A pilot I know in Germany has just been told by his Lyco dealer what his new IO540 engine warranty will be voided if he installs GAMI injectors.
Lyco’s warranty terms, supplied to him, are here.
I think this is outrageous and I wonder if anybody has actually tested this for real.
This is exactly what every car engine warranty does. Why is it a surprise?
Yep. Same applies if you install a new (STCd) lightweight starter or STCd bolt-on turbo. Those warranties just aren’t worth much.
Well I installed GAMIs and they worked fine. But they weren’t on a new engine.
From the OEM’s point of view, you are installing a key part from a different manufacturer over whom they have no control and expecting them to guarantee that it won’t cause problems. I expect in practice that if a problem clearly can’t have been caused by an injector problem then you will still be OK (the US approach to car modification), but you run a risk.
I wrote to GAMI about this and they came back with this reply (authorised to reproduce here):
Lycoming doesn’t want to take responsibility for a part they don’t make, and can’t control. I would not want them to do so. If a problem arose, caused by an injector, they would likely void the warranty. However, if the problem was something unrelated, say a crankshaft problem, Lycoming would still value the warranty. I have seen that happen on multiple occasions, and I’ve never heard of anyone having a warranty claim denied due to GAMI nozzles being installed.
However I sent them the email which this chap had from Lyco in Germany:
…we cannot warrant the GAMI injectors, and any issue caused by or related to their installation and use would not be covered either.
in which the word “use” could easily mean the mere running of the engine with them installed. GAMI’s reply was:
I’ve never seen that before, but maybe that is something Lycoming can do for the EU market, but can’t do in the US.
In the US, you can really only void a warranty for a 3rd party part if the 3rd party part causes the failure for which you are seeking the warranty claim.
That mainly stems from the US auto market. If you put in an aftermarket radio and the transmission goes out, the auto maker would have to prove the radio caused the transmission problem in order to deny the warranty.
IMHO there is no way Lyco could ever prove the GAMI injectors caused an failure, because GAMI injectors are just stock Lyco injectors, selected for flow rate. Very ocassionally an injector is opened up a little to get the flow rate desired for a particular cylinder and that I believe is why GAMI had to get the STC.
The other obvious option which is, upon any warranty claim, to reinstall the old injectors, is tricky because the old injectors would have been returned to GAMI (for reprocessing) when you bought the GAMI ones, so you won’t have them anymore. You would have to buy fresh injectors and return the engine with those.
They will not HAVE to prove anything. It’s enough if they prove that you have changed a key component of the engine. but I would say if they are only selected stock injectors they can never prove that you changed something, right? Or are they marked? And you could always put in the old ones in case of trouble ;-)
In the US, in order to void a warranty a manufacturer has to claim that the change actually caused the failure, meaning that in court the warranty claim would be judged on that basis and the burden of proof would be on the manufacturer. The warranty cannot under US law be voided on the basis of the vehicle owner modifying his property, only as a result of that modification being proven to cause the failure – that is what the GAMI guy is saying. US consumer threats of legal action after a warranty claim denial are therefore judged and typically resolved by the manufacturer on that basis.
An associated issue is that in the US a manufacturer cannot deny warranty coverage on the basis that others, including the owner, serviced the vehicle instead of a dealer. This came about as a result of a court case against Chrysler in about 1970.
Yes, I understand. It might be similar in Germany, but in any case there will be a whole lot of trouble. And try to argue with TLycoming or CM from over here … I’ve heard some really bad stories
Do the GAMI injectors look any different to the standard ones? I’m under the impression that they’re just standard injectors, the characteristics of which have been isolated and matched to the needs of individual cylinders. If I’m correct, how would Lycoming know that they’re not the ones originally fitted to the engine?
Apparently, I am told, they do look different in some way.
I returned mine as per the deal (in 2003) but I now hear that outside the US they don’t ask that the stock ones are returned, so someone could keep them just in case.
