Whipple! To do or not to do!

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SamIAm

SamIAm

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The ford factory tune has motors locking up, phaser going out, cameras faulting, (insert any of the many gen2 issue threads on here) How are they to blame/not cover any of the known issues because of an aftermarket tune. I’d be interested in a poll of those with tunes and the issues they have vs the factory tune. Ford might be able to benefit from the (potentially)better tunes.

Ford warranty needs to get out from there mahogany desks and three piece suits and back behind a wheel in a one piece suit.
I would say that about almost every one company out there, they never want to pay out, always looking for an excuse. That’s from car, home, health ... every type of ins company
 

Raptor430

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The Ford franchise agreement does not include anything related to a dealership "performance division" or agreement that the dealer can install aftermarket components. The dealers that advertise these rogue "performance shops" often come up with convincing names like "Galpin Auto Sports" (GAS) or "Ken Grody Customs". It's all a facade to sell customers aftermarket parts with a mark up under the premise that they won't void the factory or extended Ford warranty, which simply isn't true.

Any aftermarket component, regardless of brand or who installs it, has the potential to void the warranty on any factory system if the modification is related or attributable to the failure that has occurred. So if the dealer installs a supercharger system and a piston melts down, that is between the customer and the dealership. It's not warrantable through your factory powertrain coverage. If the customer does not have a dealer-backed express warranty for the coverage of the powertrain should a failure occur due to the modifications, good luck.

FordTechOne is 100% correct regarding the warranty- Ford Motor Co will not cover any aftermarket modifications or replacement parts under warranty. It does not matter what your dealership tells you, unless your dealer is planning on covering the repairs on their dime. If they plan on running it through Fords warranty program it will most likely be flagged at some point through the warranty claim process.

I have worked at Galpin Auto Sports for the last eight years. We never tell our customers their upgrades or modifications are covered under their Ford factory warranty, their ESP (extended service plan) or third party warranty. We do our best to educate our customers and inform them of how this process works. I agree there is a ton of misinformation out there regarding modifications and what it does to the vehicle warranty, however I can tell you that our team at GAS in no way lies to our customers and tells them that their aftermarket upgrades are covered under their factory warranty. We pride ourselves in selling and installing high quality parts and services to our customers. Are we the cheapest shop in the city? No, but we strive to provide the best product knowledge in our sales department coupled with highly trained technicians who can install a wide variety of parts and modifications correctly and safely.

Lets say a customer purchases a Roush Power Pack from us and has us do the install. We inform them that their factory warranty will not cover the intake, tune (engine), exhaust and any potential issues that may arise from the use of these items. Now, Roush offers a 3 year / 36,000 mile warranty on their power packs. If something were to go wrong we would reach out to Roush and they would step in a take care of the repairs if it were caused by their product.

We also sell and install Ford performance items, which they offer a warranty for. We had an instance here where we installed a power pack on an eco-boost mustang and within a few thousand miles there was a catastrophic failure in the engine. I contacted my ford performance rep, they asked me to pull the ECU and over night it to them. Once they were able to confirm that it was their tune in the vehicle at the time of the failure they covered every penny of the repairs and the customers rental vehicle as well.

Two years ago we installed a Whipple supercharger on a 2018 Mustang GT- the customer called in a few months later saying the vehicle died on him while he was pushing it very hard, we towed it in and did a full diagnostic. Spoke with the team at Whipple and determined that yes the vehicle was being driven hard but that is what they are built to do and there was indeed a failure. Within 2 days I had approval to change out the short block on the vehicle from Whipple. Whipple covered the cost of the engine and we covered the labor to swap everything over.

My whole point in this long winded response is that we do our best to fully inform our customers of the risks and consequences of modifying their vehicles as well as benefits. We also strive to recommend products made by companies who will stand by and support the customer if something were to go wrong. We take time to test products or items before we recommend them to ensure optimal compatibility, performance, and longevity.
 
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SamIAm

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FordTechOne is 100% correct regarding the warranty- Ford Motor Co will not cover any aftermarket modifications or replacement parts under warranty. It does not matter what your dealership tells you, unless your dealer is planning on covering the repairs on their dime. If they plan on running it through Fords warranty program it will most likely be flagged at some point through the warranty claim process.

I have worked at Galpin Auto Sports for the last eight years. We never tell our customers their upgrades or modifications are covered under their Ford factory warranty, their ESP (extended service plan) or third party warranty. We do our best to educate our customers and inform them of how this process works. I agree there is a ton of misinformation out there regarding modifications and what it does to the vehicle warranty, however I can tell you that our team at GAS in no way lies to our customers and tells them that their aftermarket upgrades are covered under their factory warranty. We pride ourselves in selling and installing high quality parts and services to our customers. Are we the cheapest shop in the city? No, but we strive to provide the best product knowledge in our sales department coupled with highly trained technicians who can install a wide variety of parts and modifications correctly and safely.

Lets say a customer purchases a Roush Power Pack from us and has us do the install. We inform them that their factory warranty will not cover the intake, tune (engine), exhaust and any potential issues that may arise from the use of these items. Now, Roush offers a 3 year / 36,000 mile warranty on their power packs. If something were to go wrong we would reach out to Roush and they would step in a take care of the repairs if it were caused by their product.

We also sell and install Ford performance items, which they offer a warranty for. We had an instance here where we installed a power pack on an eco-boost mustang and within a few thousand miles there was a catastrophic failure in the engine. I contacted my ford performance rep, they asked me to pull the ECU and over night it to them. Once they were able to confirm that it was their tune in the vehicle at the time of the failure they covered every penny of the repairs and the customers rental vehicle as well.

Two years ago we installed a Whipple supercharger on a 2018 Mustang GT- the customer called in a few months later saying the vehicle died on him while he was pushing it very hard, we towed it in and did a full diagnostic. Spoke with the team at Whipple and determined that yes the vehicle was being driven hard but that is what they are built to do and there was indeed a failure. Within 2 days I had approval to change out the short block on the vehicle from Whipple. Whipple covered the cost of the engine and we covered the labor to swap everything over.

My whole point in this long winded response is that we do our best to fully inform our customers of the risks and consequences of modifying their vehicles as well as benefits. We also strive to recommend products made by companies who will stand by and support the customer if something were to go wrong. We take time to test products or items before we recommend them to ensure optimal compatibility, performance, and longevity.
That’s exactly what my dealership is saying, they back whatever install they do, they believe in the products they install and themselves doing the installation, and if any problem occurs they will handle it. It’s more of a personal relationship with them, they put you at ease, but my concern is more of down the line, when you don’t see them for a few years or they moved on from that location, will the new guys protect you the same way? To me I paid a lot of extra coin to know I was protected bumper to bumper, and I don’t want to blow my chances if a problem does accrue , but I also don’t want to be held back from really allowing this beast to be the best it can be. Thank you for your thoughts
 

FordTechOne

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This is such bullshizz....not your post just the fact.... I get ford not wanting to take responsibility for a tanked engine if by any chance a tune did it. But at this point with all these tuning companies you would think there would be some partnership agreement. You’re telling me the guys/gals at JDM or 5 star are going to make a tune that blows up a turbo? Not likely as they also do not want the liability. Just find it irritating that ford can try to blame a tune. Sure tunes mess with some things but show me a tune that blows a motor/turbo. ESP with the track record of these gen2s ie the guys who’s motor blew on the first day off the lot....does ford really have to room to talk?(rhetorical)

No reputable company is going to sell a tune if they have knowledge of engine failures resulting from it. However, OE requirements are much more stringent than aftermarket. You might have seen one of the recent threads where a user was towing with a tune at high elevation and the truck went into limp mode. That would never pass even the most basic Ford durability test.

Ford is only responsible for covering manufacturing/quality/design defects. That is true for every OEM, not just Ford. To make reference to a single engine failure out of the millions of F-Series produced each year and conclude that there is a "track record" with Gen 2's is baseless and misinformed.

There are plenty of aftermarket tunes that blow engines. We just recently had a Shelby Supercharged F-150 that is going on to it's 3rd engine; in both cases cylinder 7 was overheated and scored with melted piston ring lands.

The ford factory tune has motors locking up, phaser going out, cameras faulting, (insert any of the many gen2 issue threads on here) How are they to blame/not cover any of the known issues because of an aftermarket tune. I’d be interested in a poll of those with tunes and the issues they have vs the factory tune. Ford might be able to benefit from the (potentially)better tunes.

Ford warranty needs to get out from there mahogany desks and three piece suits and back behind a wheel in a one piece suit.

So what you're saying is in addition to the common warranty issues that occur with any brand, Ford should also cover powertrain failures on vehicles with aftermarket tunes. Do you understand how ridiculous that sounds? Forum posts are not a direct correlation to the extent of an issue; you only hear the people that have a concern, not the vastly larger majority without.

Once again, the single reference to make to an engine failure has nothing to do with Ford's "tune", nor is it a common failure by any definition. There is no issue with the factory calibration, nor would Ford's calibration engineering not need to benefit from the aftermarket. If Ford engineers could get the extra power out of the engine and have it pass all required OE durability and stress testing, they certainly would.
 

PorterW1111

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No reputable company is going to sell a tune if they have knowledge of engine failures resulting from it. However, OE requirements are much more stringent than aftermarket. You might have seen one of the recent threads where a user was towing with a tune at high elevation and the truck went into limp mode. That would never pass even the most basic Ford durability test.

Ford is only responsible for covering manufacturing/quality/design defects. That is true for every OEM, not just Ford. To make reference to a single engine failure out of the millions of F-Series produced each year and conclude that there is a "track record" with Gen 2's is baseless and misinformed.

There are plenty of aftermarket tunes that blow engines. We just recently had a Shelby Supercharged F-150 that is going on to it's 3rd engine; in both cases cylinder 7 was overheated and scored with melted piston ring lands.



So what you're saying is in addition to the common warranty issues that occur with any brand, Ford should also cover powertrain failures on vehicles with aftermarket tunes. Do you understand how ridiculous that sounds? Forum posts are not a direct correlation to the extent of an issue; you only hear the people that have a concern, not the vastly larger majority without.

Once again, the single reference to make to an engine failure has nothing to do with Ford's "tune", nor is it a common failure by any definition. There is no issue with the factory calibration, nor would Ford's calibration engineering not need to benefit from the aftermarket. If Ford engineers could get the extra power out of the engine and have it pass all required OE durability and stress testing, they certainly would.
Knowing there would be debate to the claims I stated I preemptively created that poll. Just cause as you said I am curious to hear what the general population is experiencing, not just the issues. Though the poll is simple I believe it will reflect a slight gravitation to where problems originate. The goal of the poll is to hopefully bring some confidence in the choice owners make. Just like the OP concerned about warranty, basically does he need to be concerned kind of thing.

hopefully enough owners answer to gather a distributed pool.
 
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SamIAm

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No reputable company is going to sell a tune if they have knowledge of engine failures resulting from it. However, OE requirements are much more stringent than aftermarket. You might have seen one of the recent threads where a user was towing with a tune at high elevation and the truck went into limp mode. That would never pass even the most basic Ford durability test.

Ford is only responsible for covering manufacturing/quality/design defects. That is true for every OEM, not just Ford. To make reference to a single engine failure out of the millions of F-Series produced each year and conclude that there is a "track record" with Gen 2's is baseless and misinformed.

There are plenty of aftermarket tunes that blow engines. We just recently had a Shelby Supercharged F-150 that is going on to it's 3rd engine; in both cases cylinder 7 was overheated and scored with melted piston ring lands.



So what you're saying is in addition to the common warranty issues that occur with any brand, Ford should also cover powertrain failures on vehicles with aftermarket tunes. Do you understand how ridiculous that sounds? Forum posts are not a direct correlation to the extent of an issue; you only hear the people that have a concern, not the vastly larger majority without.

Once again, the single reference to make to an engine failure has nothing to do with Ford's "tune", nor is it a common failure by any definition. There is no issue with the factory calibration, nor would Ford's calibration engineering not need to benefit from the aftermarket. If Ford engineers could get the extra power out of the engine and have it pass all required OE durability and stress testing, they certainly would.
I’m not sure I’m being understood, I’m not concerned with the tune causing the failure as much as I’m concerned with ford using it as an excuse not to repair, I paid a lot to have the extended warranty and I’m concerned if I had an engine issue that the tune would be blamed and the repair would not be covered, now that would be an expensive repair , especially adding the warrant cost as a throw away
 

hammer73

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I’ve got mine (‘18) Whipple tuned since 1000 miles. SPD adapters and Kooks pipes all the way. I don’t pamper the truck. Tune is awesome. Yeah perhaps not as much HP as others but noticeably, very noticeably, more than stock. If Ford sells or auctions a Raptor, they tune it with Whipple. Whipple is known to work with Ford on tunes and has been for a long time the only one that did trans tunes to go along with the Engine tune. (Others have caught up).

Bottom line, decide for yourself what’s best for you, fits your priorities and/or budget. The above was good enough for me and I haven’t regretted it one bit.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

FordTechOne

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I’ve got mine (‘18) Whipple tuned since 1000 miles. SPD adapters and Kooks pipes all the way. I don’t pamper the truck. Tune is awesome. Yeah perhaps not as much HP as others but noticeably, very noticeably, more than stock. If Ford sells or auctions a Raptor, they tune it with Whipple. Whipple is known to work with Ford on tunes and has been for a long time the only one that did trans tunes to go along with the Engine tune. (Others have caught up).

Where are you coming up with Ford tuning trucks with Whipple? Ford doesn’t support any aftermarket tunes, including Whipple.
 

FordTechOne

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I’m not sure I’m being understood, I’m not concerned with the tune causing the failure as much as I’m concerned with ford using it as an excuse not to repair, I paid a lot to have the extended warranty and I’m concerned if I had an engine issue that the tune would be blamed and the repair would not be covered, now that would be an expensive repair , especially adding the warrant cost as a throw away

The failure would need to be attributable to the tune in order for it not to be covered. So if you have an oil pan leak, that has no correlation to a tune. If you get a misfire and they find a melted piston, that is tune attributable and would not be covered.
 
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