What happens with warranty with 20s or 22s upgrades...anybody have a problem?

[Northern Rider]

It might be of interest to note that dealerships make more profit on service, parts and warranty claims than they do selling new cars.

They want your service business. Dealers are not the manufacturer. They are independent businesses. They don't approve or deny warranty work. The factory does that.

Here's how it works.

Example #1. You bring your car in for service. You have a loose piece of trim on the interior. That's a warranty claim. The dealer fixes it. DC approves the claim and pays the dealer. Typical claim. No problem.

Example #2. You have 22" wheels on a car engineered for 18". Your front pads and rotors wear out after 19,000 miles of driving. Other owners with 18"s get 30,000 miles before repacement. This is non-warranty work. You are teed off because the pads and rotors are pricy. You demand a warranty claim. Because of the early wear, DC investigates. If they find out about the oversize, they probably will deny the claim.

Example #3. A front wheel bearing overheats and self-destructs, causing loss of control on the car. Or the rack and pinion steering fails. Both these examples are major safety issues because it's not supposed to happen. DC will investigate and if they find out about the oversize, they will almost certainly deny the claim.

Basically, any claims to do with brakes, suspension, steering transmission and drivetrain could be chalenged by DC. If your Service Manager, who works for the dealer, not DC, knows about your oversized wheels, he or she may not want to submit a claim, but charge you on the spot for such work. Each dealership has different levels of tolerance to aftermarket performance modifications. You may think the mod is just for looks, but oversizing will stress key running components.

Hope this helps to clarify this issue.

[Northern Rider]

Originally Posted by Hoosier_300C

Actually no, I was more referring to taking the car in for actual service, not just an oil change.

And I was simply offering it as a possible solution to somebody who has a dealer who would be that picky. I guarentee if MY dealer was so picky (or is it dishonest?) as to void my cars warranty over what wheels I had on it, I would for sure spend and extra 20 minutes swapping wheels before I took it in.

.....Hello! Who's being dishonest here?

[LXfreak]

Originally Posted by Northern Rider

Basically, any claims to do with brakes, suspension, steering transmission and drivetrain could be chalenged by DC. If your Service Manager, who works for the dealer, not DC, knows about your oversized wheels, he or she may not want to submit a claim, but charge you on the spot for such work. Each dealership has different levels of tolerance to aftermarket performance modifications. You may think the mod is just for looks, but oversizing will stress key running components.

Hope this helps to clarify this issue.

Add shaving steering knuckles to the list of no. . . nos.

Dealers are required to list all dealer installed items on the bill of sale. All a factory rep has to do is look at the vehicle file to identify the up-sized wheels. The factory is also smart enough to conduct full scale testing on the impact of 20, 22 and 24inch wheels. Dealers are required to return specific part to the factory for review. Time studies have identified the wear/dammage patterns on abused parts. All they need to do is compare your screwed up part to the control data and bingo . . . red flags pop up and a rep in standing in the Service Managers office the next day conducting a full warranty audit.

Letters went out to dealers stating that upfitting wheel/tires was not recommented by the factory. Besides the damage that has already been identified, you can also dammage your differential's ring gear (take a look at how beefier the SRT-8 diff/ring gear is!)

[CITADELGRAD87]

Look, I don't know about anyone else, but MY 300C had aftermarket 20s and tires on it before I even test drove it. I asked for the stock wheels, knowing full well that the dealer had slapped them on a base model and sold them at a healthy profit.

I like the rims, but used them as a tool to get a much better price on them than the $5,000 stickered price.

I don't expect brake pads to be warranty work under almost any circumstances, but there is NO WAY DC is going to get away with permitting their dealer to market a car that self destructs ealry due to the dealer "improvements" to the car. I don't care what goes wrong or how saavy DC is to the problem, that just means they should have FORBIDDEN their dealers to outfit these cars with 20" rims.


Even if they do have documents prohibiting their dealers from so outfitting cars, that just means the dealer eats it rather than DC.

[Northern Rider]

Originally Posted by CITADELGRAD87

Look, I don't know about anyone else, but MY 300C had aftermarket 20s and tires on it before I even test drove it. I asked for the stock wheels, knowing full well that the dealer had slapped them on a base model and sold them at a healthy profit.

I like the rims, but used them as a tool to get a much better price on them than the $5,000 stickered price.

I don't expect brake pads to be warranty work under almost any circumstances, but there is NO WAY DC is going to get away with permitting their dealer to market a car that self destructs ealry due to the dealer "improvements" to the car. I don't care what goes wrong or how saavy DC is to the problem, that just means they should have FORBIDDEN their dealers to outfit these cars with 20" rims.


Even if they do have documents prohibiting their dealers from so outfitting cars, that just means the dealer eats it rather than DC.

Grad, that's an interesting point. I talked to my dealer a few weeks ago about this issue of aftermarket oversized wheels and tires on new cars. He is a car enthusiast and a collector. He said that he would never do it at his dealership, because of the warranty issues with Chrysler. He knows some dealers do it, but has never heard of a franchise being pulled over just that issue.

Where does it leave the customer who purchases a new car with oversizeds from a dealer?

IMO, an upsize to 20"'s shouldn't cause problems. The 22's are another matter. I have a feeling that we will hear more about this issue on this forum soon.

[Cdnhemi]

Originally Posted by Northern Rider

Grad, that's an interesting point. I talked to my dealer a few weeks ago about this issue of aftermarket oversized wheels and tires on new cars. He is a car enthusiast and a collector. He said that he would never do it at his dealership, because of the warranty issues with Chrysler. He knows some dealers do it, but has never heard of a franchise being pulled over just that issue.

Where does it leave the customer who purchases a new car with oversizeds from a dealer?

IMO, an upsize to 20"'s shouldn't cause problems. The 22's are another matter. I have a feeling that we will hear more about this issue on this forum soon.

I brought up the same concerns with my dealer a few weeks ago, as they had a 300 with 20's on it plus an after market grill. I asked about warranty and the assistant new car manager who authorized it had a funny look on his face, the service manager then told me later that this dealership will not be adding any after-market parts that effect the drivetrain, but will do grills,dash kits etc. and still make a fortune.

[Mr.DJ]

Originally Posted by Mikeyjohn

...the service manager then told me later that this dealership will not be adding any after-market parts that effect the drivetrain, but will do grills,dash kits etc. and still make a fortune.

The Chrysler dealership where I purchased my car told me the exact same thing. They won't even deal with MC2 nor any other aftermarket tire/wheel company. They will however, recommend a local car customizer if you're so inclined about 'upgrading' your tires/wheels, tinting windows, etc., but they refuse to become involved. This Chrysler dealership will, however, still install one of the three different style E&G grills which they just happen to carry in their own parts department at $500 'a whack' (with 'free' installation). They will not order a different style/brand grill and will also refuse to install anything else aftermarket...for 'liability insurance reasons'.

[steve 300c]

After reading through this entire thread again ive com to a conclusion that if you want to super size your wheeel package be prepaired to be brushed off by the dealer as far as any warrnty work goes. If you have a car crazy service manager he/she will probally bend over backwards to try and help you but to still rember not all are like this. I happen to have one of these managers at my dealership and he told me that going big isnt a problem and even gave me the max wheel allowance for the "C". He also stated the the main problem with the wheel tollerance was the wear of the tires and not so much the accutual wheel its self. He said the if the differance between the front and rear were basicly noticable and left unattended "not rotated or replaced" it would infact affect the transmission during shifting due to the ESP sensors.
To this day iam still not sure why this affects it so. but according to DC it does.