Of course, keep in mind some dealer service personnel are a-holes and will treat you like dirt if you have a modded car and won't work on it and tell you your warranty is no good. Each dealer has a different attitude toward mods, and no matter what the law says, unless you care to sue somebody, the dealer people are the gatekeepers to warranty service.

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1983 280ZX NA 2-Seater Cadet Blue, restored with Nismo suspension & brakes

2005 Saab 9-3ss Linear (daily driver)



What seems hard to understand is that techs are trained to fix cars that are equipped as from factory. When we install aftermarket mods this changes the conditions of the vehicle. So many times small drivability complaints are eventually traced back to the mod. Recently we had a 2004 Sentra SER with a hesitation and a knock from the engine. The techs checked what they could and then suggest the customer remove the cold air intake that he had installed. The customer complained that we just were blowing him off and hadnt done anything to try and fix the car. Well the customer did what we asked and later admitted that all the problems went away. Now the tech spent the better part of a half hour looking over the car and testing ect and was not compensated a dime for his time. So remember that unless the tech can fix the problem or find the cause of the complaint then he wont get paid by Nissan. So if some dealers tend to have an attitude toward modded cars then perhaps this is the problem. One thing is for sure, I have yet to have a customer offer to pay us for our time trying to diagnose a complaint that he thought was under warranty that turned out to be due to a mod. In some cases we have spent days on a vehicle and are not compensated. Modding is going to get more and more difficult as time goes on. These cars are becoming more sensitive to all variables that they are exposed to. So in the future I think that ECM reprograming is going to be a must to properly pull more performance out of newer cars. Just my $0.02





I agree 100% with anstarz's post. I work at a dealer. Our customers don't normally modify their veh. engines. I've had 2 mods in 5 years, other than the K&N stock filter replacement. One was a complete engine/ecu swap (out of warranty to begin with) that hasn't been back for anything in 2 years and a K&N typhone that came back several times w/ a check engine light until he went back with the stock filter box. Which we didn't get paid for because we didn't claim it as a warranty issue.
Any air introduced into the intake after the MAFS will set a code. Some uncontrolled air introduced before the MAFS could set a code. Basically the computer expects so much air is coming in and so much air is actually getting in. If those parameters aren't met you get a code.
I have never ever seen nor have I heard of a muffler code. I can't speak for Nissan, but I don't think a cat back system could ever cause a warranty issue.
It's normally the intake system or engine/trans internals that void your warranty for that particular part or system. If you beef your engine up to 500 hp and your rear differential blows up it'd probably not be covered. Then again if you have 30k miles on your car and never changed your oil and the engine blows up it wouldn't be warrantied either.
A good rule of thumb; if the modification you did to your vehicle has an adverse affect on a factory part then it is not covered under warranty. "External force" is our factory's term.





Medic,
That's exactly how a dealer *should* behave! :)

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1983 280ZX NA 2-Seater Cadet Blue, restored with Nismo suspension & brakes

2005 Saab 9-3ss Linear (daily driver)



I used to have an Integra GSR and the ECU was lighting up the check engine periodically. I took it in for warranty and it turned out to be a busted sensor.

The first dealership I took it to immediately blamed it on the mods. The only mod I had at the time was a CAI and exhaust. I found this to be BS due to the fact it was the VTEC sensor.

The second dealership immediately fixed the issue under warranty with no questions asked. They impressed me so much that after blowing my head gasket due to driving too hard; I paid for the services even though it was covered under warranty. I even tipped the tech.

I think owners should take responsibility for their mods and mistakes. Too many people now a days want to push the responsiblility away even though they know it's their own fault. That's why many of the good dealerships are now getting weary of mods.

'04 Silverstone Enthu