Needsdecaf

This is always the very optimistic view of the MM act. in reality, what you said in the second paragraph is true. Personally, I'd only do a tune if you were honest and upfront with your dealer and asked them before hand. Because that's who it comes down to. I personally don't see the downside you mention above. It costs them money, but they have plenty of lawyers in house and on retainer, and have way more technical credibility than you do. So unless you were willing to hire a fully industry-certified automotive failure specialist to argue your case, who are you going to bring to the court table to fight for you that could stand up to the reams of data behind the decisions they've made?

Remember, VAG owns Porsche, as well as Audi, and Audi is notorious for being VERY strict about voided warranties because of aftermarket parts.

Highline-Autos.com

Well said.

23109vc

I am new to Porsche. Over in BMW land I believe in the PAST.. some dealers would know that customers were tuned..and those dealers would look the other way when big ticket repairs occured. That is no longer the case - BMW’s equipment is smart enogh to see all the parameters the car operates under, and any flash or piggyback will create boost and other parameters that will flag the car. Even if the dealer is “cool with you tuning your car”. BMW North America will deny coverage.

A couple of the tuner companies sell their own warranty that runs in tandem with the manufacturer warranty - so if you blew your motor and the manufacturer says NOT COVERED..then the tuner company picks up the bill.

It sounds like Porsche is the same way. I would probably personally pass on a tune. I’m sure it’s fun but I have CPO and woudl rather not void my warranty.

Thanks guys

George from MD

Cobb (and others) Tuning says buy our $1,500 tune. Nothing against any specific tuner but do you really think they're going to cover you for a warranty claim that's twice that? Much less a $4,500 or $ 6,000 claim? When your car has 45,000 miles on it?

For your .3 (maybe) second better time from 0 to sixty? (but the dyno says...)???
Get real.

Enjoy your car from the folks who made it great....who have far more engineering prowess than literally every other tuner out there. If you really want a faster car buy a Ruf. Or something other than a Porsche.

At least Ruf works WITH Porsche. Not after them.

23109vc

I didn’t say that Cobb gives you a warranty that was my point once you buy the tune and put it on your car all bets are off.

There are, however, some third-party tuning companies like CARBAHN that will offer you a separate warranty for an additional price and then if you blow up your motor, they will buy you a new one. It’s an insurance policy for tuning

George from MD

I didn't say you did. My point is a tune on a Porsche SUV is utter BS, a useless risk and an utter waste of money. For performance the average driver can't even discern. And will rarely if ever use.

Can't even imagine trying to go to "Carbahn" and try to collect a warranty payment. How long have they been in business and would you care to post their actual warranty terms here much less how many times they've covered a customer? I suspect it's worthless and they have no stats.

I've never trusted insurance companies and I won't say what I think of others that do.

23109vc

no worries I just those third-party warranties. You are probably right it wouldn’t surprise me if Barry deep in those warranty clauses are some exclusions they used to get out of paying for many of the claims

I don’t necessarily think a tune will be a complete waste on an SUV. The only reason the Porsche makes the turbo and GTS, and why BMW makes the X5M is because there are people that want SUVs that haul *** ..

I’m sure most owners are not going to modify the cars beyond how Porsche designs them. They are pretty damn good out of the box so in that sense I agree with you, but there are a handful of people who are just sick in the head and want to extract more power!!

George from MD

I think we're emphatically agreeing.....at least for the most part.

mbmasters

Here, I started an application for you....

Highline-Autos.com

Two names to steer clear of when it comes to extended warranty coverage, Carshield and Endurance... If they're having to run sappy commercials or spam phone calls because the automotive dealership industry does not trust you to sell/represent their product to their customers, best to stay away.

Trenton O. Gibson
tgibson@highline-autos.com
Highline Autos
Direct: 602.909.9216
Office: 480.348.0777

mbmasters

Yes, that was meant to be a bit of a tongue in cheek comment! ;-)

gkellys

I have an APR tune on my 20 Turbo. Been running it since it came out. I went in a couple months ago for a fuel line issue. No problem. Warranty covered it. Obviously at my dealer its not a problem if not an expensive drivetrain issue.
Sure its a risk, but I intensely enjoy the 710 ponies and other performance tweaks. The cost of me trading up to GT power is much more than the cost of a major drivetrain repair. That was my consideration as I didn’t really need the rest of the GT goodies.
However I do not recommend it if the warranty worry is going to be a constant concern. I get that.

Ericson38

Tunes throttle back the turbo waste gate bypass, forcing more air at higher pressures into the cylinders at high demand. More air requires more fuel (keeps air/fuel ratio optimum). Too lean means detonation. So far, so good.

Where they are sub-optimal in hard everyday use (not a 1/4 mile demo a couple of times a month for 12-15 seconds at a time is)-

1. climbing oil temperatures (need bigger oil cooler)
2. higher than optimum air intake runner temperatures, since the intercooler is not sized to cool down this higher amount of air mass x higher velocity (rate). The intercooler is there to cool down the inlet air after compression in the turbo compressor stage so that it does not enter the cylinder on the down (intake) pull stroke too hot. Extra Turbo compression only makes it hotter. You want dense and cool air drawn in on the intake stroke. One way to keep all this together is to retard the ignition timing, but that makes an engine run hotter too.

Detonation Elimination: 9 Ways to Prevent Engine Detonation (onallcylinders.com)