AA Parts & Garage - Clutch Breakdown?

Jlawson118

facade wrote: »

It does
Warranties are not usually worth the paper they are printed on. They exclude anything and everything that could possibly be foreseen by an expert, and really only cover genuine totally unexpected events. (e.g. hit by an engine falling off an airliner when you are nowhere near the flightpath, and in a tunnel under the Alps):eek:

They rarely pay anything out, how else can the people running the warranty company afford to live in a mansion so big that it takes the butler half an hour to walk to the door to answer the doorbell?

Well it is how most insurance companies work. I had a phone stolen almost two years ago and the insurance refused to pay out on it. We'd been paying extra for a few years for 'portable items cover' and apparently a phone wasn't a portable item :mad:

Jlawson118

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

That's different. You have breakdown cover to get you home or get you recovered. For the parts and garage cover to take effect, it says that "your vehicle must have suffered a sudden or unexpected breakdown". That's not what happened to you. You said yourself that you were able to nurse it home. A slipping clutch isn't a breakdown, it's a consequence of wear. You wouldn't expect to have tyre wear covered on this policy and clutch wear is similar.

Had the clutch have failed completely though and a tow was required, would that allow for the AA to pay me out for a new clutch? Or because it's still wear and tear that caused the failure, would they not?

BeenThroughItAll

Jlawson118 wrote: »

Had the clutch have failed completely though and a tow was required, would that allow for the AA to pay me out for a new clutch? Or because it's still wear and tear that caused the failure, would they not?

If it failed due to the driver ignoring the constant slipping up to the point at which the clutch burned out completely, I'd hope they'd not only refuse to pay but also charge the incompetent fool for the call out due to wasting time they could be using to save nuns with cars full of orphans cuddling kittens stranded by the side of motorways with REAL breakdowns.

Jlawson118

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

If it failed due to the driver ignoring the constant slipping up to the point at which the clutch burned out completely, I'd hope they'd not only refuse to pay but also charge the incompetent fool for the call out due to wasting time they could be using to save nuns with cars full of orphans cuddling kittens stranded by the side of motorways with REAL breakdowns.

Well because it was slipping was the reason I got it fixed asap anyway. But a clutch could have worn out with no prior slipping or warning. I mean the mechanic who saw my car yesterday did a slip test and never even slipped once. Until he replaced the clutch, he realised it had worn

Aylesbury_Duck

Jlawson118 wrote: »

Had the clutch have failed completely though and a tow was required, would that allow for the AA to pay me out for a new clutch? Or because it's still wear and tear that caused the failure, would they not?

No, they wouldn't. Otherwise, you could do the same with worn brake pads, worn tyres, etc. Too many people would take out the policy and drive until their car's components wore out and save a fortune in maintenance.

Aylesbury_Duck

Jlawson118 wrote: »

Well because it was slipping was the reason I got it fixed asap anyway. But a clutch could have worn out with no prior slipping or warning. I mean the mechanic who saw my car yesterday did a slip test and never even slipped once. Until he replaced the clutch, he realised it had worn

Unlikely, the symptoms are usually pretty obvious. Even if you hadn't notice anything and the car totally broke down, the terms of the policy mean that as soon as they diagnose the problem as caused by wear, you'd be footing the bill.