Mods And Waranty

[Maxf]

I've had my S2 Elise now for 4 months and am toying with the idea of adding a sports exhaust and induction kit - improving the noise and perhaps adding a little to the performance (wish I'd bought a 135r you see).

 

Now, the car is still under waranty (and to be honest I will probably extend it when it expires in Oct) so fitting non-lotus parts would invalidate it (I am told anyway). My question is - is there any way lotus could tell you had fitted the above, fairly tame, mods in the event of a claim IF you removed them and replaced the OEM stuff before taking it in?

 

I ask because in these days of computer ECU trickery I didn't know if any 'changes' were somehow electronically logged (emmissions, bhp etc) giving a tell-tale sign that you had invalidated your waranty?

 

It is important to me that it is covered as I am not really in the position to fork out ££££'s for HGF work and the like. I like the peace of mind the waranty gives as well, as well as the advantage if I upgrade while it is still valid.

 

Any thoughts? Apologies if this has been asked before.

[Gareth]

If you are only changing your exhaust and filter you will be OK. You obviously cant get your new exhaust fixed under warranty etc. If you have a problem with say your interior, Lotus are not going to invalidate your warranty just because you changed the exhaust

[Maxf]

Ah, I understand. I suppose my main concern though was an induction kit (with a nominal power advanatge) invalidating my warranty in the event of something going wrong with the engine - head gasket failure etc (stereotypical worry I know, but hey).

[MattyB]

If its anything like other manufacturers, it'll only invalidate parts whos failure has, or could have, been affected by the modification.

[Gareth]

If its anything like other manufacturers, it'll only invalidate parts whos failure has, or could have, been affected by the modification.

Yeah...thats what I meant

[courtster]

Whose to say that an induction kit does or does not contribute to HGF, if i was Lotus i'd use any excuse to save forking out for the repair....

 

Sounds like a bit of a gamble... But if you did swap the parts back before taking (or towing) it to the dealers then you'd be fine.

 

My £0.02 worth

 

Courteney.

[Scott_Mac]

Changing the parts you mentioned won't invalidate your warranty, Matty has it sussed, in so far as any parts that may fail as a result of those mods wouldn't be covered by warranty, and to be fair, those ain't gonna change anything.

 

As for doing them, do it, i recently did the same with my S1 and its made a massive improvement.

[Kris H]

Agree with Scott - I spoke to Ian at NW and he said basically that by sticking on a janspeed I'd not be covered for anything exhaust related, and same applied to a hurricane, but if it's not related it's not an issue. Think personally that suspension mods would be difficult because of different stresses being placed on the car, but that's just IMHO.

 

Kristian

[Maxf]

Thanks for all of the comments. I managed to speak to a small, well known lotus approved repairer (who I won't name on here) who say the warranty could be affected if you start changing parts. However, they also quite sensibly said that if they were the fitters and were the ones servicing the car and carrying out any warranty work wouldn't stitch me up.

 

Looks like it might be time for some mods Hopefully I'll have the few pieces on I want in time for LeMans.