Dual mass flywheel problem

My car which is a 2003 1.9 TDI Passat manual.

It was hit on the passenger front wheel and wing. My car was stationary at the time(parked) waiting for the wife. My car was pushed against the kerb and subsequently up it.

The car suffered a damaged wing/bumper and the steering is way out.

Apart from this the car sounds and drives fine apart from pulling to the right. My insurance has authorised a garage to take the car for estimates. I drove my car after the accident for 5 miles to my home and it drove without any noise.

The garage sent a driver to collect the car. He made a list of the damage and gave me a copy. Then he drove it away, with no problems or noise.

The garage has been authorised to carry out the repairs, "great!" I thought, until I phoned the garage to get an approx time of completion. They said to me "is that the car with the flywheel gone?" And I said that I know nothing about a flywheel problem.

Not wasting any time, I went to the garage to see what they were on about. When they started it up it sounded like a box of bolts clanking around loudly.

They said it just popped when they were moving it from one part of the car park to another. I said that there was no sign of any noise before it came into their garage. But they said it's common and they can suddenly just go like that. Is this true?

My insurance company is going to instruct them to get images of the flywheel, which will mean taking the gearbox off. Then they will get back to me.

Asked on 18 April 2011 by sundance

Answered by Honest John
Yes, they can suddenly fail. The impact might have had something to do with it but at 8 years old it was on borrowed time anyway.
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