Dealership might try to use mods against me

Again, they don't have to prove anything. They can just say and deny. Then it escalates and see what Toyota says.

 

They have to give a description of why they denied it, but OP can read the stickies himself...

Page 17: “...a warrantor denying warranty coverage due to the use of “unauthorized” parts or service must show that such use caused the defect or damage to the vehicle.”

https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/federal_register_notices/2015/05/150522mag-mossfrn.pdf

 

They are only responsible for the first 5,000 afaik and its arbitration. After that, it goes to the customer, if the repairs are under 5k, they typically take care of it. Unless. Its " that" dealer.

 

Please tell me you didn’t say something like “did the mods caused it?” IMO when asking for warranty repair for anything, it is better to give as little information to the shop as possible, and let them figure it out. Otherwise, if they can’t figure out the issue, or if it turns out to be a complicated repair, they throw out “xxx you did caused the issue” excuse.

 

Yeah, the whole idea that they would need to prove xxx mod caused the issue is not really practical. Yes, if it goes to court, they will need to prove, but we are talking about taking a multi-billion $$$ company to court here. It takes a lot of money, time and patience to deal with something like that.

 

It’s specifically stated by the FTC that they have to provide a description of why the warrnty is denied (my post #22 above). And it would only be a small claims court case for the OP if he wants to go for it. Toyota would pay it off to drop the case instead of going to small claims over it.

 

So, let's say you have severe engine problems. They open up the hood, see a shitty intake and find dust in the throttle body. They close the hood and say mods caused it, warranty denied. They did what you said and don't have to prove anything until court.
You have read this cautionary tale located in our stickies right?
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ffs-lets-all-stop-referencing-the-magnussen-moss-act.609911/

It paints a much different picture than "$5K" and "Small Claims Court."BTW this is my favorite part:
"One rainy afternoon my lawyer called and said that we had our first M-M hearing date in federal court. I dry-cleaned my only suit and away we went.

I'll spare you all the gory details, I'll spare you the legalese.....the defendent countered all my facts and all our prep with one simple move - they motioned the judge to have my car entered into evidence as it WAS the evidence in the case. The judge agreed. In five minutes, the manufacturer had literally prevented me from driving my car until the case was settled.

The second move that the manufacturer did was to ask for a delay until the next hearing. The judge agreed.

The third move that the manufacturer did was to ask for court-mandated mediation. The judge agreed.

My lawyer protested on all counts. As a consumer, essentially robbing me of my car for months, possibly even years was contrary to the spirit of the Act. The manufacturer countered by saying that the car WAS the evidence and they needed to make sure that it was not further tampered with. They also needed time to perform their own evaluation of it. They even offered to split the costs of this impoundment with me!

My lawyer made the point to the judge that we were getting caught up in needless procedure and minutia....that the manufacturer was on record through deposition stating that they had denied warranty work solely due to the fact that the car was modified. That they had admitted at the same deposition that the warranty issue was so severe that they had not only issued a TSB for it, but a pending recall was in the works.

The judge was not swayed. Car was to be locked up as evidence, we were to go to mediation (which costs a shitload of money) and that the manufacturer was granted delays to gather more information.

At this point my lawyer and I stopped for lunch. He says, look, I've worked on this for free so far....and if I was charging you, you'd be about $12K in the hole. I'll represent you for free in mediation, but until there is a verdict, mediation is split 50/50 and one day will set you back $3500. This is for $1400 worth of fucking work.

I said let's try one day of mediation.

Mediation consists of a neutral lawyer trying to convince both parties that they are fucked and don't have a case - so that they agree to meet in the middle. The manufacturer played pocket pool for 8 hours and then promptly asked or a second session in 90 days time.

At this point, I had enough. The car was impounded, I had just spent $3500 to get satisfaction on a $1400 issue and by all rights probably owed my lawyer $15K. I told him that if the manufacturer supplied the new harness, I'd install it."
Talk about getting hosed lol. $18.5K to fight a $1400 bill.

 

This is exactly why I've never made anything beyond a purely cosmetic modification to a vehicle.

I'd be the one dude in a million who got busted for an OV Tune or something similar. Not worth invalidating a factory warranty over.

If the warranty has expired, then that's another story.

 

You did not use Toyota wiper fluid. Denied

 

Are you and your attorney buddie still amigo's ?

 

TL: DR--not worth the fucking time, energy, or money.

 

I did read that, its been up here a long time here. It was sometime after my own warranty issue though. I told the dealer that my new shell didnt cause the bed to be misaligned from the cab on my new (then) truck (it was actually a bigger job than they realized because they had to do some cab alignment as well). They wanted to charge me because they blamed the shell I put on the truck. So I asked for more details why and mentioned the warranty act and about how the bed on a 2 ton truck could move with a light cab on it. Anyways, they did a good job realigning it for free.