Just had the garage call about the clutch in my Passat. I t was slipping a bit the other week, and with the MoT coming up as well, I decided to get the clutch changed at the same time as getting it tested.

I’ve just had them on the phone and, with things taken apart, it looks like I need a new clutch slave cylinder and a new dual mass flywheel in addition to a new clutch plate that is, apparently, warped.

1100 quid!

I was prepared for the cost of the clutch, when it was just the clutch. That was bad enough at 530 quid all up, but doubling it? I feel violated.

The worst part is that the cost is mainly in parts, with a new flywheel costing 350 quid (not including VAT). I’m shocked, stunned and staggered and now looking around to see what I can sell to soften the blow a bit.

Anyone want a Perception Sealion Fastnet for 300 quid?

I’ve no idea how much VW parts cost but my quote for slave cylinder, dmf and clutch plate on the focus was £650 fitted. Mind you that was for an aftermarket dmf, I think the OEM one was more.

If you want a silver lining, these are all individually expensive fixes, once they’re sorted the engine should be mechanically sound for the forseeable future. replacing the clutch plate alone would have left you with a smaller bill but 2 more potentially just as big bills to come.

But yep, this stuff is expensive.

Is that dealer price?

Try getting parts prices from Eurocarparts as a comparison to see if your garage are ripping you off.
To be fair though it sounds about right price-wise.

I’d get a second opinion at that price. Possibly too difficult though as they’d say the cars ‘in pieces’ 🙁

No harm in getting price quotes as leverage.

“The clutch is £650”

“How come it’s £250 on http://www.vwparts.com then?”

I see clutch slave cyls mentioned regularly – is this a genuine fault on the passats or are they just adding stuff on? I’ve never seen a failed clutch slave cyl in my entire life on any other car.

Mine was about that recently on a VX. Dealer wanted well over 1k just for the bits. The subframe needed to be removed and re-aligned and book time is about 7 hours. Local cheapo mechanic wouldn’t do it so had to go to a bigger independent.

See if you can get away with a standard flywheel and not a dual-mass one to save a few quid.

Don’t garages always add 20% on the prices of parts for VAT or something.

GSF or Eurocarparts (or it’s online sister http://www.carparts4less.co.uk) will save you a fortune on the parts.

I’ve never seen a failed clutch slave cyl in my entire life on any other car.

I’ve replaced the one on the midget, but then I’ve replaced just about everything else as well! Possibly it falls under the category of being a relatively cheep part that’s easier to replace while the car’s in bits rather than wait for it to fail later on?

coffeeking – Member

I see clutch slave cyls mentioned regularly – is this a genuine fault on the passats or are they just adding stuff on? I’ve never seen a failed clutch slave cyl in my entire life on any other car.

Mine went in the Focus.

I think though it’s not so much that they’re massively likely to fail, more that with the concentric ones, it’s an engine-out job to fix. So if you’ve got the clutch out anyway, it’s not a huge expense to change, but if you don’t do it and it fails in a year it is. Just hedging bets really.

My Beemers heading for the scrapman, the autobox has gone onto ‘failsafe’ mode.

Options are:
1 s/h box = £1000+ and no warranty
2 service the box, and hope nothing horrible is lurking = £800 min
3 buy a donor = £500

Since I only paid £2k five years ago…, bye, bye.

Anyone want a good condition, everything working, 10 month MOT 535i for peanuts?

Dunno which specific Passat you have:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SMF-Conversion-Clutch-Kit-VW-Passat-Variant-3C5-1-9-TDi-8-05-CK9908-/221045484215?_trksid=p3284.m263&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BFICS%252BUFI%26otn%3D21%26pmod%3D330709521713%26ps%3D54#ht_1012wt_1165

£200 for clutch & single mass flywheel

Ok (this may go against your pride).

Say to the garage/guy ‘look I really can’t afford. Im literally skint etc’.

aim for the angle that you provide the parts and he provides the labour.

If you jsut go in there and say ‘wont pay that much’ he wont be inclined to help you (or worried you’d get the car trailered away adn sat on your drive doing nothing).

Say look I cant afford/is there anyway I can get it done x method otherwise I think I’ll have to get it taken away and I’ll take the bus to work. I pulled this once and the garage let me use a salvage drive shaft etc 😉

If its a main dealer then you are shafted. It could be genuine need for parts but it could also be a dealer/garage looking for easy income.

if your clutch is mega worn you can kill your slave quite easily

turning up at your garage with an arm ful of online sourced bits is just giving them ammo for if it fails again – they can quite easily blame shoddy parts over bad fitting.

id also look into the issues with fitting SMF to cars designed for DMFS and the other bits you could take down with them if you dont drive with care…..

The 1100 quid includes a minor service, an MoT and VAT and the work.

The original quote was 530 quid for a new clutch and a minor service, but this has just added 40 quid for the slave cylinder, 300 or so for the flywheel and some other bits. Labour was about 6 hours and I don’t think that they have charged me more than that. They are even throwing in a new CV boot and fitting… Joy.

From what the chap said, the slightly cheaper option is to get a kit that uses a single mass flywheel instead of the dual mass one and contains a clutch plate and the gubbins. Even that doesn’t save more than a hundred quid or so, essentially the cost of the clutch (about £129 for just the clutch).

Still in shock though. The cost of this is twice what my last car cost to buy. I really hope it lasts for a long, long, LONG time now.

What year Passat/engine is it? If its circa 05-07ish and the early 2.0TDI engine??

Just looked at that link for the SMF kit thing. Alas, not the right one for my car. I’m willing to bet that something similar exists for it though.

What’s the thing with fitting a SMF to a car with a DMF then? I know that cars run rougher with them, but have no idea why.

Hora, it’s an ’03 130bhp 1.9 TDi estate

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnaXB8q3uzQ[/video]

I’d be worried about a SMF damaging the gearbox

When the variable valve thing packed up in my old Focus it cost a few trips to a non-franchised garage to have the engine warning light reset followed by £350 at the same garage to replace the valve actuation thing that the franchised garage charged me £90 to tell me had packed up followed by a further £250 at the franchised dealer to explain that the reason the £350 repair had failed was that the oilways in the cylinder head were blocked, there was swarf in the sump and if I ever wanted it to work properly again the car would need a new engine @ £3500. For a Ford FFS.

How likely is it it will damage the gearbox? I really do not want to be pissing away another ***** quid replacing that in a few months.

hope it all goes well willard. I think you are ok on the gearbox front. TBH its just worrying and stressing you thinking ‘what if’.

For the labour involved, I would think it foolish not to change the slave cylinder while the box is out. Prices seem about right sadly. Gone were the days of a clutch kit for £100 and thats it. The clutch kit for my daughters polo was £52 including the release bearing, but she doesnt had DMF and stuff. We had a clutch go on our Honda Accord CTDi and that would have been £1500, if it wasnt for a goodwill gesture from Honda. Still £500 was steep for a car that had done 24k miles………..and no we didnt kill it, but was a Honda car for the first 3k miles, so guessed that the japs who came to the Uk possibly didnt know how to drive a manual………..

Sounds like throwing good money after bad to me. Walk away and buy another car.

Anyone want a good condition, everything working, 10 month MOT 535i for peanuts?

Get on to the locost builders site, im sure someone there wuold pay for the engine at least.

if your clutch is mega worn you can kill your slave quite easily

Hmmm now sure how, unless we’re talkign some sort of in-bell-housing slave? All the slaves I’ve seen (including the passat IIRC) are on the outside and are just your boggo standard cyl. They usually have stacks of spare stroke and are fairly remote from anything creating excessive heat.

I have heard it’s common for spanner jockeys to demolish the bleed nipple and then it’s a replacement as it’s cheaper than fix.

Sounds like throwing good money after bad to me. Walk away and buy another car.

Better the devil you know IMO, unless there’s a clear repeating fault.

Hels,

I’ve just been looking at what I could get for that money, but as I spent 3k buying this one less than a year ago (in fact, almost exactly a year ago), I really am obliged to spend the cash this time.

If it had been a banger, I’d have got rid of it. As it is, it’s worth slightly too much to do that. it does mean that I’m missing out on a lot of good cars though, like a Fiat Multipla or ten, a Fiat Doblo “Freedom” with wheelchair ramp and a Volvo V70 with 280k on the clock.

Ah well, next time I’ll know different and continue buying £500 bangers.

Welllll, experience has taught me that cars kind of have a tipping point, once stuff starts to go… Then you keep fixing them with the logic “I spent £xxxx on it, have to keep it going”.

Stop the madness now…

Yeah, I know, but all cars have a certain amount of value. Up until that point when it’s suddenly not worth fixing, you have to keep fixing it. This is just too new a car to me to just bin it and piss 3k away in a year.

With a grand spent now and another year in it, that’s 2k a year, three years, about 1300 quid, etc…

If something big goes next year, then we’ll talk about inherent values, but it took five years for me to get rid of the Frontera I had and that only cost 650 quid to buy. Mind you, the biggest bill for that was only 400 quid.

Single mass flywheels are great, been great for years and years. Just had one fitted to my touran. Five fifty for clutch flywheel and slave cylinder. Single mass flywheel. There is no difference in the way it drives just a slightly different noise at 2100rpm.
Lighter and smoother action. As for messing up your gearbox I doubt it very much. From what the garage said to me as to the price of a dual mass flywheel I wasn’t surprised at how much they’re asking.
Someone on here was saying about a Subaru clutch costing two grand so it’s all comparative I guess. It’s the age old thing, the job can be done on a DIY basis but you have to look at any special tools you need, the skill you need and the time you need to change it.

Just had a service and cam belt change. £620 🙁

Thank the bejaysus the mirrors are working.

the job can be done on a DIY basis but you have to look at any special tools you need, the skill you need and the time you need to change it.

Pretty much any thing can be done DIY if you are prepared to spend the time doing / learning and spend the money one tools.

for a car that had done 24k miles………..and no we didnt kill it, but was a Honda car for the first 3k miles, so guessed that the japs who came to the Uk possibly didnt know how to drive a manual………..

Next time you go past an Avis/Hertz etc, have a look what the numberplates say.
All the big hire companies lease the cars off the manufacturers for 3 months, so that the manufacturer can then resell it at a main dealer as an ex Honda car, when in fact it is an ex rental.

If it makes you feel better.

Land Rover Disco3 that we’ve had since new

75k service 6 year service & MOT

By the time the garage had finished I was £3500 worse off 😯

And they didn’t do anything major! We didn’t do the advisory stuff

Pretty much any thing can be done DIY if you are prepared to spend the time doing / learning and spend the money one tools.

Clutches are pretty easy to do too, depending on the car. the only special tool you need is the alignment tool, which is usually about a fiver (but is car specific) but even that can be bodged with a 1/2″ bar for most engines.

Welllll, experience has taught me that cars kind of have a tipping point, once stuff starts to go… Then you keep fixing them with the logic “I spent £xxxx on it, have to keep it going”.

Stop the madness now…

Nah, once bodywork has failed I’ll bin them generally, but mechanical issues are usually cheap and easy to fix unless you own a BMW or Audi.

But I fix everything DIY so I never have to deal with labour and quite enjoy a weekend spannering away.

Willard, I had the clutch, DMF and slave cylinder done on my 04 passat about 2.5 years ago after clutch was slipping badly. Came to £659 (£272 supply + fit clutch kit, £64 for slave cylinder and £323 just for the DMF part…) in total from Mr Clutch but tbh it’s never been quite right… I took it back a few months later and had a second DMF fitted (all parts OEM apparently) and it was exactly the same. The problem was the bite was very narrow and alarmingly high for a new clutch (apparently there’s no way to set the bite height on the hydraulic clutch system… but what do I know).

I would never go back to a Mr Clutch or one of these big autocentres again though. Although the customer service was okayish… they just didn’t seem like a professional outfit…

When I was working down in Portsmouth for a while I got speaking to a chap who ran a VW/Audi specialist garage and he said they do a recycling scheme with VW where they take all the old clutch components and send them back and get discount on the new parts. I would be investigating something like this if I was ever in a similar position again. He reckons he could have done it for less than what I’d paid and I imagine a better job given they were a VW/Audi specialist but not a main dealer.

Walk away and buy another car.

Whose DMF/clutch/injectors/turbo/big end/gearbox/wipers/central locking etc etc etc could fail at any moment.

Or as CK puts it, better the devil you know indeed.

deadlydarcy – Member

Just had a service and cam belt change. £620

Thank the bejaysus the mirrors are working.

Crikey … tears rolling down my cheek … Ouuchh! What a bloody rip off!

I am beginning to feel that I should attend some basic car mechanical course during my spare time to learn some basic repair skills.

At the moment I am relying on my boy racer friend to guide me on the basic as he specialises in Toyota and Subura Jap’s car … yes, boy racer who built dragster from scratch and learned his skills from some F1 mechanic. Oh ya … his F1 mechanic mate used to be a boy racer too … 😆

When I told him I was going to buy a car he immediately advised me to go for automatic gear Toyota and keep it as simple as possible. Told me to avoid those fancy tiptronic whatever … Advised me to keep the car up-to-date with maintenance such as the auto gear box oil. Yes, German cars are good but the repair bills and parts will be very expensive …

To OP, why not switch to automatic gear car in future? One less hassle so long as you keep up with your maintenance.

Auto gear is not bullet proof and may consume a bit more petrol but I guess at least it will eliminate the clutch problem? No?

Plenty of stuff to go wrong in an auto tranny I reckon.