I am on my third MINI. The cars have a history of very expensive maintenance after warranty and the prepaid maintanance are gone.
So, if you decide to change the ECU and increase the power of your car substantially ,
do you think that its OK to return your car to its original state and disclaim that you did this?

 

I am a believer in honesty and doing the right thing. Furthermore, I hate when patients think I'm an idiot and try to lie to me. With this being said, I'm not sure but I believe a well-trained mechanic could tell that you've altered the car some. Just my two cents.

 

Define 'disclaim'. If you are signing a form stating that no mods were done, that the car was never tracked, raced, etc. when in fact you have done these items, then you're falsifying a document.

If you're not asked, then it's up to you whether you disclose these items.

Regarding the expensive maintenance, as it relates to the "increased power" part of your inquiry. Here's some food for thought:

I've been a MINI, VW, 350Z, and Audi owner, and on each of the forums there's always people complaining about engine / transmission issues. And when I start looking at their posting history, 8/10 times I see that they've done some sort of performance mod (people love to brag about Stage 1/2/3+ in their signatures, too). There could be a correlation there, but I'm not qualified to make a professional opinion - just conjecture on my part.

 

What about the guy/girl that never mods there car but bounces off the rev limiter on every shift missing gears, drag racing , hard cornering flat out crazy driving ? They go into the dealer with a transmission issue who's fault is that ? Is that person deceiving the dealer by saying I was just driving to work and boom the car stopped moving ....

 

The Burger Tune for $400 allows you to just clip it in in 10 minutes, and remove it anytime you want. Much simpler/cheaper than an ECU tune. And they say it increases the HP by 20, which is over 10%.

 

I sounds like we need to flesh out the fundamental question better. It sounds like you're trying to create a specific circumstance:
*Owner modifies car to add power
*engine goes ka-blamo
*owner reverts engine to stock and brings it to dealership and requests warranty repair
*dealership kept in dark about power mods, has no hard evidence why failure occurred.


For which, I'll provide a specific follow-up:
*Owner has F56 Cooper S, modified with product XYZ that adds 30Nm of torque and 20HP and no change in redline. Product XYZ only operates at "WOT", or full load. Part-load is unaffected by XYZ.
*Owner had cruise control set at 55 MPH when engine suddenly goes "BANG", leaves a trail of parts and oil behind, many lights on the dash light up.
*Just to reduce confusion, owner removes product XYZ prior to visiting dealership
*Dealership technician finds one valve spring retainer failed, causing a dropped valve, broken piston, snapped con-rod, hole in side of engine block. Spring retainers fail due to material faults, design faults, or user-induced mechanical over-rev. The latter did not happen in this circumstance.
*Dealership finds thread on forum where owner expressed elation over XYZ product, covers-up technicans causality investigation, sticks customer with huge repair bill.

In this above circumstance, it would not be the fault of product XYZ, and as such, not unethical by the Owner to withhold irrelevant information about XYZ. It would constitute unethical behavior by the dealership to cover-up the actual causation of the failure in order to blame an irrelevant part. Unfortunately in this circumstance the Owner gets the full and complete shaft for a faulty valve spring retainer that failed completely unrelated to XYZ.

We could go a step further. Let's say the owner had an F56 JCW, and product XYZ added 30Nm of torque and 3HP. That would put the F56 JCW engine output exactly matching the advertised power of the BMW 225i Active Tourer, which has the same exact engine, added oil cooler, piston compression ratio and all. It's hugely unlikely a MINI dealership would know that, so even a failure at that level during the warranty period *should* be covered by BMW/MINI, though in reality it very likely wouldn't due to their ignorance.


As you can see, making a logical statement about aftermarket products and hypothetical failures requires an intimate knowledge of the system its attached to and how it interacts with that system. A one-size-fits-all blanket statement simply isn't applicable. Even "honesty is the best policy" is only as good as all parties knowledge and wisdom.

So, like most things in life, the short answer is: "it depends".

 

The rev limiter is there to protect the engine from over-revving. It should not damage itself if all you do is put the pedal to the floor. You will run out of fuel before the engine will be damaged.

Missing gears, or money shifts, absolutely can damage the engine, as they usually precede an over-rev. Driver's fault and deserves the bill on that one.

Obviously hard cornering won't have any impact on the transmission unless there is a oil starvation problem the transmission has. I would put that into the "incompetent design" category and not the drivers fault.

Drag racing implies drag tires and traction additives at a drag strip. That puts far more stress on the drivetrain than it was designed for. Owner foots the bill for damage. Warranties are designed for public road use, not racing, unless the specific otherwise.

 

Mutual respect and protection for both parties is difficult without full disclosure
But if the factory will clutch any straw to avoid a claim then it's tricky ground

2010 TT all OEM, no mods ( wife's car) owned from new excessive oil consumption leads to new engine, at 80k car 1.8, serviced by audi independent http://www.autops.co.uk
Audi uk not interested 5k Bill

My r53 owned from new, 2005, at 130,000 miles, running 280 bhp for over 100k, with howerton meth install, camshaft, bvh, etc
needs replacement boot lid due to rust from inside, closer inspection shows rust to both rear 1/4
Mini factory agrees to 3/4 respray Bill over 2k to mini uk from bmw paint shop

I didn't disclose extra hp, as original drive train, gearbox, std internals, respectfully driven etc
am I bad man ...?
But I was not confident that full discloser would lead to the right result

 

i got my first car for my 15th birtday back in 77 a 69 chevelle and i modded it and every other car ive ever owned. never blew an engine yet. a few trannys have though. anyways your a wuss.

 

"Big hat, no cattle"

 

When you say "missing gears, or money shifts" what exactly are you talking about? Sometimes, because I'm lazy, I'll get up to about 3k in 1st and instead of going to second (which would put the engine at a little over 2k), I skip it and go to 3rd so it gives me more time before I have to shift again. In not flooring it while doing this, this is just normal taking off from a traffic light. Is this bad for the trans or engine?

 

I think down shifting to 3rd instead of 5th at about 130 mph was the intended point
yes I've heard of such a thing,
And it didn't end well for the guy involved

 

What's expensive about the maintenance ?
Ref 140k of r53 history
What have I forgotten to get done,

Or have you figured out the f56 schedule,
as I've not had a straight answer, apart from the car will tell me "when it's time"
A bit like a Jedi and the force

 

This thread is terrible.

 

Those sounds like acceptable results. I have yet to see a warranty verbiage specifically cover 'excessive' oil consumption; here in the 'states it might come down to a good-will courtesy by AudiUSA to try to retain you as a customer. Re: your MINI, of course extra power doesn't make a boot lid rust; they shouldn't have even needed to open the bonnet to paint the boot, so it's irrelevant what's underneath.

Who's a wuss? That doesn't sound very productive. Anyway, "modded it" is hardly a helpful contribution. If you think adding a custom gear shifter is "modding it" then your probability of over-stressing the engine is exceptionally low. Do you have a specific example related to the topic where you were trying to claim a warranty repair to a modified vehicle?

Missing a gear usually = money shift, which means you went in a much lower gear than intended. It usually happens when you're in 2nd and you meant to go to 3rd, but in a hulk-strength adreneline-fueled shift you jam it into 1st and simply drop the clutch. A multi-thousand RPM over-rev usually ensues, scattering engine parts across the road.

You can also miss a shift by outpacing syncros, but that'll usually just result in you revving the engine in neutral, which should never damage anything.

 

"Money shift": the classic 6th to 2nd downshift overrevving adventure!

 

A lot of you have questioned my subject. But, these little engines and their auxiliary parts can be very expensive. Just be careful out thee.