| Doing your own maintenance could void your warranty, so the dealer's right.
The ultimate decision regarding voiding your warranty is Ducati's but if you read your warranty you'll see that Ducati's warranty is not predicated upon an authorized dealer performing all of your maintenance work nor does it require that the motorcycle remain in an unmodified condition or contain only factory parts during the warranty period.
However, if you have a claim during the warranty period it's reasonable for Ducati to suspect that inadequate maintenance and/or aftermarket parts had contributed to the failure. But legally they can't just void your entire warranty. They have to prove that the presence of non-factory parts or improper maintenance caused or contributed to the failure.
Conversely, there is an obligation and need that you keep records and receipts that can demonstrate that any maintenance work not performed by Ducati was done according to the service schedule and all replacement fluids met Ducati's specification.
To avoid any concerns, any performance parts that you install have to meet Ducati's specification as well. The only parts that meet this criteria are Ducati Performance parts and they have to be installed by an authorized dealer for the parts themselves to be covered under warranty and to avoid warranty issues on the motorcycle itself.
Consequently, if you decide to install any non-Ducati part or use a non-approved lubricant, fuel, or hydraulic fluid and you experience a related failure, expect a warranty challenge on a case-by-case basis. If you change your oil and filter yourself and later have an engine seizure determined by Ducati to be the result of inadequate lubrication you've got a problem.
So, even though a dealer cannot say that your entire warranty is void due to aftermarket pipes, you'll loose if you have an engine failure that can be traced to an excessively lean fuel condition caused by installing an incorrect Eprom for example.
Aftermarket parts usually carry their own warranty and often are of higher quality than OEM parts but still can cause problems if improperly installed, and it may be unwise to substitute a part (say a filter) simply because it's less expensive than the OEM unit.  |