Modern cars - clutches

melbury

A work colleague whose car broke down told me that the RAC man who came out said that modern cars frequently suffer from clutch failure - many at just a few thousand miles - due to differences (whatever that may mean) from older vehicles:eek:

If this is true it is a bit scary. After months of trying to decide which small economical car to purchase, I had 99% decided on a Volkswagen Up or Seat Mii, but on the Honest John site these are getting reports of clutch failure.

As I can't afford a brand new one, I wouldn't have the three year warranty to fall back on, so perhaps I need to rethink.

facade

He probably means that the way people drive nowadays is to rev the engine until it is bouncing off the end of the rev counter with the limiter cutting in, and then slip the clutch to get going, which wears them out.

In The Olden Days, we used to drop the clutch in at slightly above tickover, and the car would just pull smoothly away, but we only had a couple of gears, and much bigger low revving engines.

Shouldn't be a problem. if you drive it properly and the clutch is fine when you buy it.

loskie

re the warranty on new cars. You will find that clutches will only be covered for a very brief time and mileage not the whole warranty.

force_ten

there are various issues and i don't think it is down to driving style

most modern diesel cars have a dual mass flywheel and they are known to fail and this will destroy the clutch, I had a works van where the dual mass flywheel failed at 37 K all of which were driven by me and i never hit the rev limiter once in the 18 months it lasted

small cars notably the Hyundai i10 had severe clutch problems and I think they were failing at anything over 1000 miles, other small cars are also suffering what could be considered early clutch failure but i would say it is down to cost cutting and cheap parts rather than driving style

the thing to remember here is that if you listen to every tale of woe about different cars then you would never buy another car again

BMW cars with timing chains that break trashing the whole engine, VW engines that throw a con rods out the side of the engine block and hyundai cars with clutches that must be made of glass

thanks to the internet we hear all the bad things about certain cars but we rarely hear from the thousands sometimes millions of drivers that don't suffer problems with their new or nearly new cars

atrixblue.-MFR-.

force_ten wrote: »

there are various issues and i don't think it is down to driving style

most modern diesel cars have a dual mass flywheel and they are known to fail and this will destroy the clutch, I had a works van where the dual mass flywheel failed at 37 K all of which were driven by me and i never hit the rev limiter once in the 18 months it lasted

small cars notably the Hyundai i10 had severe clutch problems and I think they were failing at anything over 1000 miles, other small cars are also suffering what could be considered early clutch failure but i would say it is down to cost cutting and cheap parts rather than driving style

the thing to remember here is that if you listen to every tale of woe about different cars then you would never buy another car again

BMW cars with timing chains that break trashing the whole engine, VW engines that throw a con rods out the side of the engine block and hyundai cars with clutches that must be made of glass

thanks to the internet we hear all the bad things about certain cars but we rarely hear from the thousands sometimes millions of drivers that don't suffer problems with their new or nearly new cars

Youll also find more petrol modern cars are being fitted with DMF's too.

melbury

Being a dinosaur, I always sit in traffic with the clutch depressed (unless it is a mega delay), whereas most young people I know seem to put the car in neutral just about every time they have to stop.

Have to say, so far I have never had a clutch problem on any car, but do find it a bit concerning to hear that it is more commonplace now.

Funnily enough I was thinking that perhaps I should look to the Hyundai i10 for the longer warranty and then the above poster says that they have had severe clutch problems. I can't understand why a manufacturer wouldn't cover this under warranty, is that usual?

cajef

Not just the i10 have a read here and see what Hyundai say about clutch warranty:-

.https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3747477

force_ten

melbury wrote: »

Being a dinosaur, I always sit in traffic with the clutch depressed (unless it is a mega delay), whereas most young people I know seem to put the car in neutral just about every time they have to stop.

Have to say, so far I have never had a clutch problem on any car, but do find it a bit concerning to hear that it is more commonplace now.

Funnily enough I was thinking that perhaps I should look to the Hyundai i10 for the longer warranty and then the above poster says that they have had severe clutch problems. I can't understand why a manufacturer wouldn't cover this under warranty, is that usual?

I have never looked at the Hyundai i10 in my life and have no idea how good it is as a car all i know is it got bad press for having early clutch failure

the clutch plate is classed as a wear and tear item as is brake pads or brake linings and if they fail it is expected that you will have to pay for replacement even if the car is under warranty

the Hyundai appeared on watch dog with a woman from cornwall whose clutch failed at 3500 miles and she was told that she would have to pay as it wasnt covered by the warranty and yes this would be normal across most manufacturers, and you would be relying on good will rather than a warranty claim

londonTiger

melbury wrote: »

Being a dinosaur, I always sit in traffic with the clutch depressed (unless it is a mega delay), whereas most young people I know seem to put the car in neutral just about every time they have to stop.

Probably more automatics on the road, which have electronic handbrake.

I also have my clutch depressed, putting a manual car on neutral every time you end up in traffic is going to tire you out in London.

We're bipedal creatures, we can walk for hours on end without even thinking about it, but try and do wheelbarrow excercises where you walk on your hands for a few meters and you wont get more than 20 or so meters. Push the clutch pedal down is no effort at all.

londonTiger

i wouldn't be surprised if this is happening because car manufacturers are making flywheels thinner or something ridiclous like that to skim the weight down to meet the eco targets.

force_ten

things have changed and we should adjust our driving style to be a bit easier on the clutch

after the dual mass fly wheel failed i was told that it it is good practice to fully depress the clutch before starting the engine, and many cars now will not start unless the clutch is fully depressed before the key is turned

you see a lot of new cars being fitted with auto stop start where the car stops when stationary for more than a few seconds, now this may seem like a good feature to help with pollution and fuel saving but the thing that worries me is the added wear and tear on components that don't seem to be covered by warranty