General Question on Aftermarket Parts

I've heard two completely opposite things.

1. That aftermarket parts such as headers, intake, and exhaust will increase the life and reliability of your engine.

2. That aftermarket parts will greatly DECREASE the life of your engine.

It depends on the parts and the engine, and how they are used.

You simply can't make a statement that general.

It's more often the second than the first.

Ummm... ok. So let's say I put new Weapon R Headers, Dual Catback exhaust, and an AEM Cold Air Intake on a 2.2L Ecotec with 1,500 miles on it. Would my engine wear out faster, or because they are better parts, would I be increasing the life of my engine?

You would be increasing the life of your engine, but who cares, you'd never be able to tell. That's not why people buy performance parts anyway.

If you replace your intake from stock it will be likely that more dirt can come into you engine since aftermarket filters aren't that good as the oem:s. The placement of the filter also have an effect.

When it comes to the exhaust that won't make any difference for the engine.

umm no you shuold have came to the cavalier forum to ask this question.

Aftermarket airfilters dont let more dirt into the engine, infact they work better than the cloth ones. Exhuast wont make your engine wear faster. With intaked and full exhaust expect about a 10-15HP gain.

Performance parts are usually designed for more horsepower. Factory parts are a compromise between Hp and reliability. Manufactures also must consider warranty claims. So my vote for reliability goes to OEM parts.

at a gm dealership some guy put a magnaflow mufler and new air intake on his sunfire 03 and the caresalesmen guy was lecturing him on how all that stuff voids his waranty because the engine is givin more hp from the modifications and the transmision [manual] isnt designed to handle the extra hp and will destroy the transmision and not to come back crying to him after his car brakes down

so modifying sunfires and cars that are economic cars to go slightly faster isnt a good idea in general

so ya it reduces the cars life

nooo its illegal for a car company to void a warranty because of aftermarket performance parts. The ONLY way they can void the warranty is if the aftermarket part is proven to cause the damage you want replaced to the car. And even if thats so, it can only void a part of the warranty. Like lets say you throw a turbo charger on your car and blow the trans, well if the dealership proves taht the turbo is the cause of the faulty trans, they dont have to fix the trans, but the engine and the rest of the car is still under warranty.

maybe it wont void all of the waranty, maybe not void the waranty at all .. but i tell you one thing for shure is that it will reduce the life time of the car [trouble later on after the waranty]

when you do modifications like performance exhaust and intake on a car that doesnt really have a great reputation for being a long lasting reliable car [sunfires! and most everything gm makes] the car wont be runing for too long specialy since if you do those modifications you are not going to be treating the car too well. i predict it will start having major engine trouble within 5 years of driving [most probly less]

ecotec engines are garbage by the way

After market parts and reliability would depend on the part and engine like stated above. In general, if after market parts are added to a vehicle is will not greatly change the life of the engine. Unfortunantly, when many people add on speed parts they start beating of their vehicle more and more. In turn that will wear out the engine sooner. If properly installed an engine will still be as reliable as it was before.

nooo its illegal for a car company to void a warranty because of aftermarket performance parts. The ONLY way they can void the warranty is if the aftermarket part is proven to cause the damage you want replaced to the car. And even if thats so, it can only void a part of the warranty. Like lets say you throw a turbo charger on your car and blow the trans, well if the dealership proves taht the turbo is the cause of the faulty trans, they dont have to fix the trans, but the engine and the rest of the car is still under warranty.
Absolute nonsense!
A warranty is voided when you do something which violates the terms of the warranty. Warranty terms vary from one manufacturer to another, but it includes not using parts that do not conform to manufacturer specifications.
Generally, the list of performance parts that conform is VERY short, usually only those available through the dealer that specifically state they are warranty approved.
Otherwise, you are SOL. Also, the manufacturer or dealer can refuse to honour a warranty at any time, for any reason. It is up to the owner to prove (in court if they have to) that they followed the warranty terms, especially for maintenance and use of approved parts.

yea thats y most ppl try to not do modifications until after waranty is up makes sense to me..

also ya they can refuse your waranty even if you do no modifications all they have to do is suspect that you were abusing the car, tire tread is there biggest indicator

i guess mods dont realy destroy your car that much but if car dealerships void your waranty because of them theres a reason for it

umm no you shuold have came to the cavalier forum to ask this question.

Aftermarket airfilters dont let more dirt into the engine, infact they work better than the cloth ones. Exhuast wont make your engine wear faster. With intaked and full exhaust expect about a 10-15HP gain.
A good aftermarket airfilter will have an efficiency of up to around 98-99%, OEM filters usually up to 99.9%