Chrysler won't paid out on car warranty claim. Advice please!!!

colino

I think you have to be very careful how you pick your fights here. From what you describe; a clutch plate with good friction material on either side, glazing, but no noises, or warnings of imminent failure, could well be down to a weak pressure plate.
The Delta was based on the ancient Fiat Bravo (not to be confused with the tiny Ypsilon which is now on the Fiat 500 bed) and in thousands of those sold, I don't recall premature clutch failure being an issue.
You could have an independent engineer analyse the clutch components (and presumably you will retain the crankshaft seal to prove its quality) and they could indicate how and why the clutch failed.
However the big bugbear is that it was not new to you. An awful lot of damage can be done in the 8000 miles the car covered prior to your ownership, and frankly, the manufacturers have deeper pockets than you and will prolong the battle for you to gain any satisfaction.
Unless you want to score a pyrrhic victory with an expensive, independent analysis of your components, I'd get it fixed and continue your campaign against them on a constant contact, PR challenging letter way.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

this reminds me of my mums next door neighbor, he gets a mobility car, but he rides the clutch in every gear and doesn't exceed 15-25 mph around town, I once overtook him on a dual carriage way he was doing 35-40mph on, and about 4k miles complains the clutch has gone, he does about 7-8k miles in 3 years just about the right time the second clutch is about to blow for the next owner.


I suspect this is the about the same that has happened here.

iolanthe07

My mother used to get through at least two clutches a year before she gave up driving; she drove with her foot resting on the clutch. Her garage ended up giving her a loyalty card and a discount.

Maybe someone like her owned the car for the 8000 miles before the OP.

cardinalbiggles

Nwaobara wrote: »

Some good advice. Big thanks.

I have got the clutch parts back and will contact an clutch expertise.

Can clutch dust cause the the clutch to fail? This is one of the reason Chrysler is given!

Nwaobara

The Delta is a rebadged Lancia and is just a Fiat Bravo with a slightly longer body and more use of shiny things.

My 2.0 Bravo has done just shy of 80k and no clutch problems, I suspect you have been unlucky with the clutch. I am surprised that Fiat are being so awkward, they fixed a few things with my Bravo well after the warranty was up.

londonTiger

Nwaobara wrote: »

I have emailed my dispute to the CEO of Chrysler Fiat UK and he has pass my dispute and complaints to a dealt with by Pam Kaur in the director office. He won't deal with it himself!

Why do people do this? WHy do they email the CEO? Do people think CEOs have nothing better to do than twiddle their thumbs at the office doing nothing and wait to do odd jobs here and there?

The higher up you get the busiest the people are. If you want something done speak to a customer service manager or someone.

colino

By writing (don't waste the keystokes emailing), someone (very, very remote from seniority) has to at least acknowledge correspondence. Do it enough and the PR side gets involved, be truthfully persistent enough and you might get action.

Nwaobara

Hi AdrianC

It thought this sounded an odds - clutch dust! The dealership that did the repairs said there was clutch dust present all around the clutch and the gearbox area!

Do you have anymore detail on clutch dust please?

Big thanks in advance.

AdrianC

Nwaobara wrote: »

It thought this sounded an odds - clutch dust! The dealership that did the repairs said there was clutch dust present all around the clutch and the gearbox area!

Do you have anymore detail on clutch dust please?

OK, let's go back to basics... Do you know how a clutch works? There's a friction plate, a disk coated either side in friction material - similar to a brake pad. That's attached to the gearbox input. It's sandwiched between the flywheel and the pressure plate - both attached to the engine - so tightly that it can't move relative to them. So, all the rotational forces from the engine reach the gearbox. When you press the clutch pedal, the pressure plate is moved away from the flywheel slightly, so the friction plate can rotate relative, and no forces are transferred through. Rest your foot on the pedal, or press it lightly, and _some_ forces can be transferred through, but there's slip and friction between the friction plate and the others.

As with brakes, rotating the friction material against the metal wears the friction material away. It's designed to. That worn-away material appears around the inside of the clutch's housing (the bellhousing) as dust, very similar to the brake dust on your wheels. Except, because you never wash inside there, and because it's almost completely enclosed, it can't go anywhere.

So that heavy build-up of dust shows that the friction plate has been worn away. Whether by you or theprevious owner, nobody can say. But it has worn away. And wear is always excluded from warranties. It hasn't died because of a workmanship or material failure, it's died through wear.

The one possible exception to that is if the pressure plate has partially failed, and isn't clamping the friction plate properly. But that'd show as slip - and you said it wasn't slipping.

bigjl

Nwaobara wrote: »

Hi AdrianC

It thought this sounded an odds - clutch dust! The dealership that did the repairs said there was clutch dust present all around the clutch and the gearbox area!

Do you have anymore detail on clutch dust please?

Big thanks in advance.

Clutch dust is a result of wear to the clutch friction surface.

The bit you said earlier was glazed.

A glazed clutch friction plate and lots of clutch dust would indicate a clutch that had been abused.

Your mechanic should have been able to explain that, if he was much of a mechanic that is. Being able to take parts lf and put on mew ones is not guarantee of ability to problem solve or diagnose a problem effectively.

And as far as i am aware the Delta is not based on the old Fiat Bravo/Brava that used to be sold in the UK.

A friend has one and it is fitted with the 2.0 fiat diesel lump. The styling is a bit marmite but he has no problems with his and it was a bargain when he bought it as an ex demo due to poor sales.

AdrianC

bigjl wrote: »

And as far as i am aware the Delta is not based on the old Fiat Bravo/Brava that used to be sold in the UK.

Not the '90s Bravo/Brava - but the more recent Brava.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancia_Delta#Third_generation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_Group_C-platform
Goes back to the 2001 Fiat Stilo.