my911rs

Porsche of N.A. refuses warranty coverage on my 996 catalytic converter, because I am using FVD headers and Fabspeed exhaust bypass tubes.
This is in spite of Federal law that requires OEM to warranty catalytic converters as well as engine computer for a period of 8 years or 80,000 miles.
They are also frowning on the use of the car for Driver's Ed events.
I think i'm about to sue them. Any ideas???

1999Porsche911

Federal law requires the manufacturer to warranty the Cats ONLY if they are used as they were designed. Your modification of the exhaust system materially effects the exhaust system and cats (heat and flow) and therefore you are out of luck.

LVDell

That is why people return their car to stock (as best as possible) when they go in for service so as to avoid this very problem. They have that right to deny you since your car is now not in the condition is what when they sold it to you and their is no way to determine that your modifications did NOTcause the cat failure.

TT Surgeon

When they replaced my cats under warranty I had GHL's on the car, they didn't say anything. Of course, I let the dealer do all the routine service, throw him a bone so to speak, cheap insurance for just this kind of thing.

Tracym

The way the business world is now if you leave the dealer any wiggle room he is usually going to say "Sorry" it's your fault. It's just easier. Especially where you can't be certain that your mods didn't cause this. I remember reading that the Cats were very sensitive to temperature and if they are run much hotter than factory spec they will fail. That's probably what the dealer is saying.

leedav

GHL's are after the cat. There can be no real effect on their temperature or performance. headers are a different story.

TT Surgeon

Lee, I'll seed you your point.

SPR

Right but the other guy has headers so they might say that the better flow more heat blah blah blah

ltc

Professional opinion:
1. with regards to your catalytic converter, you voided your warranty by modifying the exhaust system, of which the catalytic converter is part. Irregardless of your contention regarding the type of modification, any/no effects on the catalytic, you still modified the vehicle's exhaust system.
2. with respect to DE, this is likely up to PCNA claiming that your DE activity resulted in Type 2 overrevs, thus voiding any present/future warranty claims on the engine drivetrain issues. If they connected a PST2 or PIWIS to your car, they are already in possession of said information.
(The use of Pcars at PCA DE's has always been a contentious issue, as they market the cars as being 'track capable', but not willing to provide warranty coverage for 'excessive track use'. This has been discussed many times before on rennlist and other Porsche forums.)

Based on this brief summary, I believe you would have a slim chance of prevailing in arbitration or trial litigation. In either scenario, you would be asked 'why you modified the car', 'were you aware of the warranty/modification statement in the owner's manual', etc. Difficult questions to avoid or answer in such a way as to bolster your case.

jumper5836

I don't have any mods and had mine replaced under warrenty, no problem.

my911rs

Thank you all for your input.
To make things more interesting, Porsche has replaced my cats twice in the first year of ownership, before any mods. They also replaced my engine after 24,000 miles. Now, less than 3000 miles later, the problem rears its ugly head again. Could it be that the engine that was defective cased the problem? This is more probable than for an aftermarket header or exhaust system to cause the failure.

LVDell

Probably not.