Rivian Says Running Boards Negate Battery Warranty

[mkennedy1996]

Just the same, if you were involved in a side impact collision, and your aftermarket sliders transferred force and damaged battery pack... you couldn't reasonably expect Rivian to cover that damage under warranty.

I am thinking they wouldn't provide warranty coverage without the sliders!

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[SeaGeo]

Pretty ballsy of Rivian considering they don’t sell a winter tire, have issues with regen locking up wheels, and quad motor causing loss of control on slippery surfaces.

Exactly.

My point is their default stance from legal is absurd. It's also inconsistent with how Rivian actually operates in my experience.

 

[mkennedy1996]

Taking the Rivian statement and applying it to all aftermarket modifications means

No Warranty if aftermarket . . .
Tires
Rims
Charging Pads
Wraps
PPF
Tents (not sold by Rivian)
Custom cargo bars
Carplay screens
Tonneau Cover
Sliders
etc

Nothing to worry about here.

 

[mikehmb]

Most of the Rivian sliders involve removal and reinstalling a number of chassis bolts (unlike with some other installs on other body-on-frame trucks where it bolts to tooling holes on the ladder).

While I still think it’s unlikely any of these could directly cause a battery failure, there’s a lot of structure in there bolted together.

Not warrantying snow tires is absurd, though.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

Rivian has to answer a question from a potential or current owner with a yes or no answer. The safe way is to tell everyone no because that allows them to deny warranty coverage in the event there is damage caused by an aftermarket part. I would never expect Rivian to say yes its fine to make modification. Saying no allows them to handle each claim on a case-by-case basis.

In the case of an impact yes that would be a problem but even if you didn't have running boards an impact wouldn't be covered by the Rivian warranty.

There is a story floating around about a guy hitting something with his Hyundai, it damaged the underbody shield, they told him the battery had been impacted and he no longer had a battery warranty. Cost to replace it was $60k .

The only way I see Rivian can deny battery warranty is if there is physical damage to the pack. That's not going to happen from running boards unless your in a collision of some sort.

Now Tesla has denied some warranty claims. Most notably was on axle half shaft and motor failure for a popular youtuber...but he had aftermarket suspension which changed the ride height. The change in ride height changed the angle of the half shafts.

 

[Ohm Boy]

If your modification directly causes damage to the component, then the warranty is going to end up voided. This is not a hard thing to understand.

Dark, despite all of your brutally abundant intelligence, you apparently you didn’t understand the gist of the question. Ridgetop was not asking about the obvious, and one is pretty sure s/he understands that if s/he takes a sledgehammer to the gear tunnel doors the non-functional doors thereafter would not be covered under warranty. So your “This is not a hard thing to understand” comment reveals at best a measure of laziness.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Dark, despite all of your brutally abundant intelligence, you apparently you didn’t understand the gist of the question. Ridgetop was not asking about the obvious, and one is pretty sure s/he understands that if s/he takes a sledgehammer to the gear tunnel doors the non-functional doors thereafter would not be covered under warranty. So your “This is not a hard thing to understand” comment reveals at best a measure of laziness.

It's strictly what the support person meant, they just didn't communicate it well.

 

[Jumacao]

On three separate occasions, two guides and four customer support specialists told me that Rivian would not make even one single Compass Yellow Max Pack. Yet, there's one in my driveway.

But while I don't trust guides and customer support in general, if it's written down in a policy....I'll let someone else take Rivian to court on this one.

Maybe I'll take off my tonneau cover and tinted windows while I wait.

And my floormats...damn...

 

[windblowlc]

It's strictly what the support person meant, they just didn't communicate it well.

Yes, that's not written RIVIAN policy, just ramble from some support person.

 

[kurtlikevonnegut]

Somewhat related, I have the EV Sportline running boards on my truck. I dropped it off at the SC today for some service that could involve replacing a drive unit. The tech said if they have to replace a drive unit, I would have to remove the boards completely prior to them working on it, he said specifically for liability reasons, but he didn't say anything about the warranty.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Somewhat related, I have the EV Sportline running boards on my truck. I dropped it off at the SC today for some service that could involve replacing a drive unit. The tech said if they have to replace a drive unit, I would have to remove the boards completely prior to them working on it, he said specifically for liability reasons, but he didn't say anything about the warranty.

Rivian tech I've asked said they'd pull my sliders off if they needed to, and charge me full rate labor on doing it. And they wouldn't reinstall them after the service.

 

[JerseyGreens]

Somewhat related, I have the EV Sportline running boards on my truck. I dropped it off at the SC today for some service that could involve replacing a drive unit. The tech said if they have to replace a drive unit, I would have to remove the boards completely prior to them working on it, he said specifically for liability reasons, but he didn't say anything about the warranty.

Well here we go a real life example folks...

The warranty is more than applicable with these installed. Might just be a PIA taking them off and reinstalling which isn't a huge deal in the grand scheme.

 

[RivAW]

Yesterday there was a forum discussion about kneeling mode and the challenges of stepping in/out of the R1 and that running boards could be a solution to improve the experience. I mentioned that my delivery guide had emphasized that installing 3rd party running boards would negate the battery warranty. A couple people mentioned what I’d heard can’t be true, that it doesn’t make sense, so this morning I asked Rivian service and attached are screenshots of my conversation.

I doesn’t matter what CS tells you. They cannot negate the warranty counter to consumer law. Also, I’d point out that although you asked about the battery warranty, they answered referencing the new vehicle limited warranty…which are very different things. Either way…modifying your vehicle with professionally installed items does not negate your warranty unless they can show the modification caused the failure.

 

[Stickboy46]

Somewhat related, I have the EV Sportline running boards on my truck. I dropped it off at the SC today for some service that could involve replacing a drive unit. The tech said if they have to replace a drive unit, I would have to remove the boards completely prior to them working on it, he said specifically for liability reasons, but he didn't say anything about the warranty.

I have the EV Sportline running boards, they just had to replace my rear drive unit. Never once mentioned anything to me about the running boards. I don't know if they just didn't take them off or did it without saying anything.

 

[Ohm Boy]

Somewhat related, I have the EV Sportline running boards on my truck. I dropped it off at the SC today for some service that could involve replacing a drive unit. The tech said if they have to replace a drive unit, I would have to remove the boards completely prior to them working on it, he said specifically for liability reasons, but he didn't say anything about the warranty.

Slaughterhouse (sorry, couldn’t resist ?), that makes sense, although it may be a pain in the tush to remove and replace.

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