Clutch Failure 2 year old Fabia 1.0 with 9k miles

[wroughtironronn]

Hi All,

 

My wife is on her 5th consecutive Skoda (3 Fabias/2 Rapids), a 2019 1.0 TSi with 9k miles. She usually keeps the car for 3 years or 40k, then goes back to the Main Dealer (who services it) and trades in for a new one.

 

Last week the car lost traction and smoke/burning fumes started coming from the engine bay. We had to get Skoda Recovery (AA) to tow it to the dealers, and they think that the clutch has failed, quoting us £950 for a new one.

 

In 40 years my wife has never had a clutch fail, so this is something of a great shock - she doesn't abuse the clutch or sit at traffic lights with her foot on it, so we are baffled as to why this has happened?

[AnnoyingPentium]

Has it got a warranty on it that covers the clutch work?

[Ootohere]

Clutches can fail and a lot sooner than 2 years and 9,000 miles. 

The parts will need looked at to see if there is anything that has caused this very premature failure.

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/493951-help-69-plate-10-tsi-se-manual-clutch-gone-after-2721-miles

 

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/446646-clutch-failure

 

[wroughtironronn]

6 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

Has it got a warranty on it that covers the clutch work?

Hi,

 

I got an email from Skoda UK Customer Services today saying

 

" I do have to make you aware clutches are wear and tear items and are only covered for the 1st 6months or 6500miles of the vehicles warranty. So if the diagnosis is that the clutch has worn out and then its unlikely we will be able to do anything regarding the potential costs."

[Ootohere]

^^^

Great.

If it is just worn out then fair enough, fair wear and tear.   But see the links.   

So do not let them dispose of the parts. 

[wroughtironronn]

44 minutes ago, roottoot said:

^^^

Great.

If it is just worn out then fair enough, fair wear and tear.   But see the links.   

So do not let them dispose of the parts. 

I have asked them to bag the parts up for independent inspection, and I have quoted the webinar which identifies a clutch failure problem with Mark 3 Fabias :

 

 

The Information is from a Skoda tech webinar from September 2020. hope it helps,

 

Vehicle specification  Model: Octavia III, Scala, Karoq, Kamiq, Fabia III  Engine: 1,0 TSI (EA 211) in combination with the manual gearbox MQ200  Complaint/Fault symptom  Clutch slips, smell of burning from the clutch area  After having been removed, the clutch is found to be burnt or degraded/fallen apart

 

Technical background/Cause  Due to anticorrosion protection applied to the flywheel and the clutch, the friction value increase is much more slowly. This may lead to premature clutch failures.  Despite optimizing measures (plate lining of the clutch S308, the diaphragm spring of the pressure plate with temperature stability and decreased rpm in the transport mode), the premature heat overload of the clutch still sporadically occurs.  The clutch failures occur in the range from 10 km to several thousands km depending on how the vehicle is operated.  Measure/Production change  Parts without Anticorit have been fitted to the vehicles since CW 20/2019 (except for Fabia III, where the measure has not been implemented yet).

[wroughtironronn]

Update - I have just received a call from the Service Manager at the dealership, saying that his director received an e-mail from me this morning regarding a Skoda Webinar which highlighted premature clutch failure in the Mark 3 TSI (see above), however our Fabia is an MPI.

 

 

[wroughtironronn]

Update - The Huddersfield Skoda dealer has replaced the clutch free of charge due to it having disintegrated unrelated to driver usage.

[nta16]

Wooohooo!  Well done.

 

Your free membership to this site has served you very well, I'd suggest you stick around and get more great advice.

 

Here's mine, these cars have very invasive computer programs, if the car battery charge gets low even if perhaps the car still starts and the lights seem bright enough, the car battery can still be too low for the computers and their programs and they may start to throw wobblies and play up in all sorts of ways.

 

So keep the car battery charge level from going low, if needed get an appropriate battery charger (trickle better than fast) or you might see Xmas lights on your dash away from Xmas.

 

Good luck, thanks for reporting back.

 

Edited 9 December, 2021 by nta16
ETA: if needed and spelling

[Eccles]

Just wondering: There are some people who get the revs up and let in the clutch far to slowly, my father in law was one and eventually paid for his bad driving with a new clutch which cost £450 in those days (30 yrs ago)

[KenONeill]

1 hour ago, Eccles said:

Just wondering: There are some people who get the revs up and let in the clutch far to slowly, my father in law was one and eventually paid for his bad driving with a new clutch which cost £450 in those days (30 yrs ago)

Yes. There was one old lady lived near me who's driving technique was to rev the engine to ~4_000 rpm and let the clutch in slowly so that it took maybe 1/4 miles to accelerate from 0 to 20 mph. She'd then change into second and repeat. Her car was a 3 tone Renault 9; silver paint, red rust and blue smoke.

[AnnoyingPentium]

17 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

Yes. There was one old lady lived near me who's driving technique was to rev the engine to ~4_000 rpm and let the clutch in slowly so that it took maybe 1/4 miles to accelerate from 0 to 20 mph. She'd then change into second and repeat. Her car was a 3 tone Renault 9; silver paint, red rust and blue smoke.

 

My Granda worked with a guy who rarely used 1st gear. He would change a clutch every 2-3 years. 

[wroughtironronn]

The Skoda Dealership Service Manager showed me photos of what they found - the friction linings had disintegrated and he said that he was surprised they lasted 9k miles

[nta16]

24 minutes ago, wroughtironronn said:

nd he said that he was surprised they lasted 9k miles

I hope you said that was because of your wife's good driving techniques! 🙂