SA can write it up and get it covered with no questions asked they typically will do that. If you blow up a PDK because your tune puts too much torque to the wheels or blow a motor for some reason your $30k+ repair will absolutely be scrutinized. It is out of the SA's hands at that point, especially when an engineer or inspector of some type is sent to review the claim and they will always ask for the OBD2 output, is the car modded, tuned, etc... No SA is going to lose his/her job to save you when you have modded your car. They will also not repair something unless they are being paid to do so. You gotta pay to play, any mod is technically a risk and a poorly done tune is a very big risk.

Cur

+1 to the "risk is small, but still a risk" group.

I had my A7 3.0 tuned by APR for a point of reference.

I looked at what data I could find. Lots of people very happy with their tuned 3.0 supercharged engines, and I could not find any post of someone who actually lost an engine to the APR tune in question, and I felt the risk was enough to take on. I went with a 91 tune, and ran 93 in it all the time. Made the car more fun for me.

But I was very aware that I could possibly be on the hook for $20k should the worst outcome pop up. It's a very individual question as to whether the risk is "worth it".

Bonovo09

https://www.911partsdirect.com/produ...a-s-power-kit/

Probably doesn't provide the gains of a Cobb or Softronic tune, but assuming as OEM package it wouldn't void warranty?

Just picked up a 2017 991.2 Targa 4S without sports exhaust. The kit would upgrade by 30 hp to GTS 450hp and add the exhaust among other goodies. Hefty price tag, but lower risk.

1CEBITN

It's not an OEM package on the Carrera S, just uses OEM parts... That kit should be accompanied by a tune to use the GTS turbos on a non-GTS car. The tune isn't the only thing that causes a problem with warranty, ANY modification can cause you warranty issues depending on what the actual problem is. Like I said above, if it's a minor issue and the SA can write it up so warranty covers it no questions asked, they likely will do that. If not, they aren't going to fix something they aren't getting paid to fix. If the warranty company or Porsche says no or wants to inspect the car you will be paying out of pocket for whatever it is if you mod the car. It's a risk no matter what mods you put on there if they change the performance intent of the car while stock. Exhaust and air filters typically won't cause you any issues because they don't really change much but swapping turbos is definitely a more involved mod.