Maybe I should just read the fine print in my warranty, but does anybody know how and if something like a cold air intake would affect my warranty? I love driving my MC but a little more power would make it even better... at least until I can afford an MCS!

 

Read here http://www.carnutgarage.com/warranty...nty_Index.html

 

If you replace the entire intake on your MC you will void your warranty on the stock intake. But if you can easily put the stock intake back on and no one can tell you had it off then you can claim that the warranty is intact so to speak.

If you want to upgrade the intake you can start with just replacing the drop in air filter itself without touching anything else. You can choose from a foam filter, a K&N filter, and a Green Performance filter. The Foam and the K&N filters are ones that you can periodically clean and reoil.

You can add replace cold air intakes but the gains are relatively tame although the intake noise may be louder than stock.

For more power some owners choose an upgraded Cat back exhaust. Miltek, Helix, Remus, Borla, and Magnaflow all make exhausts to fit the MC with varrying loudness and HP gains.

Another simple upgrade-
Change your synthetic oil to something of higher grade- Amsoil or Royal purple rather than the OEM Castrol synthetic

Other simple things to keep in mind-
Never carry around extra stuff that doesn't need to be in the MINI, extra weight is bad.
Always use premium gas of high (top tier) quality if you can
Always keep your tire air pressure in the right range- about 35-37 psi

Finally, consider lightweight rims (15" or 16") with non runflat tires.
Less weight helps with acceleration and braking but might be less durable on rougher pothole ridden roads.

 

So minhune being that I have put in a AFE CAI my warranty is gone? I understood that we could change that and the cat back with out affecting the warranty.


Art

 

Your general warranty for your MINI is still intact unless you choose to mod everything.

Your warranty for the upgraded part is void due to the upgrade itself as it replaces a stock part.

So, if you changed your air filter then fine. Your dealership will still take care of warranty issues for the power windows, brakes, electronics, etc which have nothing directly to do with the air filter.

Most dealerships don't consider the air filter mod to be much of a problem, just don't complain to them about an air filter problem once you modify it.

Same with the cat back exhaust. You can upgrade but now you are responsible for any exhaust problems- like something comes loose or breaks or is noisy or misaligned.

 

To add to the above re: warranty voids, my understanding is that you're only in trouble if the modifaction causes a problem. So, I suppose if you put in your own intake and it sucked an insect, bird, Vespa, etc. into the engine then you'd be responsible.

I'd agree with minihune that you'll get little HP gains out of an intake, although the sound is really great and the throttle response is a bit better. The cat-back exhaust does more for performance, but we're still talking just a few ponies added.

The best upgrade I've done were a 19mm rear sway bar and lightweight rims with 205/50 16" tires. These upgrades cost about that an exhaust and intake would total, but do lots more for the fun of driving the car.