Well I was having a conversation with my pops, and he was trying to feed me a line of **** about the computers in these newer cars. He said that the computers actually record how you are driving your car. So if you are beating and it blows up, they can look at the "black box" and tell how you were driving it. They can then say that you were abusing the car and void your warranty.

I think my pops is full of ****, but just incase I thought that I would post this in here to see if anyone has experienced this for them selves or if anyone has heard of this besides my crazy old man?

 

There is a box that records driving information before an accident to my knowledge. Other then that all the computer records is CEL Lights and car conditions.

 

Since 1996 (OBD2) the cars log all of the events leading up to and immediately after and SES codes being set. Newer cars also log airbag deployments, I think it's 30 seconds before and 30 after.

I've used the datalog to deny warranty coverage before. Just as an example I had two different customers with M3s and bent valves. As soon as the valves bent it registered misfire codes, look at the log and see where they were going 60-70mph at WOT and the engine revved to over 8,000rpm. Pretty good indicator that someone missed a shift or grabbed the wrong gear

 

well i found this surfing the net on this matter. http://www.onstarprivacy.com/

 

I really don't think they could deny warranty coverage, even if they were able to tell if you beating the snot out of the car. You wouldn't have been doing anything that the car ddin't allow you to do from the factory. If you buy a new Z06 and they deny a warranty claim because you drove it fast, I don't think they'd sell any.

 

^ that website is stupid, the guy tells you that you should favour a choice of wearing your seatbelt or not but yet seat belts save lives. I wouldn't say onstar listens in on your conversations the connection is established after you call them, think of it has a giant cell phone on wheels. And like BRP was saying all cars have OBD2 and they record info about the car so no matter what car you buy your privacy is invaded. I think its a good thing it'll discourage people from driving like idiots and it'll help police see whos fault it was.

 

The car is warranted in stock form for whatever the manufacturer says it is, and as long as the parts aren't wear and tear like brake pads, etc. Then they HAVE to warranty the car. Shifting hard or hitting the rev limiter is still within the driving specs of the car. So you denied warranty coverage illegally. It is still considered a manufacturers defect if the rev limiter is set to a certain RPM, and they bent the rods at that RPM, then the rev limiter is set too high for the engine components. Hence. defect.

The only way you could legally void the warranty in a situation like that is if you could prove the rev limiter was removed or modified, in that case, we're talking about MODS now, and MODS voiding a warranty. which is totally different than what is being discussed in this thread. So just driving the car hard in stock form is not enough to void the warranty because the car is supposed to be designed to be driven to the limits that the manufacturer sets through the rev limiter and other safety features of the car.

 

The rev limiter is merely a fuel cutoff...if you slam it into too low a gear while moving at too high a speed, you risk doing serious damage to your engine, tranny, clutch, etc. But yeah, if it can be proven that it's a messed up transmission that caused the mis-shift, that's a whole other story.

 

That website is pretty lame. Undoubtedly written by a man who lives in his mom's basement and works on his website that explains how Elvis killed Kennedy.

Heres a quote from it

lol way to support your claim against OnStar and not the police.

 

Most cars I know of won't let you downshift like what you're talking about to cause the issue. In any case i'm fairly positive I could have that warranty decision reversed extremely quickly.

Car manufacturers like to deny warranty coverage all the time, and most of the time it doesn't stick in cases like this unless you can show some form of modifications to the car or gross negligence.

Accidentally going from 3rd to 2nd when you were trying to hit 4th and causing damage to the components is not enough to deny warranty coverage either... Legally.

 

i think this is BS, i broke both tranny mounts friday at the track, and i took it to gm they are fixing my car as we speak( all under warranty). So much for a black box.

 

Well it does exist. sort of, but that's not what they are intended for. They are intended to provide data to GM's engineers to make the cars more reliable and safer. Not to deny warranty coverage.

 

It has been proven that the government passed a law that allows them to use onstar to listen in on anyone at any given moment. It is in black and white. I'm not saying that I believe the whole warranty voiding conspiracy, but the dealer "could" download the info from the box. But they say they wont. Here is a quote from that website.

Most new cars sold today include vehicle warranties. Data contained in your OnStar unit could be downloaded by anyone at the dealership. This data could later be used to deny warranty repairs on the grounds that you "abused" your vehicle. Remember speeding up to about 90 to get around the guy whose bumper looked like it was gonna fall off? While all of the dealers promise they'd never do this and it would be a violation of the privacy agreements, how do you really know that they'll keep their word?

**** it I am going to the track and If I blow it up we will find out if they want to screw me over or not.

 

http://news.com.com/2100-1029_3-5109435.html

 

just dont tell em you were at the track
racing will void your warranty

 

i agree, that guy has no clue on what he is complaining about. he sounds like a stupid ricer that got caught street racing in his mom's minivan that had onstar and blamed onstar for his stupidity.

 

Three words spoken to a friend of mine over his 96 S10 he purchased new:

ABUSE VOIDS WARRANTY

because that's what he was doing... beating the living **** out of it and claiming warranty.

A couple of years ago, GM got into a deal where it data records in a series of Cavaliers, Tahoes and Corvettes. One of the owners noticed the 'black box' under his seat and bitched about it. Apparently, GM had installed them as recorders for a real world test. One of the owners had bitched about it in his Vette, citing that if they were going to use the info from his car, than he should've been compensated or at least informed of the surveillance.
They removed the box and offered to do the same for the rest of the cars.

Scott