I am interested in making some Alta modifications to my R56. I was curious, in terms of =factory warranty, will it void my entire warranty?

If not, what happens if something is going wrong with my car ... how do I figure out if it is a factory issue, or an aftermarket issue?

I am new to this, so any insight would be helpful!

 

Adam from Alta has addressed this in some of the modification threads. Do a search there. I too am on the fence as to if I should go Alta or JCW.

 

From the US 2002/2003 Service And Warranty Information booklet, with pertinent portions highlighted:

 

Might actually be worth asking the dealer (or dealers) you will likley be working on the car the most during your ownership period.

Granted, their answer will not be 100% in stone should somthing out of the ordinary come up, but they will be the first in line of defense should somthing bad happen. Some dealers don't care if your car is modded and will help a MINI owner under all but the most exteme circumstrances... some take a very dim view on modded cars. It's nice to find out where your parts and service guys stand.

 

Warranties are expensive for manufacturers. In many cases they will use whatever they can to deny a claim. That being said if you do something that doesn't substantially alter the vehicle, you might be safe. I put an Alta swaybar in mine, and am not terribly worried.

But when you get into chips, and turboback exhausts, the plot thickens. Also keep in mind what the dealer will see as the intention of the modifications. I've heard of Harley voiding warranties simply because of the number of mods on a bike (even though all the mods were Screamin' Eagle parts manufactured by Harley).

It's also not just the dealer you have to worry about. All parts replaced under warranty are returned to MINI.

And MINIs have incredible memories. Just about everything you do gets recorded on your keyfob, so they will know how you are driving your car.

If you want to be absolutely safe, JCW is the way to go.

 

I'm no lawyer, but I do fix european cars at a dealership, from what I understand, we can't deny a warranty just because there are some aftermarket parts on the car. That being said, if you have lowering springs & come in complaining about your shocks leaking, poor ride, or squeaks & rattles, you're going to be told to hit the road. If however, you have a complaint about an oil leak or something else that couldn't have been affected by the modification, you still have your right to the warranty repair.
As long as you can swap the parts back to stock before you take the car in for service you shouldn't have any trouble, eg, remove a plugin piggyback ecu, put the stock airbox or filter back in place...
Of course you're always at risk that the ecu might tattle tale on you, I know the VW's store codes for over-revving the engine & overboosting the turbo. The codes don't trigger the CEL, nor are they readable with a generic scantool, but they're loud & clear on a VAG scantool. VW really doesn't like paying techs for warranty work.

 

From a new MINI owner who already has a couple ALTA mods (and is getting ready to do a good bit more ) I can say the good thing about working with them in particular is that they stand behind their products. In experience with my dealership (Otto's MINI) putting on an aftermarket part does not void the entire vehicle warranty, but rather just the warranty for that particular part. So although I lost the factory warranty on my intake system, for example, I'm now covered by ALTA's own very thorough warranty. I do admit that it'd give me a lot more peace of mine to be covered from bumper to bumper by the factory warranty However, for me at least, it's worth it for some awesome mods from a very reputable company.

 

If you think that MINI won't make any effort to deny a warranty claim, consider this.

They shipped cars without jacks and lug wrenches because in their words, I had roadside assistance and didn't need them.

An anthracite headliner costs no more to produce than the standard headliner, and probably goes in a lot of cars, but costs the buyer $200 extra.

I could go on...

 

So say you go for an ECU mod from company X (since that was the mod that has the most potential for warranty issues IMO). For some unknown reason it creates a catastophic failure and your head and pistons are damaged due to detonation.

I dont think MINI is going to rebuild your engine for you after the ECU mod.

Will company X?

I HIGHLY doubt it!

 

It would be up to your dealer; they can always "see" or "not see" any and all mods.
It's good to have a rapport with your local wrench.

 

Granted - and that's why you don't see the ECU on my list of planned mods. IMHO, not worth the risk on a brand new car as I also feel that if any mod is going to cause both warranty and mechanical problems, it'll be that. Luckily there isn't one available for the MCSa as of yet anyway, so no temptation here.

 

Actually, leading off what I just said, for all you seasoned mod'ers - given that the ALTA ECU system is PnP, would it be that easy for the dealer to know you have it? Of course assuming that one switches back to the factory maps before bringing their MINI in for service.

 

There's lots of stuff getting recorded on your keyfob. I wouldn't be surprised if ECU changes was one of them.

It would be really nice to know exactly what the MINI is capable of remembering. Any MINI techs out there that could fill us in?

I hate to bring my car in for a warranty issue and have them tell me "Oh, you exceeded 4,500 rpm with less than 1,250 miles on your car. CLAIM DENIED!"

I think it's going to take more than covering your VIN and license plates at the autox track to stay out of trouble...

 

It seems to me that there is a lot of paranoia about warranties. If you read the sticker on the top left of the widshield you would think that using a cell phone or radar detector could lead to warranty problems. I always find it strange when someone waits for the warranty to be over before modifying their car. If you do an ECU upgrade or other change that results in a destroyed engine you are guaranteed that MINI will not cover it if it occurs after the warranty. You at least have a chance if there is still a warranty in place.

 

Hmmm, well when you put it that way...

 

Please excuse my ignorance here but it has been stated several times that there are MANY things that get recorded on the FOB and the dealer may find out about certain mods by what was recorded. What about using one FOB to drive and only use the spare FOB for when you bring the car in for service? Or more importantly, only use the spare FOB when you have switched out the mods?

 

I understand why the dealer would deny warranty on the engine if the engine is modded. If the software upgrade was 100% safe and guaranteed engine longevity why wouldn't MINI make JCW ECU upgrade to produce as much power as the aftermarket companies?

 

The Alta/Unichip is a piggyback unit (that requires no cutting/splicing/modifications), not a map change, so the worst case, your ecu might record that it saw 'odd' data from the sensors if a fault is tripped. It would likely be the least detectable modification if you removed it before taking it in to the dealership. Of course, modifying your car, breaking it, then expecting someone else to pay for it isn't exactly ethical either. The warranty's there to cover manufacturers defects, not customer abuse.

If you have no mechanical skills or tools to reverse any bolt on modifications or repair what you break & can't afford to pay for the repairs if they do deny your claim, purchase the JCW stuff. I haven't heard anything about a dinan kit for the R56, but that would be another way to go & retain the factory warranty.

 

Another mis-conception, your FOB doesn't record ANYTHING, it's an RFID tag, basically a digital serial number. When you get in your mini the key's read by the cars security module & transmitted across the buses to the other modules; The ecm will check key number against it's stored database of accepted key numbers and start the car, the radio will read the key number and retrieve your favorite radio stations, if you have seats/mirrors with memory functions, they'll move to the positions stored in their memory that match that number, and so on...

Everything that's stored, is stored in the memory of the cars modules & the 'key' specific items are simply databased against that key number.

 

I don't think this is accurate . I visited the local MINI dealership recently and was quite amazed that the MA used my key fob to retrieve all the information she needed about my MINI right at her desk! Diagnostics readings, mileage and all the information she needed to complete her write-up. She had a desktop unit that basically downloaded all the data.

 

I am still leaning toward ... they will find a way or reason to say it is the modifications that are causing the issue.

And then what?

Scares me.

But I am certain I will do some eventually ...

 

Looks like you're right, I had to do some digging as I haven't heard of or worked on any cars with such a fob, but BMW's in on a couple of the Patents.
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20060114101.html <- BMW AG specific patent for Modular vehicle key system technology (comfort access)

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20060170531.html <- IBM patent expanding upon & referencing BMW's patent

& here I thought the Saab computer systems were pretty cutting edge
there's even mention of tracking/gps data, looks like they've shrunk big brother down & stuffed him in that flying saucer after all.

 

Your key does NOT record whether or not you have mods on your car... It records basic data such as RPM's for a limited period of time, mileage, VIN and DTC codes, that's about it. Your key is not storing 200 megabytes of logged data for BMW to sort through and determine whether or not you're abusing your car. It's simply too small, the space doesn't exist to include a solid state flash chip of sufficient capacity.

 

It is illegal for dealers to "void" your warranty. They just refuse work.

 

A 4 GB drive the size of a chicklet: http://www.kingston.com/flash/dtmini_migo.asp
There is definitely room in the FOB for storage space if BMW wants to record what's going on with your car.