Recently purchased used car with faulty clutch - my rights

ChrisMckay2501

Hi all. I am looking for some advice.  I purchased a 5 year old car with 28k miles on the clock from Arnold Clark 3 months ago.

I have clocked just about 1,200 miles on the car since getting it. On Sunday, without any warnings, the car would not go into gear. The AA have diagnosed the issue as a faulty clutch.

I took out the 2 year autocare warranty with Arnold Clark upon purchasing the car, but they have told me that this warranty may not cover the clutch.

Does anyone have any advice on my consumer rights around this?

Ayr_Rage

Clutches are normally treated as wear and tear items and if there was no indication of any problems since the purchase up until the failure it is unlikely to be covered by the warranty.

It should be clear in the policy document what is covered.

If there is a known history of premature failures due to bad components then you'll have to get it stripped down and a report generated to prove that fact and you might then have a claim.

Arnold Clark and Autocare are the first ports of call.

daveyjp

About 5k miles a year.  No doubt lots of local trips, manouvering, possibly a slightly hard of hearing older driver who can't hear the engine, revs the nuts off it every time they pull away?

 Depending on the car 30k with such use may well be expected.

Grey_Critic

Clutches are normally excluded under used car warranties

Mildly_Miffed

ChrisMckay2501 said:

I have clocked just about 1,200 miles on the car since getting it. On Sunday, without any warnings, the car would not go into gear. The AA have diagnosed the issue as a faulty clutch.

The fault was clearly not present at purchase.

It would be very easy for a hamfooted muppet to kill a perfectly healthy clutch in 1,200 miles. I'm not suggesting you are... but you will find it very hard to disprove the possibility.

Stubod

..2 chances....No hope and Bob Hope....they will classify it as a "wear item", and therefore not covered.....

ChrisMckay2501

Would this not fall under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, in that the garage would need to prove the clutch was in good working order when the car was sold to me, as I'm well within the 6 month time frame outlined by the Act?

Wonka_2

ChrisMckay2501 said:

Would this not fall under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, in that the garage would need to prove the clutch was in good working order when the car was sold to me, as I'm well within the 6 month time frame outlined by the Act?

But the fact it was working with no previous complaints from you will tell them that. Had you raised a previous issue of ‘this doesn’t feel right’ or ‘the clutch seems to have some issues’ you may have a chance slightly higher than ‘no hope’ 

That said it’s all probably irrelevant given it’s Arnold Clark 

facade

If it won't go into gear it is more likely a sudden & premature failure of part of the release mechanism such as a fluid seal in the master cylinder than a wear issue, so it ought to be covered by warranty (although I had a Fiat that snapped a few fingers of the diaphragm spring and let the release bearing punch through- that was definitely due to them wearing through, it had over 100,000 miles on the clock)

Hoenir

ChrisMckay2501 said:

Would this not fall under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, in that the garage would need to prove the clutch was in good working order when the car was sold to me, as I'm well within the 6 month time frame outlined by the Act?

How could the garage conceivably prove the manner in which the vehicle had been driven in the past 5 years? 

Goudy

No car warranty will cover the friction part of the clutch for long.
At best, a brand new car with a manufacturers warranty will only cover the friction part of the clutch for manufacturing defects for a couple of months max.

On a used car warranty, they just won't cover it at all.

There is a chance the friction part might be okay but the hydraulic part has an issue if it's failed suddenly.
Perhaps the master or slave cylinder is the issue.

The clutch centre plate (friction plate) usually doesn't just fail. It wears away and gradually gets worse over time.
The bite point with alter, either higher or lower on the pedal travel and it will often start to slip when accelerating.


I have copied and pasted Autocare's clutch section of their warranty handbook for what is covered.
autocare-handbook_2024.pdf

"Clutch: Release Bearing, Pressure Plate Centre Plate (including failure due to Oil leak contamination), Clutch Fork, Master Cylinder, Slave Cylinder. Pedal Box Assembly (Note: Clutch components are excluded if the failure is due to wear and tear.)"

What generally happens is they will try and diagnose the issue but you'll have to agree to pay for the diagnostics (and the repair) in case the problem isn't covered by the warranty.