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Originally Posted by glhs837
In the above case, window tint causing a hole in the piston, you might be okay. But when a tech stands up and says how the increased airflow from your CAI cuased sowrling air patterns in the cylinder, leading to localized heating which burned the hole, your most likely going to lose. Never mind thats its bull, unless you get lucky and get a gearhead judge, its he said, she said.
Chances are the judge is going to have a short window of time to decide whom to believe, you, of unknown mechanical skills, and a tech with 10-20 years fixing cars. Like facing a cop on a traffic citation, you better bring the A game and a bag of chips, and a bunch of 8X10 color glossies with pararaphs on the back  |
It that case, you have to use the ol' noggin, and it still doesn't take a lawyer. Just start asking the common sense questions when you get to question the DCX witness:
1) Do you have a degree in mechanical engineering?
2) How many burned pistons have you seen as a result of swirling from an aftermarket intake?
3) How did you determine that "smirling" caused the problem?
4) What are the other possible causes of a burned piston?
5) How did you eliminate those causes for this particular problem?
6) Please explain the physics that allows "swirling" to cause a burned piston.
etc., etc., etc. If you want to get technical (but this may require a lawyer to understand the law well enough) typically it will require an expert witness, as opposed to the lay-witness, to even testify as to causation of a mechanical failure. Thus, unless DCX brings a professional witness, with an engineering degree and a whole lot of additional qualifications, you could simply challenge the witnesses qualifications as an expert, and keep them from even testifying.
(for you other lawyers on the site, yes - I am vastly oversimplifying my answer on this part).
Bottom line: It isn't nearly as scary, difficult, or rare for the consumer to win the argument as many people would love for you to believe. SEMA fights for all of us "modders" regularly, and the auto mfgs. like to try to scare people.