vibration on clutch pedal - dealer wants us to foot bill if wear and tear

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fizz

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The story is that my A3 2.0 TDi (4WD) suddenly started vibrating at the clutch pedal which I was told my an independent specialist may be a bearing or fork inside the clutch that’s broken which means the gearbox and clutch need to be taken out.

Now with only a week left on my warranty I took it to my local dealer who at first said it was normal for the clutch pedal to vibrate when pressed then changed their mind after being challenged & having the car for 9 hours. They are now saying it’s probably a fault which is covered by the warranty, however they want me to sign to agree to pay for them to remove the gear box and inspect the clutch as it could also be wear and tear in which case ill have to foot the bill. Apparently their specialist can't tell if its wear and tear without actually taking it all apart. I would have thought wear and tar wouldn’t case vibration anyway more like clutch slip / smell.

Upon confronting them and saying that I expect the clutch on a 20+k car to last at least 3 years or be covered by warranty anyway I was told that they have had Audi's in with only 500 miles that have had clutches go due to wear and tear (will mention this to Audi UK tomorrow)

Going to ring Audi UK in the morning to see where I stand but I find it hard to believe that I have to agree to pay so they can open to have a look. Any help from you guys would be appreciated on what’s the best course of action.

I know when the prop shaft went and they refused to do under warranty Audi UK rang them and they changed their mind. Any help appreciated guys.
 
My FWD 2.0 TDI clutch is a handful of miles shy of 80,000 miles and hasn't slipped yet (remap to cope with, too).

I think I'm right in saying that because you have flagged up this issue within your warranty period, even if these discussions take you on past the end of the cover period, the work should still be carried out F.O.C. provided it's agreed that it is their responsibility.

What's the betting that they'll remove the gearbox and clutch, behind closed doors, then replace a number of parts, tell you it was "wear and tear", and charge you for it? As you say, provided the clutch isn't actually slipping, I can't really see how whatever failure has caused the vibrations can be put down to a general wear and tear situation. It sounds as though something has gone wrong, rather than normal clutch wear taking place. I don't suppose they'd let you into the workshops with your own friendly transmission specialist while they inpsect it all either - it could be very easy for them to wriggle out of it and make something up.
 
my clutch went at 85,000 miles i had a judder it turned out to be the clutch slave cylinder but i wouldnt expect that to be the case with your car at 30k take it up with audi uk and play hell with them
 
thnx for the replies guys

Gona give Audi Uk a ring in the morning and see what they say. Defo not paying after forking out 20k for the car
 
Well reported to Audi UK who sent someone from RAC (Audi assist / roadside) to give a second opinion. He basically thought it wasn't wear & tear but goes not sure why threy sent him if Audi don't know. Anyway called Audi UK today & they have now sent to to a case worker who will ring me back. What do you think guys? Dreading being told that i'll have to sign before they can remove gearbox to check. Find it ridiculous that a car of this calibre would have so many probs at under 3 years old & the dealers would put pressure on the customer so foot the bill.
 
So they assessed the car in-house, for nine hours, and let their specialist have a look at it....yet decided to send an RAC man out to you to have a poke about? That goes beyond dim. Way to show confidence in your technicians, too. I would be stamping my feet in the dealership, finding the most senior person possible who deals with servicing/customer relations. As you say, a 30,000 mile "prestige car", with only 140bhp, shouldn't be suffering from transmission problems...and the customer shouldn't have to foot the bill. I think if they tried to push it, I'd tell them to take the car back and return my money. Shameful.
 
whine whine and whine, never budge and youll get what you want, a clutch should never go at 30k unless you drive like an ********, theres a case where a mercedes taxi driver did something like 500k in his merc without needing a clutch, merc awarded him with a brand new car so if merc can get 500k outta a clutch im sure audi can manage at least 70k
 
audi upgrades
Whine and complain is what I intend to do guys. Its a shame that a company like Audi is represented by such dealerships where they are happy to sell you a car or service but when it comes down to helping the customer they don't give a toss. I'm hoping Audi UK will come good as they have done on the previous time warranty work was refused by the same dealer.
 
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Just had callback from Audi UK who have come up trumps again. They have spoken to the dealer & authorised the work to take gearbox out and diagnose fault. He goes that once its out they will speak to the dealer and see what the problem is but will more than likely meet the cost of the repair. Gona take it one step at a time so agreed and will see what happens now.
 
Well done, don't let the muppets run you down.

Nice little anecdote about the Mercedes cabbie :)
 
Just an update on what's happening with this

Car went in a few days ago after Audi UK had authorised to pay to have the gearbox removed

Anyway got a call from a senior tech who has been working on the car today. He basically said that they have removed and inspected the clutch and can find nothing wrong. Of course this was a surprise as I was told that there was something wrong when it went in last time but they didn't know if it was wear & tear or a defect. He invited me to the workshop so he could show me my pride and joy in bits and explain by showing me the various bits.

The chap was nice enough, however from saying there was "nothing wrong" it turned into the cause is probably "you resting your foot on the pedal"

Don't really want to bore you guys with the details but Im glad I took my father as he noticed a lot of play in the fly wheel while we were there and he also asked the senior tech if he knew what the symptoms were to which we were told they hadn't checked before taking it apart. We told him there was a clear vibration and noise when the pedal was pressed.

Anyway getting a call back from Audi UK in the morning so will see what they say.
 
tipical main dealer for you that is mate trying to say there's nothing wrong then trying to blame the way you drive they are just trying to get out of repairing it stand your ground and dont back down
 
fizz said:
Don't really want to bore you guys with the details but Im glad I took my father as he noticed a lot of play in the fly wheel while we were there and he also asked the senior tech if he knew what the symptoms were to which we were told they hadn't checked before taking it apart. We told him there was a clear vibration and noise when the pedal was pressed.
Click to expand...
Those symptoms were exactly what was happening to my S3's clutch at 20k when I had it all done under warranty. Audi said there was a lot of wear on the clucth and release bearings due to the excess play in the flywheel. It was all done under warranty no questions asked. Hope they sort you out mate.
 
My brother had his replaced on his 140tdi A3 (21k miles) along with the flywheel, my sister-in-law had hers replaced in her 140tdi mkv golf (24k miles) and when it went back to the lease company was showing signs of failure again, my A3 170tdi had it's clutch, flywheel and release bearing replaced at 18k miles, then my brothers TT started showing signs of failure before he stuck it in for part ex ...... All work on every car was done under warrenty, so don't take any crap from the dealer.
 
my clutch didnt go till 80.000 miles and even then it was the release bearing that failed surely they shouldnt go at just 20.000 mlies should they
 
Thnx for the replies guys

What worries me is when I asked the technician what he thought it was, he asked me whatbthe vibration and noise was like. He said that he hadn't checked the car before they took the car apart. Was gobsmacked tbh, anyway I've fed everythi back to Audi UK this morning. I hope this getsvsorted soon as I'm stuck with the 3 door they gave me even though I asked for 5 door due to having 2 young children with child seats.
 
Had call back from Audi UK who spoke to the garage who is now saying that they have never found a fault even before the gearbox was removed. This is a different story to what I was told. When it first went in they told me that they found the vibration, however they need to examine clutch to determine whether its wear & tear. The mistake I made was I didn't get a copy of the report.

The next level of escalation is Audi UK have requested a detailed report with images to be sent to their head office which will be examined. Just can't believe that a company of this calibre would just change their story like that, then again from what I've read of some garages maybe its normal.

So as we have it, car is in bits at a garage where the techs like playing with remote control helicopters in the workshop where customers leave their cars in apparently good hands - good job I got a copy of the damage report on my car showing no damage.

I just see how this is going to be resolved without someone who knows their job well looks at the symptoms and also examines the play in the flywheel. It's funny how people on this thread have had similar issues which have been resolved by changing the flywheel, bearing and clutch which is exactly what I’ve been told to others I’ve spoken to yet the garage who have supposedly experienced tech’s can’t figure out.
 
Not looking too good fizz.
Didn't Audi get the RAC to check out the problem, what does their report say?
Can you use this to prove that the garage are now trying to pull a fast one?

Good luck!
 
audi upgrades
Called Audi UK as not heard anything from them or the dealernin the last few days. They were suprised the dealer hadn't called me as they had agreed to change flywheel and clutch. Anyway I'm hoping this is the end of it.
 
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