[OneWay]

I emailed S.O.A. and specifically asked about upgradeing my sti,.
suspension and only using STI or SPT parts (pinks and top hats) installed at a dealership. this was thier response:


"The following is Subaru of America's position on aftermarket products:

We do NOT recommend the installation of any aftermarket part into any of our vehicles. Doing so may affect your warranty, but only on related failures. Any problems caused by the installation or performance of an aftermarket product will not be covered by your warranty; thus, you would be responsible for the repairs. Because of this position, we are not able to provide any leads to aftermarket product installers.

As for your interest in customizing your vehicle with the various accessories, I would recommend that you speak with your Service Manager. They can give you a disclosure regarding which parts have warranty coverage, which items they will install and how much everything will cost.

If you have any further questions after reviewing this material, please let us know.

Sincerely"

what a blow off. :roll:

Good luck finding a Service Manger that knows anything at all.

I assumed STi would be to Subaru what TRD and Nismo are to Toyota and Nissan.
Both you can order parts from and have them dealer installed to keep your full warranty.
They are pricey like STi parts but if something else goes wrong you are still covered.
Im guessing after this that STI parts are just pricey.
this says to me "HEY, we don't know @#$% go ahead and try it an see if it works" so it couldn't have went to R&D.

Ah well , I guess this crappy bounce the stock STI suspension has will be staying atleast until I make sure my car is a good base to build on i.e. not a "Lemon."
Since if something does go wrong in the mean time I don't want to have to fight over a modification or warranty claim

[Sands]

What do you expect from a company that needs to turn a profit and protect itself against liability? :roll:

Did you seriously think that SOA would recomend a tuner to install (relativly) untested parts and still honor the warrenty? :roll:

If you install pinks and strut tops, the only thing they can deny the warrenty for is directly related to spings and top mount failures. They said is themselves, as is proper, since it's the law.

Doing so may affect your warranty, but only on related failures

[bah14]

you need to find a dealership that will order and install the parts. I had that done with some group in parts and things went well. They will warranty the parts for as long as "they" or "SOA" will allow. Assuming you are NOT going with a clutch, this should be at least a year.

[esemes]

simply put, you need togo to mastro.

they sell it all, install it all, and tune it all.

VERY knowledgeable, and willing to help (also willing to find answers if they dont have them)

www.mastrowrx.com

[evilSTi7]

it's ashame that they're in florida, and i'm about 1000 miles away.

[Sands]

Originally Posted by esemes

simply put, you need togo to mastro.

they sell it all, install it all, and tune it all.

VERY knowledgeable, and willing to help (also willing to find answers if they dont have them)

www.mastrowrx.com

Are they having SOA back the warrenty, or are they honoring it themselves? I'll bet it's the latter.

Somehow, I don't think SOA would partner with somebody like Alpina or Dinan like BMW does.

[MastroWRX.com]

Thanks for the kind words, Scott.

We work within the parameters that we can. Certain parts cannot be installed by us as they conflict with our off road only policy. We also are no longer installing any parts not purchased here. Too many gripes about the parts that folks brought and then wanted us to remove for free.

That's the cool part, If you buy it from us, we can back it much better. BTW, just had a customer do some Progress springs on his 04 STi and he LOVES them. Looks nice too.

We do the suspension stuff and wheels, tires, all the fun to drive parts. Strut bars, big brakes, (Oh I love those AP Racing kits...)

THanks!
Bill

[bah14]

no to mention the great Ecutek jobs. Scott's numbers were really good.

[OneWay]

Originally Posted by Sands

Did you seriously think that SOA would recomend a tuner to install (relativly) untested parts and still honor the warrenty? :roll:

Wouldn't say I asked about a tuner installing untested parts.\

I asked about having a dealership install STI parts.

before I got this email I assumed the fact that STI parts cost anywhere from 2 to 10 times as much as knock off or other aftermarket parts was
for the same reason that Nismo or TRD parts do, due to R&D into actually making an upgraded part for this paticular car not just putting something in your car because it made some other car work better then slapping a name tag on it and expecting a payoff of 2-10 times the value based on what boils down to a sticker..

To me the value of STI parts went WAYYYYYYYYYYyyyyy down.
I was willing to pay for the R&D and the reassurance to both the dealership and myself that it provides , but paying for the brand name and being made tool by marketing...no thanks.

Doing so may affect your warranty, but only on related failures

Related , is a very open word.
If you change the suspension pretty much everything on the chassis could be considered "related".

[bah14]

for me it was pure luck that my dealer was willing to warranty just about any mod, save for clutch and tranny.

[Pirana]

Somehow, I don't think SOA would partner with somebody like Alpina or Dinan like BMW does.

They are partnering with ESX for their limited Ashfar edition STi, so they do acknowledge the aftermarket posibilities and still offer a warranty, just not for us. :roll:

[bah14]

Originally Posted by Pirana

They are partnering with ESX for their limited Ashfar edition STi, so they do acknowledge the aftermarket posibilities and still offer a warranty, just not for us. :roll:

at least it's a start. :-)

[Pirana]

Hopefully they can see that althought they do sell some Foresters and Legacys, the core of their business and the people who actually put them on the map are the ones driving and modifing the WRX, not the grandmas and grandpas driving Outbacks.

[OneWay]

Originally Posted by bah14

for me it was pure luck that my dealer was willing to warranty just about any mod, save for clutch and tranny.

Very lucky,

Gillman In Austin didn't even want to change the coolant in my STi when it was delivered because of warranty issues.

which is total nonsense since we are talking water (Coolant) and anti-freeze.

The Service manual recomends Subaru Coolant (It contains a couple of crappy chemicals that do not corode aluminum but corrosion is only one effect of Anti-Freeze and water it will still eat away at seals and do a couple other things. Texaco makes an anti-freeze that is superior in terms of corrosion and wear protection so I wanted to use that), Distilled water and the Subaru Additive.

But, since the Service manual recommends Subaru Coolant only ,
I got a "No go" on getting them to even change the coolant at delivery without voiding the warranty on my engine.

Worst part of it is them wanting you to leave something you know to be bad in your Engine.
No the Subaru Anti-Freeze will not cause any problems before the 36000 mile warranty runs out which is Subarus Concern
but, it will cause problems at some point and that is my concern.

..
The coolant I will change anyway myself at 1000 miles because I know for certain that put to a legal fight I could prove there isn't a chance in hell that changing the anti-freeze to the type I will use could do anything but solve problems.

[bah14]

agreed, it's touch and go with a bit 'o luck with the dealers.