My partner has leased a Skoda Karoq since early 2020 and has just purchased the car from the lease company via the BCA option. 
The car has only covered 8100 miles and it suddenly developed a fault on Saturday evening. 
Whilst my partner was driving her kids to an event, a noise became apparent within the engine compartment and white smoke appeared which eventually disappeared after 5 mins after shutting the car off. 
 

I managed to get to her as we were local to home an on a simple view / investigation, a strong smell of burnt rubber. 

All fluid levels were checked and were within the upper and lower limits. 
On restarting the engine, no more smoke was seen or became evident so I drove the car home ( around 3 miles) in which time, the engine temp stayed stable at 90 degrees and no other issues became apparent. 
We decided to let Skoda take a look as the car should have been covered by the 3 year warranty. 
Whilst talking on the phone to the service person, they stated it could be the water pump partially seizing or momentarily slipping which would explain a burning rubber smell with the belt causing friction on a seized or static pulley. 
However, it’s worrying as I believe the water pump is cambelt driven and surely this would have caused the belt teeth to wear or the camshaft and main bearing shaft pulleys to jump teeth and mash the inside of the engine up…

 

I eventually drove the car to Skoda this morning and left it with them at 10.10.

I also left them my number and asked them to call me once a prognosis was reached and any potential warranty issues which I would then discuss with my partner. 
At 10.45 Skoda ring my partner and tell her the clutch is faulty and needs replacement at a cost of nearly £2k. 😳😳

 

 

How on earth can they diagnose this with any certainty in 35 minutes? 
They then proceeded to tell her / insinuate, it’s down to her style of driving and misuse of the clutch and gears. 

I can personally vouch for her driving technique with is smooth and efficient, so gearbox and clutch misuse is out of the question. 
My concern and question is, should a clutch replacement or repair be covered under the 3 year warranty, bearing in mind the 8,000 miles covered since new and does the 3rd year come as standard or does it need to be purchased after or before the 2 year warranty expires ? 
Any help with warranty or knowledge about similar incidents etc would be greatly appreciated 

Mark 

Just worth a note that once I’d got the car home on Saturday night, I tested the clutch the old fashioned way, I held the electronic handbrake on, took the engine to 2500 revs and let the clutch up. 
The engine stalled straight away proving there’s plenty of bit and meat on the plates 

Can you get a second opinion from another garage/independent expert?

Unfortunately my partner has already said go ahead to Skoda without consulting me. 
 

Sadly a common issue, even when the previous keeper was a Skoda Dealership.  

Always blamed on Driver Error.

That will be the previous drivers.  

 

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/456623-clutch-gone-after-4900-miles

 

It's a manual car, it's 2yr old and covered over 8000miles. 

 

First things first.  Bottom line is the clutch is a wear and tear item so no matter how you plead your case, it's not covered by warranty.

 

With other items, if the car has been serviced by Skoda then you could make a case for goodwill if the part is expected to last longer. Unfortunatley it's a clutch, something you can wear out in 20mins. It comes down to one person's word against another and I'd never expect any company to replace the clutch free of charge given your circumstances. ( i.e. you were the previous driver - if someone else had the car and the clutch burned in such a short space of time, you could have had a case against the lease company who sold the car. )

 

I'd have gone along with the above suggestion - get a 2nd opinion. If my partner agreed to pay £2000 for a replacement clutch, I'd consider divorce not only because of  1)  the cost is way over the top for a clutch replacement, but 2)  if the previous clutch only lasted 8000 miles, why on God's earth would I want it to be replace with an identical clutch?  That's just my school of thought.

 

9 hours ago, Mark62 said:

My concern and question is, should a clutch replacement or repair be covered under the 3 year warranty, bearing in mind the 8,000 miles covered since new and does the 3rd year come as standard or does it need to be purchased after or before the 2 year warranty expires ?

 

In the UK, we have a 3yr warranty as std.  If your car had been a DSG then the clutch would have been covered for first 3yr or up to 60,000 miles, which ever comes first, but as I say with a manual clutch, well you can wear it out in 20mins.

 

6 hours ago, roottoot said:

Sadly a common issue, even when the previous keeper was a Skoda Dealership.  

Always blamed on Driver Error.

That will be the previous drivers.  

 

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/456623-clutch-gone-after-4900-miles

 

 

Never seen that post - before my time. Just had a very quick browse, loads of crap being talked about as usual but my initial thought at reading the first post was forget about warranty or anything else, if the car had only recently been purchased, the driver was only on his 4th journey and this happened, then he'd be covered under UK law - sale of goods act as it was probably then.

 

Then on the 2nd page, the OP makes it a little clearer.  The only information relevant in all of that was that he'd owned a used car for 2mths and had covered 1400 miles when the clutch went. Like it or not, 1400 miles is more than enough for someone to burn a clutch so no, it's not covered under warranty. It could have been covered under sale of goods ( goods expected to last blah, blah, blah ), but if the garage challenge that then you're looking at going down the legal route with no guarantee of winning.  I think the 'goodwill' gesture was the sensible option in that case.     

Edited 19 July, 20223 yr by kodiaqsportline

Regardless of what @kodiaqsportline has seen before the issue is not uncommon, but then clutch failure with any model is not.

No need for any Dealership to overcharge to carry out the work to repair.

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/474062-karoq-8000=miles-clutch-failure-help

 

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/478322-clutch-failure    @kodiaqsportline  Are you 'Guest'  (Scot5) that posted here?

 

Edited 19 July, 20223 yr by roottoot

3 hours ago, roottoot said:

Regardless of what @kodiaqsportline has seen before the issue is not uncommon, but then clutch failure with any model is not.

No need for any Dealership to overcharge to carry out the work to repair.

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/474062-karoq-8000=miles-clutch-failure-help

 

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/478322-clutch-failure    @kodiaqsportline  Are you 'Guest'  (Scot5) that posted here?

 

 

Doesn't matter a jot to the OP if it's uncommon.

 

People can huff and they can puff all they want but the bottom line is that unless they can prove clutch failure was not driver error, then they're up the creek without a paddle.

 

Scot5 ?

Edited 20 July, 20223 yr by kodiaqsportline

@kodiaqsportline "not uncommon." is what i posted.

As an aside, it is becoming increasingly common for franchised garages to replace the flywheel as a matter of course when replacing a clutch.  Apparently they can get damaged if the clutch overheats.

I’d tend to agree if my partner was the 2nd driver but she leased it from new. 
I do feel Skoda Maidstone are taking the easy option for themselves to avoid them claiming back cost from the parent company 

They had included for a new dual mass flywheel at £600 as part of the over £2k cost. 
My local garage has quoted almost half that cost with a new flywheel inc vat