VRS TSI Clutch Slip / Replacement after 17K Miles / Skoda reluctantly pays-out after proof of defect

[Orville]

Well, it's been over a month now since Skoda UK and EAG promised to pay my money back. EAG are still blaming SUK  for the payment delay. My credit card company are due to call me back on Monday to check whether I have been paid. I think that I will ask them (MBNA) to pursue EAG directly for the funds. It might make EAG pull their fingers out because they really do not seem to give a damn about customer care.

[dsj20v]

As above please report to motoring press to help others out in future

[Orville]

Essex Auto Group today informed me that SUK have finally approved the payment (which they agreed 5-weeks ago). The Dealer will raise the cheque for remaining balance today.

 

It has taken 4 months, but I will soon have ALL of my money back. What a pain in the ar$e it has been.

Edited 24 August, 2016 by Orville

[Orville]

Essex Auto Group have today handed-over the long-outstanding cheque for the remainder of my costs. After 4+ months of trully aweful service from EAG & Skoda UK, I finally have all of my money back (so long as the cheque does not bounce). It would have been far easier for everyone had EAG or Skoda UK bothered to investigate the (clear) cause of my clutch failure at the beginning, rather than denying the undeniable.

 

Thanks to everyone on this forum who has provided support and advice. Without your comments I would have given up. Special thanks to Alan Watling who conducted the Independent Inspection Report. Without Alan's expertise and qualification Skoda would have continued to deny, delay and obflusticate. The Report allowed Skoda UK to see that they would have an unwinable legal case, so I assume damage-limitation rather than morality kicked-in.

 

If anyone from VAG Executive Team views this - Your Customer Service and morality SUCKS. You will not see my business again.

Edited 2 September, 2016 by Orville

[petrolbloke]

At last! Good on you for persevering to get the right outcome. Many people would just believe what a supposed 'expert' at the dealer tells them and given up trying to fight it.

[vRSAnt]

This is great. However I'd like to also see EAG prompted for refund of the additional £15 unnecessary cost for supplying you your own worn clutch back - just to rub extra salt into the wound

[Orville]

This is great. However I'd like to also see EAG prompted for refund of the additional £15 unnecessary cost for supplying you your own worn clutch back - just to rub extra salt into the wound

True, but EAG would have expected to take the parts back in-return for that £15 and I wanted to keep them. Perhaps Watchdog or Auto Press will request to see them, and  after 4-months of aggro it is nice to have a momentum. When I have time I will post some videos of the parts and my ownership experience on youtube.

 

Don't get me wrong, I really like the VRS. It is extremely practical and suits my family needs perfectly. If it wasn't for Dealer and Skoda UK's behavior I could easily have tolerated a few faults.

[Auric Goldfinger]

At last! Good on you for persevering to get the right outcome. Many people would just believe what a supposed 'expert' at the dealer tells them and given up trying to fight it.

 

Excellent result, and 10/10 for perusing your case. As said most folk would have just walked away.

[vRSAnt]

True, but EAG would have expected to take the parts back in-return for that £15 and I wanted to keep them. Perhaps Watchdog or Auto Press will request to see them, and  after 4-months of aggro it is nice to have a momentum. When I have time I will post some videos of the parts and my ownership experience on youtube.

 

Don't get me wrong, I really like the VRS. It is extremely practical and suits my family needs perfectly. If it wasn't for Dealer and Skoda UK's behavior I could easily have tolerated a few faults.

 

Fair enough good argument there.

 

I'd draw a line under this now and the stress its caused you - life is too short - and move on from this with your well earned result

( but obviously continue to be smug about the outcome for a long time to come !).

 

Its definitely a consumer victory - helps keep these and others dealers on their toes for a while I'd like to think! Well played Sir.

[vRSAnt]

Ha I had a thought for even greater publicity even when its all died down, and you feel have maximised your publicity / scaremongering / consumer protection with that £15 used part - you could stick it on ebay with a nice story starting at 1p........

 

You'd get even more attention to this and keep the story going even longer for the so deserving dealer -

maybe then the dealers will want to buy it back and bury it somewhere or throw it at the head of the engineer who called it wrongly in the first place....

[Orville]

The shameful about my experience is that I had to prove manufacturing-defect, rather than Skoda having to prove wear & tear. After 6-months or 6,000 miles Skoda's default position is wear & tear, and they really could not be bothered to entertain or investigate any other possibility. I understand their reasons for this approach, but they should at least perform a thorough check before landing their customers with a big bill.

 

This is by no means a common fault and I am sure the majority of Octavia's are reliable cars. There have been a couple of online reports for Golf R's suffering low-mileage clutch slippage but nobody else seems to have retained the parts. That is a shame because I would like to know whether I had a one-off "dished" pressure-plate, or whether others suffer this to a lesser or greater extent. The other reported failures seem to have been replaced under VW warranty without any of the hassle I suffered at Skoda's hands. I am sure that if my Dealer noticed the warped plate at the start then warranty would have been honored, but they failed to check it correctly (even when I questioned why it was only worn on one side) and then refused to admit the possibility of making a mistake. They also told me a few fibs to put me off, and neglected to provide Skoda UK with any of the photographic evidence I had provided them.

 

Do I feel bitter - yes, a little. Neither the Dealer nor Skoda really listened to me until I obtained the inspection report, and even then it was only VW Financial Services who jumped on the case. I should not have needed to go as far Inspection Reports and threats of Legal action.

Edited 3 September, 2016 by Orville

[vRSAnt]

Sound like the  part ( not the car ) was a Friday special, presumably some guy has to lathe these kind of components, or its done by machine, and either wasn't on the ball or the machine wasn't working right.

 

Surprising as by now six-sigma has been pretty widely adopted by the motor industry and opportunities to fail like this tend to be smaller (e.g. than NHS etc!)

[havocUK]

True, but EAG would have expected to take the parts back in-return for that £15 and I wanted to keep them. Perhaps Watchdog or Auto Press will request to see them, and  after 4-months of aggro it is nice to have a momentum. When I have time I will post some videos of the parts and my ownership experience on youtube.

 

Don't get me wrong, I really like the VRS. It is extremely practical and suits my family needs perfectly. If it wasn't for Dealer and Skoda UK's behavior I could easily have tolerated a few faults.

Really?  I think (with a lot of respect - you've clearly stood up to them despite everything they've tried) that you've listened too much to their specious reasoning here...

 

You purchased the car - the clutch is your part.

You paid for a replacement - the replacement is your part.

EAG's position in this was supply and fit of the new part, AND unless otherwise guided to deal with the disposal of the old part.

At no point in that transaction did EAG obtain title to the old part.

 

I can't think of ANY circumstances...except for a granted warranty claim (!) where the dealer has a right to retain the part.  As for charging to hand it over - it costs them 60 seconds of their time to do so, and you've saved them scrap disposal costs.

 

Anyway, arbitrary now - a good result (finally)!  I would be tempted to go for a bit more publicity here - you've had no goodwill gesture or compensation from them, so you are in effect down dozens of hours of your own time, plus stress and aggravation.  And as you say, anything to bring this out into the open more and dissuade them from putting someone else through the same trial.

[Orville]

The original clutch-replacement quote included a (unknown to me) £15 recycling credit which VAG offers their Dealers. I was not told anything about this until I arranged collection of the car post-replacement. As I wanted to keep the parts, EAG demanded the £15 they would lose by not recycling. Whilst EAG did not communicate this to me when I first requested to keep the parts, I grudgingly understand the charge. If I forced the issue they would probably refund the money but I would have to hand the parts back. I would rather keep them incase anyone wants to investigate Skoda's handling of this saga. I shall not lose any sleep over the loss of £15.

[Orville]

Small update. My car has covered 4000 miles post-replacement. Initially the new clucth felt slightly "gritty", but this disappeared within 500 miles. The feel and travel of the new clutch has remained constant since install. Bite position is within the middle of peddle travel and there is good progressive feel. This was never the case with the original clutch. It feels like a different car to drive than the one I purchased new.

 

I have been deliberately pushing the new clutch hard, but so far it shows no signs of wear. My reasoning was to force any gremelins out within the 6000 mile warranty period, but this one seems good. After the Dealers attempts to screw me I wanted to give it some stress testing early-on. Whilst I am incredibly unsatisfied with Skoda/VAG/Dealer Customer Services, I do like the car again:).

Edited 19 October, 2016 by Orville

[mikey vrs]

Reading this post is one of the reasons i have not replaced my mk2 octavia vrs with the mk3 version,reading on here there is a few issues with the mk3 & as well as skoda's becoming expensive to buy nowadays the mk3 doesnt appear to hold its value that well & ive read about a few owners that have been messed about by skoda & their dealers,glad you have finally got your money back & good on you for not giving up. 

[AccoSnr]

Orville, a great job thanks to your persistence and endeavour and shame on the manufacturer and their representatives as clearly a manufacturing/assembly defect, or perhaps even design failure. Clearly clutch elements are subject to wear and tear, just like brake pads/shoes, but a realistic life expectancy, subject to normal use, is implicit in the nature of the product and I would not accept that their quoted warranty period meets their obligations as design and manufacturers. My view would be that not only is this a manufacturing/assembly defect but also it is not 'fit for the intended purpose'.

A useful set of photo's and detail for reference by others if encountering similar problem.

[Orville]

Going back over old photos the manufacturing-defect was clearly evident with the pressure-plate picture that the Dealer provided me whilst the car was in-bits within the workshop on 29th April. For some reason they did not send this picture with the original batch of photos. I had to specifically request a pressure-plate photo. The Dealer picture shows obvious uneven wear/contact. It amazes how the Esses Auto Group numpties failed to spot or investigate this, and then proceeded to obstruct and deny there was a problem for many months. Even more amazing is that Skoda Customer Services, Technical Supoort and Legal Teams all chose to ignore it too (until the point immediately before Legal action).

 

My personal opinion is that the Delaer knew there was a fault, but decided they could extract more money out of me for the replacement than from Skoda. The Dealer then proceeded to try to cover-up their dodgy-dealing (or incompotence), and of course Skoda believed it Dealer rather than it's customer, even though the customer provided solid proof of defect.

 

Here is the Dealer worshop picture of my uncleaned pressure-plate.

 

.and here is a picture in good light after cleaning the plate with an old tea-towel and a spray of clutch/brake cleaner.

Edited 27 October, 2016 by Orville

[AccoSnr]

The Dealer picture shows obvious uneven wear/contact. 

Here is the Dealer worshop picture of my uncleaned pressure-plate.

Agreed uneven wear is clear and confirmed convex/concave pressure plate by the pics with ruler. Find it hard to see how plate was machined 'unflat' unless called for in design (but can't think why) and also begs question, 'why, if that was the case no other similar results and complaints out there (or maybe kept quiet)'. Whatever, good effort and result on your part.

As a side note. During my 40yrs dealing with machinery suppliers world wide in my experience it was always suppliers from one country that never accepted it was their fault, even when clear evidence, as in your case, was presented to them. I will leave you to decide which country and it shouldn't be too difficult .

[davidfe]

Just had the clutch on my 10k miles Fabia Monte Carlo exhibit slippage whilst

driving on motorway and accelerating from approx 55mph in 5th gear.

Thought i was imagining it but this continued over the next couple of days

and one of my carshare buddies spotted it when i was driving. I have been

driving for 30yrs and never had a clutch issue in any of my cars. Last car was a clio

i owned from new and was traded with 50k on clock with no issues at all.

I don't ride the clutch and most of the 10k miles has been on my 70mile

daily motorway commute.

 

Skoda initially said wear and tear, (they phoned to tell me this whilst i was abroad

on holiday) and that they could not find any defect with the clutch but that

it was worn out. As a good will gesture they offered to carry out work for £485.

I told them under no circumstances was i paying, wanted inspection and would go

to court etc etc.

They have now agreed to replace the clutch at no charge. Don't know if i am just

lucky or if there is an issue that they don't want in the public domain.

 

We own 2 Skoda's, this may be the last time i buy one as i have never had any

issue with other makes owned from new over the last 30yrs.

[Gerrycan]

Pretty sure that most warranties have limitations on the amount of time or distance they will cover clutches as a get out for claims involving abuse.

Trouble is that innocent parties like yourself with defective parts get lumped in the same category if the mechanics involved are lazy/inexperienced.

Quite likely that you would have got similar treatment from any manufacturer.

Good you stuck to your guns and got a good result.

I had a near identical situation with Kia a few years ago.

[Orville]

44 minutes ago, davidfe said:

Skoda initially said wear and tear, (they phoned to tell me this whilst i was abroad

on holiday) and that they could not find any defect with the clutch but that

it was worn out. As a good will gesture they offered to carry out work for £485.

I told them under no circumstances was i paying, wanted inspection and would go

to court etc etc.

They have now agreed to replace the clutch at no charge. Don't know if i am just

lucky or if there is an issue that they don't want in the public domain.

Good that they replaced it without too much argument.

 

As a side-note my replaced-clutch is working perfectly and still feels as good as new after 10K miles. It feels far better than the original faulty-clutch felt when new.

[neninja]

My 2014 Mk3 Vrs Tsi clutch started slipping at 16,000 miles and even when not driving hard the clutch smell was really strong.. Stock car with no remapping etc.

 

It's currently in the dealer getting sorted. Fortunately I'd only recently bought it so the dealer is footing the bill for fixing it and are doing that with no argument.

 

I've given them details of your clutch to make a case with Skoda if it's the same issue.

[mabnz]

If the clutch starts slipping in a DSG transmission, does that mean I'd need to pay to replace two clutches instead of one?

[wRRM]

I have the exact same problem as the poster on my vRS 2017.

 

Car have rolled about 1553 miles (2500km) and have the exact same wear on the plate with ALOT of clutch slip.

 

Unfortunately this was not within warranty according to the Skoda technician.