When I bought my new car (lancer sportback), the salesman suggested that I consider adding a cold air intake to increase my performance and fuel economy.

When I had my car in to the dealer for it's scheduled servicing, I asked the service manager if adding an intake would affect my warranty in any way, and he said that it would not compromise my warranty, as long as it was the right type, and was installed properly. Because of this, I decided that my best bet would be to have everything done through the dealer, and I had my dealership order and install the intake (it is an Injen).

Being a newbie to the whole performance car scene, I had never heard of the dangers of sucking water into the engine via a cold air intake, and at no point did the dealership service department mention anything to me about it. Some friends have since warned me about this issue, and now I'm a little concerned, as I live in a very wet climate...

Anyways, I'm just wondering what would happen if I did hydrolock damage to the engine, would mitsu still honor their warranty? If not, is it the dealer responsibility to let me know about this danger when they ordered and intalled the part for me? Should they have at least warned me about driving in heavy rain and puddles (pretty common around here).

Is the fact that they didn't mention anything about this, enough to keep me secure in my warranty?

As the customer, I simply heeded the salesman's recommendation to get an intake, confirmed with service department beforehand that it would not affect the warranty, and had them perform the work to insure that my warranty is not compromised.

I guess I'm just a little paranoid now, I bought this car based on the awesome warranty, and I want to make sure that I don't risk screwing that up....

 

As an automotive service manager (BMW, Saturn, Buick, Pontiac, GMC) I can tell you without a doubt if you suck water into the engine and damage it, they will not cover it under warranty. Three reasons for this;

1. The vehicle is now considered "modified".
2. It is not a Mistubishi option or part.
3. It is the driver's responsibility to keep their vehicle out of harms way, meaning "Don't drive it through water deep enough to cause a problem".

We (manufacturers & service managers) do try to give the benefit of the doubt to customers. I ask myself, "Did the part or modification cause the failure?". If water gets sucked into the engine because of an aftermarket part it would not be covered. If water gets sucked in through a factory intake pipe because the driver went through water it would not be covered.

Hope this helps.

 

as much as i don't agree w/ the morality of this scenario... i believe Vicious is correct. no matter if a dealer recomends it or not, if something happens to the car to cause it damage and it is due to an aftermarket part...the warranty isnot going to cover it. i would consult w/ a lawyer about it to get final say so about it though.

 

You can drive through heavy rain and puddles. Just don't drive through standing water deeper then8 inches or so. The only way to suck in water is to drive through water that is higher then the airfilter on the end of the intake.

 

Cool, thanks for the info guys. Not sure if I will keep it or not, the only reason that I could justify buying a new car is because of the warranty.

I guess what kind of bothers me, is when they originally recommended that I consider an intake, I asked them if this would affect my warranty, and they said it would not compromise the warranty in any way, and they never said anything about the chance of sucking water into the motor.

Then when they installed it, they never warned me about it either. So if not for outside advice, I never would have been warned about staying away from puddles.

I guess it is my own fault for buying something that I (obviously) didn't fully understand how it works or what the implications were. However, I would have hoped that the dealership that recommended it to me might have at least checked to make sure that I understood what I was getting into with regards to my warranty.

Thanks again for the advice, next time I'll check here before I do anything else to my car...

 

This will only happen if the intake is fully submerged. If you dont plan on driving in a 2ft high puddle then you are fine lol

 

Yeah, what he said.

 

...I killed my first 6g72 that way.

 

So you killed it by driving through a superdeep puddle? Or was it just from driving in heavy rain and splashing through puddles on the highway?

Like did you actually get it submerged?

 

Superdeep puddle. The rain isnt really a worry..