Does upgrading Audio components void warranty?

I'm generalizing when I say this: most warranties will not be voided flat out. For instances, if you end up having engine troubles it would be an act of God for the aftermarket radio to have caused an issue therefore your warranty should NOT be voided. Now, if you install an aftermarket radio, assuming your battery is covered in the warranty, and you manage to fry your battery or worse.... then it is possible this portion of your warranty would be voided. Not all warranties are the same. I believe GM warranties, the dealer has to prove your aftermarket parts caused the issue, if not, they have to honor the warranty.

Having said all that... the best thing to do is 1) read the fine print 2) call the warranty company and get clarification. More than likely you will be just fine installing an aftermarket radio and subwoofer. If you don't know what you're doing then pay to have it installed. This will protect you a little bit because the install shop should have some liability if they install something wrong. (Not always true though...)

On a previous car I had an aftermarket stereo for 2 years with no issues. All of a sudden my car could not sit for a day without having a dead battery. Even after replacing the battery would still be dead in 18hrs.

Decided to take to the dealer to but also told them to not do any work that would not be covered under warranty. Was informed after a short while the problem was caused by my aftermarket radio and since that was the case I had to pay for the diagnostic time as well. Wasn't happy with this so i paid their diagnostic fee and went home without any fix. Problem ended up being BCM related & having nothing to do with my stereo.

Sure you might not having any issues but if you have any electrical problems don't be surprised if they try to pass blame onto you. I still wont go into that chevy dealer even though its the closest one to my house, was sad in 2008 when it wasn't one of the dealers GM closed.

Thanks for all the input everyone. I have thought about it more, and i think im going to use an inline RCA adapter to run the signal to my amplifiers. I will leave my stock head unit in there. If for some reason, the battery or another electrical issue arises, a simple removal of the amplifiers and subwoofer before having it brought in should cover me since they have no proof of any modifications. While this may seem sneaky, i have been working on car audio for quite a few years and done countless installs for family and friends. I doubt i would screw anything up with this simple of an install.

But i may also play it on the safe side and have an audio shop run most of my wires and then i can do the speakers and tuning. I just hate having shops do some work because i've had bad experiences with lazy installation and carelessness that made my car look like ****. Ripping carpet and insulation hanging all over the place should not happen. I tried to have them fix it, but i did not realize it until the next day, and when i went back to have them clean it up, they said "no. How do we know you didnt do this?" Oh yea, sorry. I like to make my car look like **** for no reason, then be too lazy to fix it all.

I digress. I will let you all know what happens soon enough.

Ben

Good to know what you are doing, seen Best Buy installations where they tapped into what they thought was a 12 V source that was part of the IP circuitry.

While BCM's and PCM's are grounded to the vehicle, use a single point ground, if you tap into one of these wires for a ground, would form what is called ground loops that will mess these systems up. Another issue is the CMOS logic is used, very high impedance and highly subjected to EMI. If you run a high current speaker wire just a tad too close, can mess these systems up. Can even do this by running a negative ground lead to the negative post of the battery for a high current power amplifier that will be close to any of the engine control wires.

You really have to know your vehicles electronic system. Alternator output is sure not a pure DC current, but a series of pulses that can also produce interfering EMI. As are ABS pulses, can mess up your brakes.