The warranty guidlines are really vague in thie crappy document I got. What will void the warranty? I have 19" 245,275-35's for fronts and rears. If I were to drop the tranny.. Would they blame it on the tires. I also have XERD full length headers coming and a kinetix manifold. What should I be careful of doing?

 

Technically speaking, if they want to they can try to say just about any mod voided the warranty. However, just know that by law they must *prove* that your mod was the cause of the break down. And if they give you a hard time, be sure to let them know that *you* know this, and that you *will* send a lawyer after them if they don't comply. Court is the last thing a dealership wants.

 

Although this is the way it should be, it really isn't. In your case, if your tranny went, they could EASILY say it was from the headers and/or manifold and not cover it. I have been around the block with warranties and the advice I can give is as follows:
1.) Be smart where you take your car - VERY IMPORTANT
2.) Knowing the MMA is good, but by no means does it hold much weight. Don't think it is your saving grace because it is NOT. Dealers don't really care about it.
3.) Be honest about what's going on with your car - this is not to say, that you have to disclose all the aftermarket parts that are or 'were' on your car.
4.) Have a bit of luck.

I had a tranny litterly explode in one of my cars with the following parts on it:
Full exhaust: headers - test pipes - cat back
Intake
underdrive pulley
HKS S-AFR

I had issues at one dealer, so I took to another and had nearly 10K in warrant work completely covered.

My last bit of advice is to pick and choose your battles wisely. I had an issue with a torn CV boot on the same car as I had the tranny issue. The dealer would not even LOOK at the car let alone fix it because it was lowered. I pulled out the big guns and did exactly what the previous post said and stated the MMA and how they had to prove that the springs caused this. They basically told me to go f*ck myself and if I wanted to put up more of a fight, they would 'black list' me due to the other 'modifications' I knew that this wasn't worth it, so I took my car home and fixed the $15 piece myself. 10 months later, the tranny goes so I took it to a different dealer and the rest is history.

 

Zivman makes very good points, and thats probably a bit more how the real world works.

Of course, it would be wise to try to take off any mods you can. This might not always be easy with things like exhaust, but rims and bolt ons should be pretty simple.

 

Has anyone had any warranty problems due to having an aftermarket cat-back exhaust on the car? My Borla TD is in the mail.

I had never even considered that a mod like this could affect the warranty...

 

+1.

Make friend, not enemy with the folk at service dept. They will make your life much easier later on.

 

Maybe I ll bake em a cake hahahah

 

Cat back exhaust is fine to put on your car according to the warranty guide i have here.

 

Don't forget to check your emissions laws. Some parts do not have an emissions certificate, such as CARB in Cali, and if you are subject to testing, you may fail the test. That's how it is in Oregon but they will allow CARB certified parts.

As far as warranty is concerned, Nissan will say and do anything to not cover a warranty repair if you have modified your car. But remember, the burden of proof is on them to prove the aftermarket part caused the failure.