dual mass flywheel failure

[lowmileage]

Hi all,

 

The dual mass flywheel on my 2015 fabia III 1.4tdi hatchback has failed after 3 years and 6 months and with only 17,000 miles on the clock. I am a careful driver and I never abused the clutch.

 

I have been in contact with skoda with the possibility that they may foot the bill for it's replacement.

 

I have since read so much about people having problems with DMF's in many makes of car that I have no trust in them.

 

I have searched online for a single/solid mass flywheel conversion kits to fit my car without any luck, does anyone know of anyone that makes/supplies a kit for my car it's engine code is CUSB

 

Thanks

[GeneralPurpose]

No, I've not seen any alternative flywheels for your car although that's not to say there aren't any. I'd be a bit careful about going that route because the car has a DMF for a reason. The road is littered with folks who have done that conversion on other makes of car only to find problems later with the engine due to all that vibration, and torque transfer issues. Even broken crankshafts and damage to clutches and gearboxes.  

[AMD87]

Surprised they went back to the dual mass for the mk3 as the mk2 1.6 diesel was solid.

 

If anyone knows it will be Darkside Developments. They would be the ones to speak to.

 

https://www.darksidedevelopments.co.uk/

[GeneralPurpose]

If they did it must have been on the very last ones. The 1.6cr that I removed the engine from had a DMF. 

[AMD87]

1 hour ago, Estate Man said:

If they did it must have been on the very last ones. The 1.6cr that I removed the engine from had a DMF. 

Dual Mass on start stop ones iirc mines is a solid flywheel

 

Edited 28 December, 2018 by AMD87

[GeneralPurpose]

Yes indeed, that explains it AMD. The clutch jobs I've done on the 1.6cr's have all had the DMF, but to be fair I haven't touched any post 2015's.  

[lowmileage]

Hi all,

This is follow up to my post above. After my first contact with skoda uk I waited for their return call it never came. I had to phone them and was told to take my car to a skoda dealership for it to be assessed, the first date available was the 24-Jan-2019. When I arrived a skoda tech listened to the noise and depressed the clutch and said it was almost certain that the flywheel had failed but to check it they would have to remove the gearbox test the flywheel and put it back together at a cost to me of £528. I declined the test because skoda had refused to offer any support. I asked for a quote to to have the flywheel and clutch replaced which came to £1495.55 so with no support from skoda uk it would have cost me £2023.55.

 

I waited for a response from skoda uk but it didn't come, I had to phone them twice, and was told that because the car was out of warrantee and the flywheel was a consumable part they weren't going to offer any support and they were closing the case. It had taken 2 months to get to this point.

 

Feeling I had done all that I could and not wanting to be without a car any longer I asked my local garage who I trust to do the work, they phoned around for the parts and were told there were no after market parts available because the car was too new. They then phoned TPS Genuine VAG Parts, who asked why weren't skoda fixing it under warrantee or as a goodwill gesture?

 

When my local garage removed the gearbox they found the flywheel had failed in rotational and paralell movement and was making a metalic clanking noise, they videoed this. When the mechanic opened the box containing the new flywheel it was a sold mass flywheel, he phoned TPS and they confirmed it was the correct upgraded part that skoda were using to replace their failed dual mass flywheels.

 

Thanks for reading and I hope this will help/enlighten forum members and others.

 

 

[Ootohere]

?

What are you paying?

 

It would not have been £528 and £1,495.55 so £2,023.55 if you had said go ahead and take out the box and do the £1,495 job. 

[lowmileage]

Hi skoffski,

My local garage did it for £753 + vat. It would have been £2,023,55 if I had done what skoda uk wanted me to do, and anyway it was more than I could afford.

[skodaTDI]

On 08/02/2019 at 21:42, lowmileage said:

Hi skoffski,

My local garage did it for £753 + vat. It would have been £2,023,55 if I had done what skoda uk wanted me to do, and anyway it was more than I could afford.

But did your garage do an engine recode when installing the solid mass flywheel?

[J.R.]

Why would they?

[skodaTDI]

On 06/08/2020 at 16:47, J.R. said:

Why would they?

they should do, driving with an SMF that's been put in a car designed for a DMF will eventually rip the gearbox to pieces

[J.R.]

Lets humour you and pretend that is true (which it aint!) in what way do you believe that your mythical engine recoding would protect the gearbox?

[skodaTDI]

On 28/12/2018 at 12:27, GeneralPurpose said:

No, I've not seen any alternative flywheels for your car although that's not to say there aren't any. I'd be a bit careful about going that route because the car has a DMF for a reason. The road is littered with folks who have done that conversion on other makes of car only to find problems later with the engine due to all that vibration, and torque transfer issues. Even broken crankshafts and damage to clutches and gearboxes.  

 

On 09/08/2020 at 13:37, J.R. said:

Lets humour you and pretend that is true (which it aint!) in what way do you believe that your mythical engine recoding would protect the gearbox?

Is GeneralPurpose incorrect then?  The mechanic who looked at my flywheel on my Fabia said the same thing.. if a solid mass flywheel is to be used the new part needs to coding into the ECU otherwise what has been said above is likely to happen in the near future..

[J.R.]

No he is not incorrect, removal of a DMF will result in increase torsional vibration which in some cases may cause a failure amongst the reciprocating masses, on certain 6 speed VAG gearboxes it could cause noise & chatter maybe worse but that was not in question, it was your (or now we hear a mechanics) ludicrous assertion that these torsional vibrations can be removed by recoding the ECU and if not then the gearbox will be ripped to pieces.

 

If you think these destructive forces can be removed by "recoding" the ECU then why do you think VAG and most if not all other diesel engine manufacturers fit expensive and unreliable DMF's that give them bad press when with a couple of lines of code they could have a cheaper, quieter, smoother more reliable engine?

[skodaTDI]

1 hour ago, J.R. said:

If you think these destructive forces can be removed by "recoding" the ECU then why do you think VAG and most if not all other diesel engine manufacturers fit expensive and unreliable DMF's that give them bad press when with a couple of lines of code they could have a cheaper, quieter, smoother more reliable engine?

It's not what I think - it's what I'm being told.. don't shoot the messenger.

I pesonally think they fit DMFs knowingly so they can fail in less than 5 years time and charge the customer a fortune for a new one.. I was quoted £698.75 for a DMF from Skoda Bolton only last week - so go and figure.. and that's just the flywheel without fitting.

[J.R.]

If its not what you think then you could simply have answered "I dont know, - bloke said.........." in answer to the question why would a garage recode an ECU after fitting a solid flywheel?

 

Instead you stated authoratively - "they should do, driving with an SMF that's been put in a car designed for a DMF will eventually rip the gearbox to pieces"

[skodaTDI]

9 hours ago, J.R. said:

If its not what you think then you could simply have answered "I dont know, - bloke said.........." in answer to the question why would a garage recode an ECU after fitting a solid flywheel?

 

Instead you stated authoratively - "they should do, driving with an SMF that's been put in a car designed for a DMF will eventually rip the gearbox to pieces"

could have, should have.. I was told the coding has to happen otherwise the dash will display an alert all the time when you're driving. 

[J.R.]

And I was told that Santa Claus climbed down the chimney that we didn't have, I believed it at the time.

 

What sort of alert would it display? - Danger, you will rip your gearbox to pieces, recode immediately?

 

 

[AMD87]

On 12/08/2020 at 22:31, skodaTDI said:

It's not what I think - it's what I'm being told.. don't shoot the messenger.

I pesonally think they fit DMFs knowingly so they can fail in less than 5 years time and charge the customer a fortune for a new one.. I was quoted £698.75 for a DMF from Skoda Bolton only last week - so go and figure.. and that's just the flywheel without fitting.

Why post claiming it if you don’t

know what you’re talking about 🤣