Dodge told us that a recent case of denied warranty coverage on a Challenger SRT Hellcat wasn’t quite what the customer described
by Stephen Rivers
May 13, 2023 at 13:20
by Stephen Rivers
A Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Jailbreak customer claimed that the automaker denied a $36,000 warranty claim for a blown motor over a muffler modification. Dodge just gave us its side of the story and it turns out that it has ramifications for all Hellcat owners. Tuning the PCM leaves a permanent mark.
Last week, the aforementioned Dodge owner, Brennon Vinet, went to Facebook to claim that he was denied warranty coverage over a “mid muffler” delete. His statement was actually far more damning. “If you get a mid muffler [sic] delete on a Dodge vehicle it voids the warranty end of story,” he said.
Vinet claimed he was denied a full printed report on the situation surrounding his car so we reached out to Dodge directly to get a better understanding of what had happened. At first, they told us that tampering with any emission control device could end up causing a denial of coverage depending on what the issue is.
We dug a little deeper asking Dodge to confirm what emission control device was tampered with in this instance. After all, there could be a case for denial if the muffler changes affected emissions. It flatly pointed to the fact that it believes Vinet tuned his Hellcat.
“The warranty claim was rejected after a Stellantis Calibration Engineer ran Powertrain Control Module (PCM) diagnostics and confirmed that the vehicle’s PCM was tampered with and contained non-factory software,” a Dodge spokesperson told us. “I haven’t seen anything on our end regarding mufflers (ie not the issue),” he added.
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How Can Dodge Tell If You Tuned Your Car?
That had us wondering how exactly it confirmed that someone tuned the vehicle. The same spokesperson told us the following:
“[The] Dealer ran a number of diagnostic tests, including a scan report on the vehicle’s Powertrain Control Module (PCM). Scan report found PCM to have non-factory settings (unauthorized software installed). Stellantis Powertrain Service Center manager was asked by the dealer to review the case. Scan report was sent to Stellantis Powertrain Service Center for analysis. Data was checked and confirmed by Stellantis powertrain engineering to be non-factory software. Claim was rejected for PCM and emissions tampering.”
So that puts to bed any question about whether or not Vinet’s vehicle was tuned but what if he’d reflashed factory software back onto the PCM before bringing it to the dealer? Evidently, Dodge’s PCM will set an internal flag or code if it’s ever tampered with.
“If the PCM is tampered with, but returned to original, the PCM will retain a code indicating it was tampered with.” So the lesson is clear. If you have a Dodge product, tune at your own risk. As soon as one trips that flag it likely takes them out of the running for warranty repairs on damage that occurs as the result of tuning.
