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hello everyone
Im a newbie and frustrated (*as ever) by dealerships
I have my first ever leased car on a 2 year lease. clutch now slipping in 4th at only 9900 miles. I took to vw under warranty. They have found hot spots and blueing and arent interested in repairing under warranty. It must be my style of driving they insist. Ive asked advice from the lease comapy. they are following the vw dealer in recommending i have the car repaired. Ive recommended to lease company that i want to terminate the lease early as i have little faith in the car now, especially as IF i am effectively forced to replace the clutch at a cost of ~£2000 then it will likely go again beofre the lease is up and here goes another £2000.
i note may pages on the web devoted to poor beggars with these manual cars but no resolutions other than to cough up.
Neither of them want to pay for a replacement and arent likely to jump at the prospect of admitting any problems yet they will have plenty of knowledge of such..
I even had to pay the £480 bill for the clutch to be inspected before dealer would return the car.
wits end , HELP!
Gary
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I hate to say it but it probably is your style of driving causing premature clutch failure. If you have blue spots on the flywheel and pressure plate the most likely cause would be excessive heat. It's a hydraulically operated clutch which has no means of adjustment. If the pedal linkage was adjusted so that there was no master cylinder clearance then surely you'd have noticed it long before now. Warranties cover manufacturing defects, not faults that occur as the car ages. I think the best you can hope for is that the dealer will meet you part way as a goodwill gesture. Other than that I rather think you're on your own.
I've known clutches last for as little as six weeks, mostly elderly drivers sipping the hell out of them.
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I hate to say it but it probably is your style of driving causing premature clutch failure. If you have blue spots on the flywheel and pressure plate the most likely cause would be excessive heat. It's a hydraulically operated clutch which has no means of adjustment. If the pedal linkage was adjusted so that there was no master cylinder clearance then surely you'd have noticed it long before now. Warranties cover manufacturing defects, not faults that occur as the car ages. I think the best you can hope for is that the dealer will meet you part way as a goodwill gesture. Other than that I rather think you're on your own.
I've known clutches last for as little as six weeks, mostly elderly drivers sipping the hell out of them.
Agreed
The only way you'd be able to force VW / the dealer to pay for the complete replacement is if you have the dismantled clutch inspected by an independent engineer, and their report states that the failure is down to a manufacturing defect.
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If you want it to last a bit longer don't let it slip or you will kill it very quickly, if you can manage to drive with some restraint it could last another few thousand miles.
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Obviously not in the same power bracket as this car, but i'm amazed how long the clutches lasted on daughters both previous Civic 2.0 type S, circa 2004 models, she thrashed the living daylights out of both including very harsh clutch abuse and put serious mileage on and she uses her cars for work, but only one clutch on one car and that was at around 130k miles.
Edited by gordonbennet on 21/08/2017 at 11:37
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The last clutch I replaced on a road car was on my 1989 Golf GTi. After 100,000 miles one of the bearings in the diff was very noisy so while it was apart it made sense to change the clutch. For 7 summers the car had towed the Caterham on a trailer every couple of weeks yet despite this abuse and the 100,000 miles the original clutch was only about 1/2 worn compared to the new one. The parts were only about £60 for a LUK (or Valeo) kit so not a serious expense even though the original should have kept going for a good while longer.
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I find it hard to believe that even with grossly negligent clutch use it would start slipping at less than 10,000m in such a light modern car. Our last manual (1983 Passat Est GL5, 13,000m to 192,000m) snapped clutch cables every 40,000m or so owing to being routed round a pulley for RHD market but it never needed a new clutch in the 10yrs we had it.
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I find it hard to believe that even with grossly negligent clutch use it would start slipping at less than 10,000m in such a light modern car. Our last manual (1983 Passat Est GL5, 13,000m to 192,000m) snapped clutch cables every 40,000m or so owing to being routed round a pulley for RHD market but it never needed a new clutch in the 10yrs we had it.
An elderly gentleman a couple of miles away managed to destroy a clutch on a Honda Jazz in about a month and 500-600 miles, because he was revving the nuts off the engine whilst slipping the clutch constantly. He then wrecked the replacement clutch in similar time.
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I find it hard to believe that even with grossly negligent clutch use it would start slipping at less than 10,000m in such a light modern car. Our last manual (1983 Passat Est GL5, 13,000m to 192,000m) snapped clutch cables every 40,000m or so owing to being routed round a pulley for RHD market but it never needed a new clutch in the 10yrs we had it.
An elderly gentleman a couple of miles away managed to destroy a clutch on a Honda Jazz in about a month and 500-600 miles, because he was revving the nuts off the engine whilst slipping the clutch constantly. He then wrecked the replacement clutch in similar time.
Friends mother managed to destroy the clutch in a new Honda Concerto 1.6 EX within 10k. Every lift was terrifying in that car! She'd crawl along straights, accelerate coming up to corners and coast out of control round them before clumsily selecting the wrong gear. Her son wrecked the lovely Toyota Corolla I flogged him within 2 days too by bouncing it off a large kerb then tried to claim the motor was faulty! I enjoyed showing the bent wishbone to him along with the impact damage to the near side front wheel... git.
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I find it hard to believe that even with grossly negligent clutch use it would start slipping at less than 10,000m in such a light modern car.
With 310 PS, 4WD, and grippy tyres an enthusiatic driver with little car sympathy could destroy a clutch in a few miles let alone 10,000.
Go to a trackday and watch the drivers with more money than sense doing their best to destroy thier cars. Go on a VW forum and you will find links to YouTube where young idiots try to beat the quoted 0-60 times. In every case the driver will simply say "its not my problem, car is under warranty and I will get rid before it runs out".
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With 310 PS, 4WD, and grippy tyres an enthusiatic driver with little car sympathy could destroy a clutch in a few miles let alone 10,000.
Exactly, maybe the clutch is the sacrificial link, a fuse if you like, so when the enthusiastic who think they are in a race only destroy a clutch and not rip the gearbox apart, 2WD cars would usually offer some wheelspin which helps protect the box (or TC might cut in if it hasn't been switched off!), not so forgiving with 4wd.
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Points taken. I wonder if such unsympathetic behaviour is responsible for the occasional failure of the current generation of more delicate DSG autoboxes?
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Points taken. I wonder if such unsympathetic behaviour is responsible for the occasional failure of the current generation of more delicate DSG autoboxes?
Shouldn't be. The DSG gearboxes are all completely electronically controlled, and are supposed to 'damp down' the torque if excessive.
I know that current BMWs (8 speed ZF gearbox) restrict torque in the lowest gears to lessen the chances of this happening.
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Whilst every case differs I am convinced that clutches in many cars these days are not lasting as long as they did in the past. Have materials changed significantly? Look at the 1.0 Ecoboost from Ford only modest power but some owners are burning out clutches in less than 10k miles, these are owners that have previously had cars for many tens of thousands miles without clutches 'wearing out'. Some clutches seem to be so fragile these days.
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Whilst every case differs I am convinced that clutches in many cars these days are not lasting as long as they did in the past. Have materials changed significantly? Look at the 1.0 Ecoboost from Ford only modest power but some owners are burning out clutches in less than 10k miles, these are owners that have previously had cars for many tens of thousands miles without clutches 'wearing out'. Some clutches seem to be so fragile these days.
Don't forget that years ago clutch and brake linings were made with asbestos, this is no longer allowed due to legislation on the grounds of asbestosis risk.
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Whilst every case differs I am convinced that clutches in many cars these days are not lasting as long as they did in the past. Have materials changed significantly? Look at the 1.0 Ecoboost from Ford only modest power but some owners are burning out clutches in less than 10k miles, these are owners that have previously had cars for many tens of thousands miles without clutches 'wearing out'. Some clutches seem to be so fragile these days.
Would this be the same 'ecoboost' Fiesta with 100 or 125 bhp, as compared to (for example) the third generation of fiesta, where even the XR2i only had 110 bhp, and the base 1 litre petrol had a whopping 45 bhp ?
'Modest' power ? I think not.
Edited by RobJP on 23/08/2017 at 23:27
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The XR2i from 1992 actually had 105bhp it was the earlier 1989 onwards model that had 108bhp. Also the MK3 Fiesta frame until 1993 did not even have basic safety features such as side impact bars, it weighed very little by 'modern' standards. Even when released the XR2i was hardly 'super fast' it was a warm hatch in my opinion.
Going back to the Ecoboost I consider 100bhp in the heavy MK8 Fiesta platform to be no ball of fire for sure and very modest, not underpowered but modest all of the same.
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A guy on the Skoda forum eventually got VAG to pay up for his slipping clutch.
www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/396706-vrs-tsi-clutc.../
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