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Originally Posted by kern417
They cannot deny claims for using OEM equivalent parts.
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Fair enough. Let's now discuss the definition of "OEM equivalent"?
I can easily find 10 reasons why a certain part is not "OEM equivalent", if I want to! A Brochure is not enough for an end-user to claim that. Give me independent lab test reports, give me quality assurance, give me configuration control.
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It is illegal for any OEM to force you to pay their prices for replacement parts because, believe it or not, even the legal system believes that it is price gouging.
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Except that no one is forcing you anything. It is your property - do whatever you want with it (as long as you don't jeoperdise safety of others). You are however
encouraged to use approved parts. If you want to rely on warranty that is....
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They charge more because they can, not because it's better.
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True story. This is how business/economy works.
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Many aftermarket suppliers provide equivalent replacements for 1/2 the cost of OEM or better. Even the OES provides parts to the OEM that are simply repackaged and sold with a markup. All that to say - price has nothing to do with it when determining quality.
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Also true. However don't mix quality with
assumed responsibility. And quality is a subjective thing when lacking configuration and quality control.
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HOWEVER, anyone that understands how an engine works understands that the filter did not cause the issue itself. The reason majority of these bolt ons do anything for performance is because they improve engine efficiency.
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Not true. The engine efficiency is limited by software, not by air-filters. At least in cars built in the last 2 decades. Plenty of tests prove that a stock engine gets all the air it needs through a stock filter. You can only benefit from an aftermarket filter if your engine air-demand has increased, e.g. tuned engine. Or if the original design was so bad to start with, which is normally not the case.
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What most people do, i.e. driving around 50k+ miles with clogged oem filters, is way more dangerous when it chokes your engine's supply for air. A damaged filter, sure. Improper installation, ok. But you can't just look at a filter and say it caused an issue that blew your engine because it's an aftermarket cone.
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No one is saying that. The Manufacture however is saying, that whoever decided to play engineer should also overtake responsibility for the whole system. You can't e.g. change ECU SW and then claim that this only affects the ECU itself. It is a complete system of components. And since there is an endless variety of aftermarket parts it is not the OEM's task or responsibility to assess their quality and suitability. It is the installer's task, overtaking all responsibility for his actions.
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It's a cop out on their part. That's it. And to say things like adding an intake is suicide is just ridiculous. You don't needs books of data to understand that. It's common sense.
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For a third time - it is a suicide (mainly) from a warranty / trouble perspective, not necessarily from a technical. Evidence available in this thread. And the worse part is - the gain on a stock engine (in comparison to a well-maintained stock filter) is guaranteed 0 (ZERO).
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One of the most frustrating things is being an enthusiast and going into work every day hearing things like that. There is an obvious issue going on, but instead of someone actually trying to find the root cause of the issue, they deny the claim based on fine print or semantics and move on. That's one of the many reasons I'm glad I got out of the industry.
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Where would you draw the line? This one is rather absurd, I agree. What about tuning? What about aftermarket exhausts? What about aftermarket Oil that doesn't fulfil the required spec?
As a minimum, a fair approach would be that if the system is modified in ANY way, the end-user has to carry the entire cost of an (independent) investigation whether the mod has caused or contributed to the failure, irrespective of whether the warranty will be respected or not. Then I feel all parties are fairly treated. And no - I don't work for BMW or any other car manufacturer. And I also like mods and have mods (although less on the engine-side). But I feel people often go too far with silly mods, just because they trust fully what the manufacturer is eager to sell them.