Car dealers responsibilities – clutch gone after 7 days..

Just something to be aware of….

Who warrants the repair and what impact does it (the repair) have on the warranty you hold with the dealer you originally purchased from? You don’t want to end up in the middle of a pointing competition if something else goes wrong do you.

Oh, and BTW, if it is a Ford (and likely other marques), my clutch replacement was only warranted if I had the DMF done at the same time so be sure you’re getting the ‘right’ job done.

That’s crackers and therefore bloody expensive then?!!

The warranty issue isn’t a problem as its main dealer, they have told me that far too many DMF’s are replaced unessecarily, they skim them if required at £50 a pop, but have positively reassured me that DMF’s hardly ever go on this model and given my mild level of slippage on my clutch they would be surprised if it even needed skimming. It’s then warrantied by the main dealer/car brand.

Ahhh, fair enough then. You’ve got it covered. I note it’s a Nonda with a rather draughty interior… mebbies their take on DMF is more robust than Fords…

How easy/hard is the dmf to access? If its recommended to replace one at the sametime as the clutch I’d ask it be done. Afterall what if the dmf did go later?

DMF is a type of flywheel, where the outer is held on springs so that the engine can be as lumpy as you like (a diesel) without making the rest of the car vibrate and reduces the load on other components like the gearbox.

You wouldn’t just replace it as its an expensive part (circa £400), but you would remove it during a clutch change to check the spiggot bearing (or bush depending on manufacturer). A skim is neither here nor there, the failiure mode of DMF’s isn’t the surface roughing up usualy, and it wont rough up unless you really go to town wearing the clutch out.

Glad you got it sorted, good of the dealer to settle with a local garage as I’d have placed bets on him gambling that you wouldn’t bother returning it to him due to the distance.

Last year we bought a car that was ‘only’ 40 miles (one hours drive) from home. The ‘small time’ dealer was pretty honest, had bought the car as a non-runner and had replaced the gearbox and clutch then his wife had used it as a runabout for a few months.

We bought it, the following day I thought the clutch was slipping under power, but difficult to detect. Next day it was worse, the clutch would slip when you put your foot down in any gear. The rear dampers were also not doing any damping and the airbag light had come on. We took it back and he fixed everything (dodgy oil seal in gearbox had contaminated the new clutch).

The thing is, that one hour drive involved two vehicles going to the dealer, one vehicle coming back, then one to collect it and two to drive back. And the vehicle ferrying the extra driver only gets about 23mpg. The 40 miles suddenly became a 240 mile round trip plus two evenings wasted. We got it home then a few weeks later the airbag light came on again. Thankfully I was able to fix it myself for free, plus a fiver and some shareware software to reset the warning light.

We learnt our lesson, our next car was bought just 3.3 miles away 🙂

I’ve been looking for a motor since November – only ones I’ve found that I’ve been interested in have been 200 miles away – still looking!

Well given what I’ve been told by my solic and consumer direct I am still happy, I paid my bit just to make things easy, I was tempted to push it but it’s worth £100 to not have any hassle.

Ok my Honda Accord Estate is back from the Honda dealer – new clutch paid for by the dealer I bought off in Nottingham – David Shepherd at http://www.rshepherdmotors.co.uk is a very nice bloke.

I have a copy of the receipt its covered by a 12 month warranty and they told me the DMF was fine.

Also discovered that lots of my Honda is still covered under the warranty some bits to 120k some to 150k.

btw Rusty ..I’m sure your suggestion re using the AA wouldn’t work ..as far as I understand it although you can continue on your trip with them the car goes to a nearby garage otherwise you could disable your car in some way and then (using european cover) get you and your car delivered to the south of france or wherever you fancy without the hassle of driving/paying for fuel etc !