Similar law in Canada to the Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act in the US?

[JDMMAN]

Long story short, a Mitsubishi dealership in Calgary has voided the powertrain warranty of a relative's 2014 RVR GT for using aftermarket summer wheels & tires. (they were within 5% rolling diameter of the original rolling diameter, only used for one summer for regular street use (2500kms max); the wheels had proper hub centric rings and were properly torqued). This is from bringing in the vehicle to check a wheel bearing noise from the rear of the car. The dealership had noted in the system "modified".

The Mitsubishi dealership had stated that using aftermarket wheels & tires voided the warranty and only OEM replacement wheels & tires would allow for warranty. This is obviously a BS reason.

My relative contacted Mitsubishi Canada, which told them to contact the dealer again. The relative asked for the contact details of the regional warranty rep for Mitsu, but the dealer said to them "you're not authorized to talk to them".

Fast forward to today, the relative went into the Mitsubishi dealer for an issue to the front suspension (either a wheel bearing issue, which Mitsubishi had replaced ~20k km ago; or an issue to the ball-joints/bushings - the vehicle has ~8X k km on it, and only on the driver's side). The relative is using another set of factory sized OEM Mitsubishi alloys but with the exact size tires at the moment.

The relative has had Subarus, Hondas, Toyotas, Lexus' etc in the past and this is their first Mitsubishi; this was the first time they had been denied warranty for using aftermarket summer wheels & tires.

Does anyone have ideas on how to get in touch with Mitsubishi to overturn this "ruling" on voiding warranty?

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Long story short, a Mitsubishi dealership in Calgary has voided the powertrain warranty of a relative's 2014 RVR GT for using aftermarket summer wheels & tires. (they were within 5% rolling diameter of the original rolling diameter, only used for one summer for regular street use (2500kms max); the wheels had proper hub centric rings and were properly torqued). This is from bringing in the vehicle to check a wheel bearing noise from the rear of the car. The dealership had noted in the system "modified".

Did the wheels have the same offset/backspacing as the stock ones? Shifting the wheel outwards increases load on the wheel bearings, so denying warranty might be plausible under those conditions. Also surprised wheel bearings are considered a powertrain item.

[JDMMAN]

The factory wheel is +46mm on a 7" wide wheel, the wheels used for the one summer were +35mm on a 9" wide wheel, which means the center line of the wheel was shifted slightly in-board (by 11mm); so there should have been no increase in on the wheel bearing.

[dj_rice]

I'm in the auto industry and I was told to stay under 3% of factory specs when doing tires/rims. So at 5%, yeah I have no input on that. Just go to the other Mitsu dealer if one is denying warranty

[JDMMAN]

dj_rice - Once the warranty "void" is in the system, isn't it "nationwide"? So going to another dealership wouldn't do anything?

Anyways, fast forward to this past weekend. I replaced their lower control arm (to replace the lower ball joint), new endlinks and also threw on a new set of quality coil-overs to replace the crappy factory suspension. Issues with the suspension noise is finally gone.

Surprisingly the quality of parts that Mitsubishi has decided to use on these cars. Less than 5 years since the car has been put on the road, and almost every nut and bolt was rusted and seized.

[killramos]

That’s surprising to you?

[P_D]

That’s surprising to you?

Anyone who buys a current Mitsubishi product needs to have their license taken away.

[suntan]

I never understand dealerships that act like this, all their labour and parts for warranty work are just billed back to the manufacturer. This is free money for the dealership.