New Flywheel/clutch at 27,000 miles?

[firebits]

Just had a call from Audi there to say that I have to authorise payment for stripping out the gearbox, should the clutch have failed due to wear and tear. The car is in as it has a slight judder when pulling away in 1st gear and has been doing this for sometime now. They say that it is probably a warranty issue however I'm not willing to authorise the work to remove the gearbox and replace the clutch when they could turn around and say it's "wear and tear". They have quoted £2344.62 for the work should it not be warranty! This is for the 1.4 Manual, not the RS4.

I called Audi Customer care on this and they where exceptionally useless, a level of unhelpfulness that would require immense dedication and tuition to be just so useless.

 

[taylorc]

How old is the car? I am guessing not that old so personally I would stand your ground because no clutch should fail with "wear & tear" after less than 30000 miles!!

 

[firebits]

The car is 18 months old.

 

[taylorc]

If you have had it from new (so you know the history) and unless you have ragged the life out of the car I would certainly not agree to this, I would take this up with the dealer principal and Audi UK because there is no way that a clutch should wear out after 18 months / 27000 miles!!

 

[firebits]

I have had this car from new, the car often has two small children and a dog in it do the opportunity to give it a good ragging isn’t there. Other than this it’s used for work so motorway miles. Will see what they come back with.

 

[SimonAshley]

Definitely contact Audi UK about it.

If they have given you a courtesy car while it's in the garage, then authorise the work!

Don't give the keys back until it's been signed off under warranty!

 

[Joetidman]

Absolutely no chance a clutch should fail after this amount of time/mileage unless it was faulty, or the car was ragged like an absolute bi%^* from cold every day of its life which seems unlikely. No way whatsoever you should foot the bill imo


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[firebits]

Definitely contact Audi UK about it.

If they have given you a courtesy car while it's in the garage, then authorise the work!

Don't give the keys back until it's been signed off under warranty!

I have a courtesy car thanks. I think they think that they know what is wrong but are covering themselves in case.

 

[RaZ A4]

Did it present any signs or what happened to alert you to this happening?

 

[Concerned Cat]

Did it present any signs or what happened to alert you to this happening?

Sentence two??

 

[cuke2u]

I had my dmf replaced on my a3 1.4 after about 5k, it was rattling and vibrating...

 

[RaZ A4]

Sentence two??

Sorry thanks and now I am worried, I occasionally have a slight judder when pulling away but car only done 15,000 miles. I never drive like its stolen and have always been smooth with the clutch and gear changes. Will have to wait and see.

 

[cuke2u]

Mt A3 also developed a slight judder when pulling away a few thousand miles after the new dmf and clutch was fitted. I just ignored it as it didn't happen all the time. It may not be the clutch by the way it could be a gearbox/engine mount.

 

[firebits]

Sorry thanks and now I am worried, I occasionally have a slight judder when pulling away but car only done 15,000 miles. I never drive like its stolen and have always been smooth with the clutch and gear changes. Will have to wait and see.

This is my car. I wasn't even that bothered about it, I only mentioned it in passing as my car was in getting the bonnet sensors looked at.

 

[st3v3]

strange this should pop up, I have 13000 mls on my A4 Tdi 190 and I have a small hit and miss thing going on with the clutch/DPF sometimes it judders a little sometimes it doesnt

 

[nathanrich]

Interesting. I have noticed this for some time now (car is 18 months old just gone past 10,000 miles), a judder through the clutch pedal (feels like a slight slipping) while pulling away. A4 Avant 190 TDI S Line.

Seems worse when it's cold just after start up. I made sure I made a note when driving to work this morning. Definitely noticeable for first 10 minutes of journey but seemed to disappear when the car was up to temp.

Like others on here I drive very steadily, most of the time with 2 kids on board. Spend a lot of time in Bristol start stop traffic though.

I've always driven manual cars and never had any clutch issues previously. Hard to believe it's wear and tear after 10k miles.

 

[cuke2u]

Maybe it is just the cold, temperatures will affect many things, the oil inside the gearbox, the dmf, the friction plate, the way the engine performs as diesels can be quite rough when cold, even the rubber mounts all of which might cause this. Unless there is constant juddering, or the clutch is slipping personally I would ignore it for now...

 

[firebits]

The fault is with the flywheel apparently and the clutch has the wear expected for milage. So warranty will cover all costs except for a new clutch. I did have the option of fitting the old clutch at no cost but this isn't sensible.

Phew!

 

[nathanrich]

I still don't see why you should have to pay anything. This incurred maintenance is not your fault.

My car is leased, I'm 18 months into a 24 month deal. Recently I've priced up extending the lease to 36 months. But if I'm looking at impending clutch/DMF failure then I might not risk it.

Interesting to consider if this case applied to my car, how would it work considering:
- The issue is a premature technical failure of the car, not anything I've caused.
- I am not the owner, it's a lease vehicle.
- Car is still in warranty.
- I pay a monthly maintenance amount.

One of the main reasons to go down the route of leasing for me is to de-risk stuff like this happening.

 

[firebits]

I did try the cause/effect argument but they say that they are recommending replacing the clutch whilst changing the flywheel. It is optional. I would get your judder checked out however, your lease maintenance might cover the clutch!

 

[taylorc]

I wouldn't pay anything to be honest, if Audi are saying that the clutch has the "expected" wear for the mileage then there should be no problem as 27000 miles is nothing for motorway miles thus if a problem does occur down the line with the clutch then you can pull the "you said it only had the expected wear" card!
Sounds to me like they are trying to profit from their failure!! Get it in writing that the clutch has only experienced "normal" wear and has not sustained any damage due to the flywheel failure and then tell them to get on with it....... disgraceful service in my opinion and I would still be raising this with Audi UK.

 

[firebits]

I wouldn't pay anything to be honest, if Audi are saying that the clutch has the "expected" wear for the mileage then there should be no problem as 27000 miles is nothing for motorway miles thus if a problem does occur down the line with the clutch then you can pull the "you said it only had the expected wear" card!
Sounds to me like they are trying to profit from their failure!! Get it in writing that the clutch has only experienced "normal" wear and has not sustained any damage due to the flywheel failure and then tell them to get on with it....... disgraceful service in my opinion and I would still be raising this with Audi UK.

Let me quote my original post: "I called Audi Customer care on this and they where exceptionally useless, a level of unhelpfulness that would require immense dedication and tuition to be just so useless."

 

[taylorc]

Let me quote my original post: "I called Audi Customer care on this and they where exceptionally useless, a level of unhelpfulness that would require immense dedication and tuition to be just so useless."

I would still look at escalating this, when you contact them insist that you speak to someone in authority as you have no faith in the customer service that you have received. Another option would be to contact them via the public page on Facebook and Twitter, that's what I did and you would be amazed at how quickly they got back to me to deal with my issue (admittedly nowhere near as bad as yours but the result will be the same as they don't want the negative press!)

 

[cuke2u]

The fault is with the flywheel apparently and the clutch has the wear expected for milage. So warranty will cover all costs except for a new clutch. I did have the option of fitting the old clutch at no cost but this isn't sensible.

Phew!

When my dmf was replaced I did not have to pay for a new clutch, as you would not have the replace it until tens of thousands of miles. As they then are replacing yours prematurely, and correctly, but then should cover the cost of the clutch because it is the premature failure of the dmf that's caused this..

 

[Spaceman_RS3]

Let me quote my original post: "I called Audi Customer care on this and they where exceptionally useless, a level of unhelpfulness that would require immense dedication and tuition to be just so useless."

So how much do they want off you for a new clutch?

 

[firebits]

£388.99! I expect this either has a healthy markup on it or the friction plates are made from a rare element that only exists on one of Jupiter's moons.

 

[Joetidman]

£388.99! I expect this either has a healthy markup on it or the friction plates are made from a rare element that only exists on one of Jupiter's moons.

If that’s just parts it’s a bit steep, but I guess OEM prices versus aftermarket. However fixed price service cost for a new clutch is around £800 at Audi for reference


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[Spaceman_RS3]

Why not source that parts yourself and hand them in. Now that would be funny

 

[cuke2u]

No warranty then though, so what is audi cs's response, have you contacted them?

 

[Spaceman_RS3]

No warranty then though, so what is audi cs's response, have you contacted them?

Why not buy it from another dealer or ten parts with parts warranty

 

[cuke2u]

If they're Audi parts fine, but at £388.99 I doubt if they'll be much cheaper, if they're non-genuine then the audi warranty will be invalid...

 

[Jimbbobw1977]

Why not source that parts yourself and hand them in. Now that would be funny

I have done this before when the DMF failed on a Punto, they said you might as well replace the clutch whilst the warranty repair was being done. I got the clutch myself and gave it to them to fit

 

[firebits]

Going to be difficult, apparently the part isn’t available anywhere. Might be 2 - 3 weeks on back order.

 

[Mario]

Problem with people saying "no way it should fail with that milage" is that no-one here knows how the car was driven. You can kill a clutch in 5,000 miles or less if you contantly ride it.

You don't need to "rag" or "thrash from cold". Most little old ladies don't thrash cars from cold, but a lot of them eat through clutches because they don't use them properly.

As for the OP, the ONLY way Audi will cover under warranty is if it is physically broken / cracked, etc when they open it. Anything other than that will be deemed to have been how you drove it.

 

[cuke2u]

Problem with people saying "no way it should fail with that milage" is that no-one here knows how the car was driven. You can kill a clutch in 5,000 miles or less if you contantly ride it.

You don't need to "rag" or "thrash from cold". Most little old ladies don't thrash cars from cold, but a lot of them eat through clutches because they don't use them properly.

As for the OP, the ONLY way Audi will cover under warranty is if it is physically broken / cracked, etc when they open it. Anything other than that will be deemed to have been how you drove it.

Might be a good idea to read the OP's post: "The fault is with the flywheel apparently and the clutch has the wear expected for milage. So warranty will cover all costs except for a new clutch. I did have the option of fitting the old clutch at no cost but this isn't sensible".
So, at the end of the day it is the OP's decision, my dealership just fitted the new clutch at no extra cost.
I see many drivers slipping their clutches at stop, and not many of them are little old ladies either. I bet their clutches last longer than 5k and they do test them under many different conditions, including abusing them. So yes I would expect longer than 5k...

 

[firebits]

To be fair, I have been given a nice new A5 to drive for the next few weeks until the part arrives.

 

[cuke2u]

Very nice...