My missus car broke down on me yesterday.
Clutch pedal went to the floor and stayed there!
Managed to limp the car to a car park, got the breakdown services to take it to Ford dealership.
Car was bought ex-demo with 7500 miles on the clock. Now showing less than 11.5k.
I expect this work to be undertaken under warranty, the car is an "04" plate Focus TDCi.
Just been told they need to take the gearbox out and once they check the clutch/flywheel will know whether or not it is warranty covered. If it is not warranty, it will cost me 450+vat just for taking out the gearbox.
Now I cannot understand how a clutch can go so early in the life of the car, especially when the car is used for very short journeys and 98% of the time with my wife driving with our two children with her.
Can anyone out there pass some sensible reasons/options to me as, to be honest, I feel a dealer buttf**k coming.

 

Only advice I can give you is stick to your guns re it being warranty and not 'abuse' of the clutch or gearbox. I've got a colleague at work who has a Focus ST170 and the rear discs n pads needed doing with only 15K miles on the clock. He does drive it hard at all. He argued the point and won.

 

Best not to mention this to the dealer as it doesn't help your case.
A lot of very short journeys would be harder on the clutch than one long journey on motorway (for example) where you don't have to change gear as much.

Children in the car = more weight = harder on the clutch.

I agree that a clutch should last longer on a Focus than 11.5k miles, but you have to think of how your dealer is going to wriggle out of this - think like he would and don't give him any ammunition.

 

Eh? You've got things the wrong way round. The clutch (& rest of the car) suffers most wear with these sort of journeys. Cars love long motorway journeys with few gear changes.

Anyway, this is irrelevant (unless there's a clause in the warranty that says you aren't allowed to do lots of short journeys! ). The parts should be covered. I'd be very surprised if otherwise. I'm more amazed that they've 'threatened' you with the bill (unless it's the 5th clutch you've 'broken' in 12 months or suchlike ). Most decent dealers/manufacturers will take the car away and fix it, no questions asked, no threats given either.

 

The dealer would have to prove that your use of the car was not normal - ie. the clutch plates should not be blue as that would indicate abuse. Assuming she does what you say there should not be an issue. A friend of mine buggered his clutch on a VW company car and had to pay half as they proved it was his excessive use (i.e. high rev dumps etc) as the plates were blue.

Given the 000s of clutches that are made they will have an expected breakdown rate, if the car is a family car then no worries (although this is all easy for me to say).

 

Car should have a Three Year Warranty. One year Ford, two year dealer. As the car was recovered to the dealer they should have offered a temp loan car.

Had the same problems with a Fiesta. Wrote a letter to Ford UK, got an apology and a free service.

Also, marked my filters and other consumables with Tipex when it needed a service. Guess what????

They weren't done.

More apologises and freebies. Give 'em hell guys.

Fixed Or Repaired Daily (FORD)

 

The car has a 3 year Ford warranty

1st year everthing is covered

2nd & 3rd is a driveline only

Argue the case mate & also speak to Ford Customer Relations, telephone number is 0845 841 1111

Explain the situation & be nice to these people

Trust me they will help

Pm me if you require any further info or tips

Stephen

 

That is exactly what I said to the dealerships.
Thanks very much for the number. I will be calling them later this morning and hopefully all will be ok.
I think part of the problem [with the dealers] may be that the car was bought from a "Dagenham Motors" franchise and is at a Reg Vardy dealer now.
One of my friends in the trade has given me exactly the same advice, expecially regarding being polite.
Will let you know how I get on.

 

It doesnt matter were you bought the car from, they have a right under Ford T & C's to carry out warranty work to any Ford car in Europe

Also £450 +Vat is the cost of supply & fitment of a clutch

So they're really taking the p!ss

 

Dealer is saying flywheel is blue and hotspotted pointing to a clutch which has been ridden badly ...
Therefore car is not warranty covered and its a thousand pounds to fix thank you very much.
He did say he would be very annoyed if it was his car but the warranty assessor would not likely authorise the repair.

Called Ford Customer Services who gave me the same spiel.
Cost to repair the car ... £937.77.

 

So someone needs lessons in how to use the handbrake at the traffic lights?

 

It needs a flywheel as well then

Speak to CRC again, tell them that your are majorly disappointed in there descion not to help you, that before this happened you were in looking at a new focus for your wife & was going to wait a couple of months before you ordered one but seeing as all this has happened then your just going to get the focus repaired & trade it in for a vauxhall.

Also tell the dealership to build it back together & take it elsewere

Just keep at them

Also ask to see the clutch & flywheel they are at the end of the day your property

 

Seriously (and HONESTLY), does your wife ride the clutch etc.? Teach her how to drive properly and put it down to experience.

If not, point out to them that they sold it to you only 4000 miles ago so chances are the damage was done when they had it. Contact the car mags too (auto express) and see what they say.

 

Spoke to the supplying dealer Service Manager.
He said the problem was caused by the hydraulic failure, me getting the car to a safe resting place would have caused the hotspots as there would have been clutch slippage through that journey.
He told me to speak to the Service Manager at Reg Vardy and explain all to him as he should be able to get a warranty fix.
Called Reg Vardy, Sevice Manager gave me some interesting info:
Hydraulic clutches, when they get hot, will fade. Just like brakes.
When they fade, there goes your clutch pedal.
These new fangled clutches on cars are also quite temperamental, the slightest pressure on them, eg resting foot, is enough to wear plates.
You will not get the usual symptoms, hunting revs etc. the clutch will just let go.
If the car is authorised a warranty repair, and the clutch goes after another three thousand miles its not covered!

Spoke with my wife about possibility of her riding the clutch. Very diplomatically I hasten to add as I know its something she doesn't do. She's not happy.

 

Give the same info to CRC

 

Clutch failure is such a dodgy issue, as abuse is not covered under warrantee

It's possible that a weak spring or failure or contamination could cause it to slip and end up in premature failure, But this is usually evident from visual inspection. You always have the option to allow for sombody to give you a 2nd opinion though. (fwiw hydraulic problems usually manifest in not being able to change gear and gearbox failure rather than clutch slipping) - I can't see why the dealers are being so arsy, they get paid to do the work either way (although I suppose Ford will get reduced labour ) and usually give the benfit of the doubt on the first clutch.

It is very easy to abuse the clutch, if you slip the clutch for more than 5 second at a junction, hill or traffic lights it does overheat, and in the long term will fail prematurely - it is a bad habit alot of people do without knowing it. (look at the clutch life span of scoobies for an excellent example ...some get 30K others get 80K+ ).

 

Good News.

After much phone calls and listening to elevator music while on hold, the car is being repaired under warranty.
While speaking with Customer Care they even stated if the new clutch/flywheel went faulty this would have to be looked at as a seperate incident so they will have a regular warranty also.

Thanks for all comments/advice on the thread and for it not degenerating into something which could have been locked.

Cheers all

Ian