the dealer surprised me

[jguerrero]

i went yesterday to get my oil changed at th dealer, and had a chance to talk to the head warrenty guy. I asked him about mods and what and would not affect the warrenty. he told me the following mods are acceptable: x-pipe, cat-back, cai, chip(must have rev-limitor).

the only thing that he said is in the 'grey area' is the pulley. he said this is the only thing that could damage most of the engine warrenty parts if it is determined it was installed improperly.

he told me that if I wanted to take my car in for service, I would have to switch the chip back out becuase they could not read the codes from the engine, but other than that he gave me a big thumbs up to go ahead with modding.

[Mongoose]

All sounds well and fine right now. Some dealers are hard to figure out....this one will and that one won't. Just hope you don't get surprised in the end.

[MadMax]

Here's my two cents. I have an 03 Cobra with : K&N intake ( from Paul's High Performance), Blower nose piece w/ #5 pulley ( 2.93) from Paul's also, 74 -inch belt (Goodyear Gator-rib ) and a Spin- tech catted X-pipe. I have not chipped my ECU for fear of the inability to erase evidence if I try to return the car to stock for warranty issues. I do not have detonation problems, overheat problems, mis-fires or anything else and the car runs excellent. Now, I'm planning to dyno the car to see if my air/fuel ratio is o.k. under load. If it's not.....the pulley is coming off and my 8 psi stocker is going back on. Why ? because it's not worth the danger of screwing up my $10,000-$13,000 hand built Cobra motor for a few extra tenths of a second/ car length in acceleration. My car ran fantastic with just the K&N intake and the switch to the Spin-Tech X-pipe on stock boost, it peaked at 10 psi. Plus my ECU was bone stock. I've heard too many horror stories of dealers finding out that a chip WAS in someone's car and had been removed ( leaving tell-tale scratches on the circuit board ) and voiding their warranty on the spot ! Yeah, I know that the pulley really does wake-up the Cobra in the 3000-6000 rpm range, but I'll wait till it's out of warranty before I scratch my ECU board.

[XFIRECHIEF]

I also have a 2003 Cobra & will only do some exhaust & air filter changes. Why take a chance on ruining a motor if you don't want to pay yourself for the repairs?
On the K & N system, what are the stock #'s ?
I will look for it up here in Wisc.
Thanks

[MadMax]

Chief, the Paul's High Performance intake is really nice. It's made of steel base, about a 9-inch K&N cone, comes with a stainless steel heat shroud and has O-ring seal that mates up to the mass air meter. It was proven to add 13-15hp on dyno by Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords article on 03 Cobra modifications. Check out www.paulshp.com it's on there. Also why I like it compared to an "in the fender mount snorkel K&N " , you can hear the induction/sucking scream as the blower is gulping air in at a ridiculous rate !! It's great fun to drive next to someone with their window down and go, "Whoooooosssssssshhhhh !!".

[rachrse]

MadMax why are you still posting as a vistor, haven't you gotten your membership card yet. I've been waiting for you to post some pic in the gallery. Also are you going to the Silver Springs deal, I forgot to ask you Friday night. Rachrse

[MadMax]

Rachrse, talk about lousy customer relations...I bought my car from Ernie Haire Ford on Oct 12th 2002 and still have not gotten my SVT membership kit yet ! I will call SVT soon to check on what gives. Also I cannot make it to the Silver Springs show. My sister is in town from overseas and I need to do the family re-union thing. Have fun with your flamed beauty , better take alot of business cards with you from that paint shop !