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premature clutch and gearbox failure


mikeor

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Sunday 19 March 2017 06.59 GMT
I bought a 2010 Skoda Yeti 4x4, with 31,680 miles on the clock, for £12,000 in March 2014. It came with a three-year warranty from Available Cars in Castle Donington costing £729, which was provided by Mapfre Abraxas.
In early January at 62000 miles I noticed an oil patch on the drive. Despite seeing no further sign of any problems, I took the car to a local garage for further investigation. To my horror I was told the clutch pressure plate had broken and made a hole in the gearbox casing. I was quoted £6,500 for a repair.
An engineer from the warranty company attributed the damage to “fair wear and tear”. This, of course, meant that I wasn’t covered.
The local garage issued a report to the warranty company that this was not the reason, and that a faulty component – the pressure plate – was in fact to blame. I made a formal appeal to the warranty company, which again turned down my request.
I found numerous other incidents recorded on the internet that were identical to my own, and that the reason could be a fault in the material used in the clutch cover plate.
Skoda head office has since offered to pay 20% of the repair bill. I declined this as derisory. I cannot afford the repair as the car is only worth £5,000 – if in good condition.
It is my belief that the car was fitted with a faulty part at build, which does not become evident until it achieves a reasonable mileage.
It seems to me that third party warranties aren’t worth the paper on which they are written.
MOR, Ashbourne
From Miles Brignall Guardian
Another week and another unhappy Skoda customer, and yet another car warranty claim that has been refused. The letter sent to you by Mapfre, in which it sets out why it has turned down your claim, reveals that it refused to accept your local garage’s report into the failure because, in its words, its author does not hold “the relevant engineering qualifications”. It has told you that it will not entertain any claim that is due to wear and tear, or anything it deems to be a manufacturing defect.
This stance must cover almost all claims, leading this column to wonder in what circumstance it would pay a car claim. We asked Mapfre what percentage of claims were paid, but it declined to provide the figure, citing commercial confidentiality.
It did say that the car had been independently examined and that the company was confident MO had been treated fairly as per the terms of his policy. The matter is now being looked at by the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Leaving aside the value or otherwise of the policy, we think you would have been better off bringing a claim against the supplying dealer – Available Cars. This might seem unfair, but the Consumer Rights Act makes the retailer, not the manufacturer, responsible.
The dealer told us that the problem you experienced is well-known in the motor trade as affecting VAG (Volkswagen group, which owns Skoda) cars. He also says that when it contacted you to see if it could be find a cost-effective solution you had since sold the car, leaving you with a £4,000 loss.
Interestingly, Available Cars no longer offers Mapfre warranties, which perhaps says something. We will report the outcome of the FOS investigation.

Do you have a similar story to mine .Please email your story to me at
[email protected] The financial ombudsman service couldn't help
Is this a known and common fault. Skoda say NOT!! Mike O'Reilly

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Mike,  to my mind if Skoda UK are offering any amount of 'compensation' it is an acceptance that there is some liability,

so surely your insurance company must accept this?  Got to say never heard of the company Mapfre.

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This happened to me under warranty - I got a new gearbox out of it (and some lethally negligent workmanship).

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That's a bad business a third party warranty is not worth the paper it's written on. In the last 3 years we have claim £4000 on our 2 cars on approved das welt and mini extended warranty without any issues. 

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Happened on mine too.  2012 140CR 4x4.  About 37k miles, less than a year out of warranty.  The same bit broke in mine, punching a hole in the gearbox, and the clutch slave cylinder.  The first I knew about it, was when I got in the car one morning, and couldn't get the car into gear.  That problem went away mysteriously, and then shortly after, I got the smell of gearbox oil leaking down onto the hot exhaust.

 

Skoda wouldn't do anything, because I had taken it to a local garage to see what was wrong (Two Skoda dealers told me the bill would likely to be several thousand £, depending on the damage, and it probably wouldn't be covered under warranty.  So i went to my local garage, who quoted me a lot less).  They wouldn't even entertain the fact that spring part had clearly failed due to a crack in the plate that had fatigued over time, even after getting some pictures under a microscope of the failed part.

 

I had to get a new clutch, (did the DMF at the same time) new clutch slave cylinder, and had the gearbox casing repaired (luckily the hole was about 5mm across).  Not an insignificant repair bill, and something that really shouldn't be happening on a car of that age.

 

Oddly, I still bloody love the car.  SkodaUK, not so much.  I guess the car is like the family cat that sh**s on the door mat every so often.  Bloody annoying, but ultimately its a part of the family, and you love it because most of the time it isn't sh**ing on the door mat...

 

Andy

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The thing I never did understand, is how I didn't either hear, or feel some kind of vibration or noise, as the part failed.  Looking at the clutch that came out, and the inside of the clutch housing, there was a lot of little pock marks, where a lump of metal had been clearly rattling around for more than a few seconds....

 

Andy

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