pretty sure taking it off road voids the warranty too - LOL but true

 

Funny story; I had a 14 Wrangler 2-door; built the snot out of it (started life as a ****** Edition, I built a Willicon, with new transfer case, lift, big tires, 4.56 gears and lockers front and rear, new Dana 44 front complete axle, etc.). In 2016 I was in Moab for 3 weeks with it; the Jeep had 15,000 miles at the time. After a pretty tough first week my wife joined me for the middle week, and she has no interest in crazy off-roading so we just did things like the national parks and some other gentle trails I have discovered over the years with beautiful views but not very demanding.

So mid-week we're doing the Salt Valley Road out of Arches NP, a mostly sand road with a few simple rock climbs that I've done a half-dozen times in airport rental Grand Cherokees and Trailblazers and Explorers. We get about 12 miles from the trailhead and the damn motor blows up -- dropped a valve seat down No 6 cylinder and ultimately punched a hole in the block.

So I have to call 1-800-JeepCares and tell them to come pick my Jeep up in Moab. (We had gotten a tow back to the road inside Arches from an old rusty 4-cylinder TJ Wrangler with four twenty-somethings in it.) I am thinking I'm going to be paying for a new engine because there's no way Jeep is going to warranty this heavily modified Wrangler that they pick up in Moab, covered in red dust, without blaming me for it. Even though there's precious little I could have done to damage the engine even if I'd wanted to. The shorter gearing and transfer case just make life easier for the engine, even if they increase forces on other driveline components. But still...

Anyway, they picked the Jeep up on a flatbed the next morning, took her to Grand Junction, and 30 days later delivered it to me on a car carrier a half-mile from my house in Atlanta with a completely new long-block, which has been flawless till this day, at no charge. Even paid for my Chrysler 300 rental for the month. I sold the Jeep to a close friend this June after 7 years of ownership and a total of 10 weeks in Moab over 4 trips, plus the 4000-mile RTs out there each time.

So I wouldn't automatically expect JLR to deny warranty just because you have a different set of wheels or there are trace elements of desert dust in the crevices of the truck's bodywork. They might, but Jeep didn't even ask me any questions.

 

@NoGaBiker - great story! Good moral to the story, too. For some reason, it reminded me of my first Land Rover. An old Series IIa that I was so naive I thought I could easily "patch it back up". I should have had a deep suspicion when it came with a used engine block in the boot! Turned out that the one under the bonnet looked like the incredible Hulk tried to escape from the engine block when I dug it out trying to diagnose things. That was the start of a 3 year frame up restoration. I thought it would take a few weeks!!<g> Boy, I would have loved to have called 1-800-IMA-DORK or something appropriate to help ME out.