A friend of mine just bought a new 2007 Softail Custom. He was telling me that he has been told by another friend of his that after market exhausts may void your HD Warranty. Not knowing to much about it and not having spoken with my dealer yet, I wanted to pose the question to you all. I know a lot you have aftermarket exhausts on your bikes, has anyone had any problems with or been told by their dealer that putting the aftermarket exhausts on your bike may void your warranty?

 

No they won't void the warrant, unless it was the pipes themselves that caused the problem needing fixed (like, say the bike started running way lean and burnt up the valves or something, then that work wouldn't be covered under the warranty). If you have new pipes and then you inner primary bearing went up, then that should be covered under the warranty.

that's how I understand it.

 

Most Dealers, (mine included), will order them and install them for you.
After market exhaust installed by the dealer will never void the warranty.
I have put Vance and Hines pipes on my Superglide and when I took it in for its 1000 mile they all complimented me on them.

 

My experience: I put them on then and
had to take scoot in for warranty work (leaking primary)and not a word was said.

 

As an ex-harley service department worker I have an answer for you. People can disagree but this is how it is. The delarship that does the repair work has to file a warrranty approval to get the work covered by the people in Millwakee. Once you have changed parts if the delarship chooses not to or dose not want to cover it for whateverreason that is their call. If they file it and an audit is doneon the claim by the waranty departmentat milwakee they can choose tovoid the warnty as well if they find that no factory parts have been put on.

With that said most of the time things are not a big deal. The most important thing is that the re-flash on the ECMhas been done and the pipes were installed by the delarship. If thoesthings have not been done it is hard to say what the outcome could be but most of the time things were cool.I turned inall the warnty claims when I workedat the shop and the only time it ever got denied is when a guy put on drag pipes himself did not get theECM reflashed or had a race tuner and did it him self and then burnt a hole in a piston.That only happend once otherwise tothe best of my memory people bit the bullet and paid to have them installed and ECM upgraded correctly. The best advice I can give youis talk to a dealrship and see if they are willing to work with what you want.

 

We get these posts often here. Almost everyone changes something about their Harley exhaust, among other things. You stock guys don't get bent out of shape, I said "most". Anyway, this is obviously no surprise to dealers or to Milwaukee. As Beman eluded, they can void your warranty on the technicality that you modified the bike's exhaust, again among other things,but most wouldn't unless it is obvious that the modification caused the issue for which you are seeking warranty repair. Some dealers will tell you that it won't void your warranty if you buy the parts from them and have them do the install. IMO, this is just a scare tactic to try and get you to spend your money with them. For many things, you can do the install just as easy and sometimes better than they can and they can't force you to pay them to do it just to preserve your warranty. However, to protect yourself, don't shortcut and do something on the cheap like trying to get away with running a high-flow air cleaner and aftermarket slipons or straightpipes and not investing in a tuner or fuel manager device or get the dealer to reflash your ECM with a stage 1 download. If you make sure the bike is running as it should with the aftermarket parts, there should be no warranty issues or, if there are, it shouldn't point back to the changes you made as being the cause.

My 2 cents...

 

All

Thanks for your comments, I will definatley check with my local dealer to see what their take is on this.

 

I been concerned about this also. Just put a Screemin Eagle High Flow filter system on mine and it said right in the instructions that if the part is installed by harley that it wont void the warranty. I ve be told twice by harley parts and sales people that by doing my own work on the bike and adding afftermarket parts will void my warranty. I feel that if I have a problem on my stage 1 upgrade then I will just pop back on the stock parts and bring her in for the work to be done. I have experience doing this kind of upgrade so I am not expecting any problems. If harley was to screw me over on a warranty that is not related to what I ve done simply because I did what 90% of owners do , mod's , then they dont deserve my business.

 

I've never heard such a thing actually happening but I'm sure there's a story here or there. They just want your money so they scare you into thinking you have to pay them to do it. My dealer is actually an exception. They have never told me or the several other people I know that bought from them that they had to do the install for warranty reasons. We've gone right in, walked to the parts counter, bought the part and, on occasion, even asked the parts or service guys questions about whatever it is and we've never been told anything about having them install it to "save" our warranty. 1 friend and I even asked them straight up about whether or not this stuff voided our warranty. The answer we got basically was where I got my response above from. If the repair can be traced directly back to the aftermarket part, then yes they can refuse to repair it under warranty and/or even void the warranty. But if you have a fender crack from regular stress and you have SE mufflers on the bike that you installed yourself, they are going to honor the warranty.

 

FINALLY!!!!!!!!! ... Someone talking straight.

The dealer I bought my bike off of went over this with me. I got their word that they would never reject a claim for the aftermarket pipes I bought through them ... and had them install. Now, I'm not saying they never will ... just that they said they wouldn't. Just to be perfectly clear, according to what my warranty says,it doesn't matter if the dealer install's 'em or you install 'em ... either WILL void your warranty. Now, I'm not saying you won't still have your warranty honored ... just that the dealercan, technically reject your "claim" .. so to speak.

Now I'm starting to ramble incoherently ... Bottom line is it's a grey area.


If your bike is under warranty, you should have a copy of said warranty.Mine states in no uncertain terms, in regular sized print that aftermarket non-HD parts installed on your bike will VOID your warranty. I believe my documentation actually uses pipes as an example.

Cheers,

Ray.