Clutch Eats Gearbox and Bank Balance!

[Danny 57]

I presume your car is out of the warranty period.

[silver1011]

Yes, it is a 2011 car with 113,000 miles.

 

It does have full Skoda history (variable, with interim oil changes done by me) so there would be potential for a goodwill gesture from Skoda UK, however in my experience the goodwill rarely offsets the savings to be had by using a good independent.

 

Had it been the issue experienced by the OP things might have been different, especially with the sums of money involved (£45 per hour vs. £90 @ Skoda).

 

Fingers crossed my issue is indeed just the release bearing and not a failed pressure plate. I'll know in roughly 3 hours from now.

Edited 8 December, 2016 by silver1011

[DEL80Y]

Silver I feel your pain might be a good idea to get them to take photos (really hopefully not) if there is any damage to gearbox to show members what is going wrong with the clutch plates.

I remember a few years ago it was costing more than £600 just to buy the clutch kit and DMF.

Good luck..

[Jayelem]

Trawl this thread, the photos are there. Not a pretty sight.

[silver1011]

My oh my, I've been a very lucky boy, thanks mainly due to this thread.

 

As it happens I've experienced the exact same failure as the OP, albeit a little later in the cars life than most others.

 

From an occasional reluctance to change gear, to an audible noise emanating from the engine bay, all in the space of around a week.

 

If I have a one piece of advice it is to get out of your car every so often with the engine running and listen for unusual noises.

 

Doing this has just saved me well over £3,000.

 

Had the garage not squeezed me in this afternoon it could easily have been a different story, the mechanic reckoned I had only a few hundred miles left before needing a new box.

 

Here is my pressure plate, notice the huge piece missing at the 12 o'clock position and how it now protrudes. After breaking and bending out it begins to scratch it's way through the bell housing. Luckily the broken piece was recovered intact with no other damage to the gearbox. They fitted a new LUK clutch and DMF for £600 inc. VAT...

 

 

For what it's worth my local Skoda dealer quoted £1,500 for the exact same work  , goodwill or not it wasn't worth the risk.

 

The car is now even better than it was, super smooth and now the weak Sachs clutch is where it belongs (on the scrapheap) I can now sleep easy!

 

All diesel 6 speed owners, get out there and listen to your cars now!

 

Edited to reflect the correction from Jayelem.

Edited 4 July, 2018 by silver1011

[Nathanio]

that's quite a shock!

 

Glad you got it sorted and £600 is a bargain!

[Ryeman]

Surely it was clutch only for that price and including the labour?.

I would have thought, with a DMF also, it would have been much more exy.

They don't have to remove the engine to get at it, I assume.

[Jayelem]

Exactly the same as mine, and every other example of this known, long-standing,original design fault. I celebrate everyone who manages to get a Goodwill contribution, but that's exactly what it is; a contribution. Hundreds of loyal Skoda customers are thousands of pounds out of pocket, and thinking themselves lucky not to have had more money effectively stolen from them through a fault that was designed-in and incubating in the car from the moment it rolled out of the showroom. How many more are out there that haven't failed...yet? Yours? Is a known, proven fix in place, or will thousands more worldwide be saying "Wow, I'm really grateful Skoda let me pay ONLY £1200 to fix their incompetent design"? How many have had a second Sachs clutch fitted? (What an irony that would be) I'm no longer a Skoda owner (having had several) but I'm damned annoyed.

[Ryeman]

It's not a skoda fault because it came in a box from a VW factory.

Sachs is German I'm pretty sure.

[Jayelem]

Just one small correction, there's no possibility at all it's the loose piece that does the damage.  The clutch/gearbox clearance is tight, and the protruding spring (about 6x harder than the gearbox) machines its way through the box like a lathe tool, hence the noise.

 

 

My oh my, I've been a very lucky boy, thanks mainly due to this thread.

 

As it happens I've experienced the exact same failure as the OP, albeit a little later in the cars life than most others.

 

From an occasional reluctance the change gear, to an audible noise emanating from the engine bay, all in the space of around a week.

 

If I have a one piece of advice it is to get out of your car every so often with the engine running and listen for unusual noises.

 

Doing this has just saved me well over £3,000.

 

Had the garage not squeezed me in this afternoon it could easily have been a different story, the mechanic reckoned I had only a few hundred miles left before needing a new box.

 

Here is my pressure plate, notice the huge piece missing, it was this missing piece that was flying around the gearbox trying to eat its way out. Luckily it was recovered intact with no other damage to the gearbox. They fitted a new LUK clutch and DMF for £600 inc. VAT...

 

 

For what it's worth my local Skoda dealer quoted £1,500 for the exact same work  , goodwill or not it wasn't worth the risk.

 

The car is now even better than it was, super smooth and now the weak Sachs clutch is where it belongs (on the scrapheap) I can now sleep easy!

 

All diesel 6 speed owners, get out there and listen to your cars now!

[stubie141258]

Not another timebomb

 

I had a Mazda 6 diesel that had both a stretching timing chain and an absolutely stupid method of DPF regen by burning diesel, Only problem was if it failed, diesel was added to engine oil and diluted the lubricant meaning the oil level rose requiring an oil change. The low ash oil was about £40 for 5 litres  having to do that every 6k was a nightmare.

 

Now I've bought a 2013 Superb with the 6 speed box and just 18K miles about 6 months ago and have another timebomb on my hands.

 

How do we let these Manufacturers get away with it?

 

Stubs

Edited 8 December, 2016 by stubie141258

[Jayelem]

Skoda design and sell the car, and are responsible for its quality.  They may, of course, have a secondary claim against Sachs, but that's entirely their business,  The customer can only have recourse against the manufacturer, via the dealer.

 

It's not a skoda fault because it came in a box from a VW factory.
Sachs is German I'm pretty sure.

[Ryeman]

Skoda design and sell the car, and are responsible for its quality.  They may, of course, have a secondary claim against Sachs, but that's entirely their business,  The customer can only have recourse against the manufacturer, via the dealer.

It's VW's company and they are ultimately responsible, in the same way they are for the emissions cheat.

VW components are ultimately VW's responsibility.

When the engine/transmission assembly arrives from the cheap labour factory it isn't stripped down for a quality inspection, it's taken on trust

Apparently they (Skoda) are naive.

[Jayelem]

It's VW's company and they are ultimately responsible, in the same way they are for the emissions cheat.

VW components are ultimately VW's responsibility.

When the engine/transmission assembly arrives from the cheap labour factory it isn't stripped down for a quality inspection, it's taken on trust

Apparently they (Skoda) are naive.

Please don't think I'm being obtuse, but it's an important point.  When we talk about responsibility, we have to differentiate between responsibility to the consumer, and root cause.  I don't know if this is Sachs' design or if they're working to a Skoda or VW group design.  If it's a Sachs design, then of course, the root cause lies with them, but I'm pretty sure no consumer would pursue a second or third tier supplier, or the parent company of the car manufacturer.  When I was being brushed-off by Skoda UK (who wouldn't discuss the problem, or even acknowledge it  existed) I wrote to Skoda in the Czech Republic.  Their response was "everything we do is handled through SUK, talk to them". I'm no lawyer, but I'm pretty sure our dealings as customers can only be with the people we have our contract with.... the dealers.

[Ryeman]

^^^^ I understand your predicament, but VW are cynically hiding behind Skoda's brand to avoid being exposed.

I believe Skoda are the unfortunate 'meat in the sandwich' financially and in terms of product specs and choice, get it in the neck when they are probably just as frustrated as their loyal customers.

I wouldn't want the Skoda U.K. position for quids.

Then there is German management's attitude to cherry picking Brexit............sympathy, in this case, might be in short supply

[silver1011]

Surely it was clutch only for that price and including the labour?.

I would have thought, with a DMF also, it would have been much more exy.

They don't have to remove the engine to get at it, I assume.

 

I was surprised too, it was the full clutch kit and DMF. Genuine LUK components too.

 

I can't praise these guys enough (ask for Brian)...

 

http://www.darcysgarage.co.uk/

[bigjohn]

I was surprised too, it was the full clutch kit and DMF. Genuine LUK components too.

 

I can't praise these guys enough (ask for Brian)...

 

http://www.darcysgarage.co.uk/

 

Have you replaced the slave cylinder as well?

[silver1011]

No, I don't think so...

[DEL80Y]

I think the last time I done 1 the slave cylinder came with the full clutch kit

[Ryeman]

I was surprised too, it was the full clutch kit and DMF. Genuine LUK components too.

 

I can't praise these guys enough (ask for Brian)...

 

http://www.darcysgarage.co.uk/

He must specialise in it and must be very popular too, it's a bargain at that price.

[silver1011]

Yes, yesterday was a very lucky day for me...

 

 

 

Edited 20 November, 2018 by silver1011
Images re-added, no thanks to Photobucket!

[Ryeman]

That's the sort of luck I like; the repeatable variety

[bigjohn]

Phew, lucky escape

 

As mentioned before two major problems to look out for the 2.0 diesel CR clutch

1) The above self destructing clutch cover plate

2) Slave cylinder/release bearing (which I think is included in a LUK clutch kit)

 

I've not mentioned the DMF as I've seen many exceed 200k miles

Edited 9 December, 2016 by bigjohn

[Snapper1725]

Hi all

Been keeping upto date with this thread as my car as just gone over 40,000miles and it's in back of my head if/when will it fail with me.

Just been through the whole thread from start again and good to see the pictures as I'd forgotten they were there

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wgcsQ1-5oLQ

Found this on YouTube, only clip I could really come across, it's 2011 Vw and the same things happened. He goes on abit but shows the gearbox and broken ring on the pressure plate

[Jayelem]

Wow, that puts another perspective on it, doesn't it?  Good spot.  There must be many thousands of these failing worldwide.  I wish there was somebody with the appropriate resources and motivation to start a class action, as previously suggested.  Many people are relived at having to contribute "only" £1200 or so, but when they are neither at fault, nor able to control this failure, why should they contribute at all?  The clutch may fail out-of-warranty, but it could easily be demonstrated that the fault was designed into the car.  With car lifetimes easily in excess of 100K miles, I'd argue that a large, expensive failure of  key component at 40K that does so much consequential damage demonstrates this clutch is not of merchantable quality.

 

 

Hi all
Been keeping upto date with this thread as my car as just gone over 40,000miles and it's in back of my head if/when will it fail with me.
Just been through the whole thread from start again and good to see the pictures as I'd forgotten they were there
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wgcsQ1-5oLQ
Found this on YouTube, only clip I could really come across, it's 2011 Vw and the same things happened. He goes on abit but shows the gearbox and broken ring on the pressure plate