michaeldantep

New to the forum, just bought a 08 C2S on the 21st with PSE. I wondered what upgrades will not impact my CPO, particularly the ECU upgrade. Thanks.

German_Saint

your fine with doing a ECU upgrade - - no worries -

I see your in the bay area - I'd check sharwerkshttp://www.sharkwerks.com/main.php

All the upgrades offered without getting into forced induction will be fine on these vehicles.

MJones

Best upgrade: The Driver!!
In it's stock trim the Carrera will make your jaw drop!
No need for any mods.

Sign-up, Attend PSDS porschedriving.com/
You will not regret doing so!!

russo

Any and all performance upgrades leave you at the mercy of the manufacturer to honor the warranty. As Mjones stated, the best performance upgrade is to improve your driving skills. In addition, any of the intake/exhaust upgrades will not give you any significant HP increases that you will notice.

MichaelL

From 997.1 upgrades over several years:
-ECU reprogramming can be an issue with warranty problems. Depends on dealer.
-Intake systems will produce some, but small power gains.
-Complete (all of it) exhaust systems will make some extra power.
-Visual or dyno inspections in some states can be a problem.
-Don't expect major power gains in normally aspirated motors.

kosmo

i was thinking the same as I was curious about the sharkwerks middle muffler bypass. I luv the sound but worried about the wrrty.

utkinpol

Check with your service manager. Cats/headers replacements may be or may be not considered as reasons for powertrain warranty termination. But you better swap them out into stock ones prior to submitting car in case if your engine dies. Headers are more critical than cats, actually, as headers intake diameter controls exhaust manifold pressure - so in case of C2S car go with Porsche X51 headers - it is best way to do it. C2 car does not need headers upgrade. For cats people usually get sport 200cell or 100cell ones, you may have issues with CO tests afterwards but usually cats do not affect engines` health.

ANY ECU flash works as immediate reason for warranty termination as it pushes engine out of normal stock parameters. A handful of dealers out there may provide such services but in case if your engine will be sent for evaluation of reason why it failed and you have non-stock ECU - good luck. that is why softronic flash which is fully reversible to stock file is a good option.

Intake and CAI systems are usually OK if you still have stock MAF sensor in there. Any mufflers, anything you put after cats also always OK.

michaeldantep

Thank you for the information and I am a Skip Barber racing school attendee (3 times progressively advancing), so I'm ok in that respect.

alexb76

Absolutely disagree that ECU upgrade is "fine with dealers". I'd say it's probably the #1 thing they look for to void warranty.

As others said, probably safest are headers, exhaust, but then again it all depends on dealer and if they wanna pick on something to deny warranty.

michaeldantep

just curious, does Porsche have someone like Dinan (for BMW)?

RonCT

Welcome to the forum and welcome to perhaps the most debated issue we have here. Try some searches on "mods" or "ECU" or "Software" (exhaust, intake, etc.) and you'll find hundreds of threads where this is all discussed, debated, etc.

It does depend on the dealer because there are some dealers that are selling aftermarket software, exhaust, intake, etc. It's hard to say "intake voids warranty" when Porsche will gladly install an X51 intake on your non X51 car. Same with X51 headers, alternate mufflers, etc. My local dealer will even change things like software - and you can bet they don't ask you to sign a liability waiver absolving them from warranty related issues if they are even possible. Has anyone here at the forum ever heard of an engine problem related to upgraded software? Heck, Porsche has different software in their own cars (ie: X51 software is different from non-X51).

Honestly, it comes down to your comfort level. Me, I'm not comfortable tearing my physical ECU out of my 2009 C2s and sending it somewhere for a change, but I am comfortable with an ECU flash that stores the original file exactly and if I want to go back to stock for whatever reason it only takes a few minutes.

I've tried various things on my 2007 C2S, which information should be useful to you. For power and sound, I liked the Porsche X51 headers, AWE Cats, stock mufflers, and Softronic ECU flash. Stick with stock airbox, but if cost is no object, then I'd get the X51 airbox. Those items dramatically changed the responsiveness, power / torque, sound, and overall "feel" of the car for me. Telemetry data showed there were significant gains.

michaeldantep

RonCT thank you for the information. It seems that if I have a CPO and I can find a local San Francisco Bay Area Porsche dealer that will do performance parts and service, that would be a good bet to maintain my warranty. I think there is one near me in Redwood City, CA called Carlsen Porsche that sells Techart performance products, so probably if I buy them and have them put them on, I'm good on the CPO.

alexb76

Safer option, but you won't be necessarily safe from Porsche (not the dealer) denying a claim. Dealers don't pay for the Warranty claims, Porsche does.

MUSSBERGER

No they don't need one.
Get active with your local PCA and get some track time. You'll find that the car is much more than you ever imagined.

mdrums

This is not me saying this but PCNA and the Porsche rep, so I am telling you all what I have directly been told....any aftermarket ECU, intake, cats, headers ect will absolutely VOID the power train warranty. You can change the mufflers though. Lowering springs void the suspension warranty and any problem with the vechicle that can be traced to a aftermarket piece will void the warranty.

Warranty is NOT up to the dealer. Warranty is with Porsche the car company not the dealer.