You really need to decide how important your warranty is.
If you really need your warranty, then heavy modding isn't going to be a possibility at all for you. That's just the way it is. While we can get the Magnusson-Moss act to stand behind us, it is very difficult to actually face the service managers with that, because in some cases they will make up any excuse not to cover your work.
Now if limited modding sounds appealing, you can for with the FRPP stuff installed at your dealer. You'll pay more in every way over modding through one of our vendors... but depending on how far you go with the mods, you will retain your warranty.
I tend to void my warranty pretty quickly on any car. On my Shelby I was really up in the air because I knew I would have some issues to contend with (such as the tranny TSB) and I needed my warranty to cover those things. *Luckily the tranny TSB still applied to slightly modded cars*
I wanted higher quality, and more performance than the FRPP parts offered, so I ordered up a Stage 1 kit from Evolution. By the time it arrived I had talked myself into a Stage 2, so I completed that set with another phone call and order. But I did think about it long and hard. Once I threw a tune on there and swapped out the pulleys.... I knew that any major issues with the engine would likely not be covered by any of my local dealers.
After all my issues had been taken care of (replaced rear end, tranny TSB, and a few other small things) I started my car up last week to hear a HORRIBLE squealing sound under the hood. I took it in to the dealer and what did they do... blamed it on my pulley tensioner installed as part of my Stage 2.
After going around a few times about it, they finally conceded and replaced all of my belts and eliminated the sound for me... under warranty. But gave me the warning that this was a one-time only occurrence, and any future belt issues would come out of my pocket.
So some can be more fair than others. Many will refuse to touch the car once they know you re-tuned it, or did anything more invasive than that. Some don't care at all if the motor hasn't been opened up.
But if you want to get more than a 100rwhp increase... you're pretty much gonna be voiding your warranty.
I am looking seriously at that new Hellion twin-turbo system to get me around 800-900rwhp and then I might finally be happy. But until then, I'll be stepping it up one stage at a time. This Spring... I am certainly going Stage 3. Without a doubt. Stage 2 has been sooooo much fun, and now I crave more.
