Clutch gone in 2yr 11months old car with 11600 miles

samtaylor99

Hi, I'm looking for advice on how to approach our Skoda main dealer regarding a burnt out clutch on a Fabia just under 3years old with  low mileage.(11600 miles) It's my wife's car - her second Skoda Fabia. Her previous one lasted 13 years with minimal upkeep costs and left us with the original clutch intact. The present one was bought from new and is still under warranty - one month left on that. We called out the VW/Skoda tech guy after noticing a strong burning smell and he found the fault immediately, but advised it was unlikely to be covered by the 3 year new car warranty. In addition, if we insisted on an inspection it may well take a long time during which she would be without a car. It’s booked in for a 3 year service in a week but as she needs it for work we decided to get the clutch replaced locally by an independent garage. He returned the original clutch, saying he couldn’t understand why it had failed at such a low mileage and remarked how badly worn it was – one of the worst he had seen. She is a careful driver and doesn’t ‘ride the clutch’ whatsoever. As stated earlier, this was the same make & model as her previous car which lasted 13 years and was  sold as a fully working car-albeit a bit old.  I would like to find out why it failed so early and some reassurance that there is no inherent fault with this car which may cause a further failure.. Any advice would be appreciated. 

SaverRate

Why didn't you take it to a Skoda main dealer and get it replaced under warranty. Thats what I would have done or atleast pushed for Skoda to pay a large portion of the cost of replacement. 

Was the VW/Skoda guy the roadside assistance/breakdown cover? If so I would have definitely then gone to a Skoda main dealer and asked for replacement under warranty.  

You would need Skoda to send the clutch off (not sure to where?) to get it checked and investigated. I doubt they wont be able to guarantee there is no inherent fault with the car.

chrisw

I had a Volvo clutch replaced under goodwill at 5 years and 30k miles as when they inspected it there was little wear so obviously mechanical failure.

As yours has failed due to wear and has now been replaced by someone else,  it would be very difficult to prove whether it was down to a mechanical fault or driver use. If the clutch linings are intact, all I can think of is it not biting properly and slipping but I would have thought that would have been obvious when driving it.

Stubod

..Skoda / VAG are very good at "it's not a design or manufacturing problem"....the fact that you used a non franchise mechanic will not have helped....wish you luck, but I think you are doomed..???

rigolith

I'd be concerned that it's a fault somewhere else, like the pedal or linkage, that caused excessive wear. Unfortunately you will probably not find out until the new one goes and it's well outside the warranty.

In future just push the main dealer to look at it and if necessary hire a car for a few days.

samtaylor99

Thanks for the comments and insights. These 'spur of the moment' decisions can always go either way. My initial thoughts that a clutch at < 3 years and at such low mileage would be covered under warranty were quickly dispelled and it became a cost based decision as the main dealer replacement would have been much more expensive. One of the reasons my OH buys from new was the (now debunked) theory of trouble free ownership for 3 years. In future, a wider market of better value used cars may be possible.

ontheroad1970

samtaylor99 said:

Thanks for the comments and insights. These 'spur of the moment' decisions can always go either way. My initial thoughts that a clutch at < 3 years and at such low mileage would be covered under warranty were quickly dispelled and it became a cost based decision as the main dealer replacement would have been much more expensive. One of the reasons my OH buys from new was the (now debunked) theory of trouble free ownership for 3 years. In future, a wider market of better value used cars may be possible.

This is  generally the case, but clutches are generally a wear and tear issue and therefore on the basis of probability, it's the most likely cause.  It means that you would need to disprove the probability.  You'd need to get them to look at the clutch and elsewhere in the car to see if anything was causing the clutch to fail prematurely.  If they do not find a fault that they are responsible for, this would get very expensive.  I would make sure that they are aware that you are monitoring the wear of this (albeit third party) clutch.  Find out the brand of the clutch that has been fitted and establish whether it is a good quality part, comparatively speaking to the OEM.  This could be important later on.  

samtaylor99

Thanks ontheroad1970  .  We had a confirmation call from the main dealer today regarding the 3rd year service and they were very helpful regarding the clutch failure. I'm aware we were talking to their admin staff rather than a technician but they seemed open to investiganing further.  Not getting my hopes up. I agree 'disproving the probability' is an issue, but they seem to have entered the spirit. I'll certainly get the details of the new clutch.  Fingers crossed. 

fatbelly

There are other accounts of this if you look on Briskoda

samtaylor99

fatbelly said:

There are other accounts of this if you look on Briskoda

Excellent pointer FB. I had originally searched on Briskoda but obviously in the wrong place - I find that site difficult to navigate. A more thorough search this morning has revealed many similar failures and a Skoda Tech Webinar from September 2020 detailing anticorrosion protection applied to the flywheel and the clutch leading to premature clutch failures in the exact year/Model we have. Many thanks to you indeed!