05 Toyota Corolla 1.4 D4D Clutch Slipping

aideng

The wife bought a 05 Toyota Corolla 1.4 D4D about 10 Months ago from a toyota main dealer, the clutch has started slipping in the last months or so.

The car had 72k Kms when we bought it, it now has 97k.

It is still covered by the dealer warranty but they are saying that they will only cover the clutch if it has failed from mechanical failure and not wear and tear and they can not decide this until the part is out and seemingly this could be the biggest part of the job.

I am feeling a bit done by this as we bought car from dealer in good faith and don't want to get stung for replacing a clutch which could cost anything up to a grand of money we don't have.

If anybody has any advice on how best to deal with, let me know.

Cheers,

A.

fletch

I would have thought that a clutch is wear and tear. I wouldn't say you have been done either, you would expect a clutch to go around 97k(miles?).

craichoe

Aye, sounds normal, clutch is indeed wear and tear and will go depending on how its been treated.

aideng

fletch wrote: »

I would have thought that a clutch is wear and tear. I wouldn't say you have been done either, you would expect a clutch to go around 97k(miles?).

I wouldn't have thought that a a clutch would go at 97k Kilometers (60000 miles), at least no car of mine has ever had that problem and I would have expected more from a Toyota.

I doubt if it is *normal* to replace a clutch every 60000 miles.

The issue I have is that the wear and tear was most likely done in the first 72k kms (by previous owner), but this is impossible to prove

Henry Ford III

60k miles is well before normal.

R.O.R

Not altogether unheard of (http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055249651) but I would have thought rare enough.

Eoin

60K does sound low, but I guess the combination of a diesel engine (more stress on the clutch?) and driver behaviour from the previous owner could speed it up considerably?

aideng

I wouldn't have such a problem if we owned the car from new and we did all the *wear and tear* but we bought a car from a Main Dealer with 72k kms that do ther 100 point check (for whatevers thats worth) and give the car the all clear.

Then after 25k kms (15k miles) of our miles we have to replace the clutch, not the TOYOTA experience I expected.

JHMEG

Was the clutch perfect when you test drove it? If so, could your wife be the problem?

You seem pretty sure Toyota won't cover it. If it was faulty I'm sure they will.

Redsoxfan

Still waiting to hear back from Toyota on this issue myself.

rccaulfield

Your next step is to get onto the consumer ombudsman/ national consumer agency for advice- they usually ring the garage up themselves.

aideng

They say they might fix it under warranty if it failed due Mechanical defect but not if wear and tear but they won't be able to tell us this after they have it repaired (at very expensive main dealer rates)

Eoin

Can you test to see if a clutch is going to go in a few thousand miles? When mine went it was pretty sudden

aideng

JHMEG wrote: »

Was the clutch perfect when you test drove it? If so, could your wife be the problem?

You seem pretty sure Toyota won't cover it. If it was faulty I'm sure they will.

Can I nominate you to tell the wife :-) TBH she has been driving 8 or 9 years and this is her 4th car, an old starlet, opel corsa, yaris and now the corolla, she had no issues with other cars.

Lex Luthor

97k kms is I would have thought below avg for a clutch

I had 92k miles on my 156 on the original clutch and it felt like new

This is a Toyota we are talking about, supposedly the best built cars in the world

JHMEG

aideng wrote: »

Can I nominate you to tell the wife :-) TBH she has been driving 8 or 9 years and this is her 4th car, an old starlet, opel corsa, yaris and now the corolla, she had no issues with other cars.

Ok, I believe you;), but what did the clutch feel like on the test drive?

aideng

JHMEG wrote: »

Ok, I believe you;), but what did the clutch feel like on the test drive?

TBH I thought the car was fine up to six to eight weeks ago, probably thought it drove a bit differently e.g more torque in lower gears but put down to being a D4D as we've only ever drove petrol cars before

CJhaughey

Clutches in diesels usually last for stellar mileages, Unfortunately the clutch is not a part that is expected to last for ever, we bought a 00 corolla estate and the clutch went at about 60 k miles, the previous owner was an elderly sort of gent and older people have a habit of riding the clutches, this results in premature failure.
Is it possible that your wife has been treating the clutch more like a petrol car? ie, engaging the clutch at higher revs than normal? Diesels usually have long clutch life because the engagement happens at lower engine revs.
maybe the previous owner was abusing the clutch by slipping it too much?
A clutch should only cost somewhere round 500 fitted.

aideng

CJhaughey wrote: »

Clutches in diesels usually last for stellar mileages, Unfortunately the clutch is not a part that is expected to last for ever, we bought a 00 corolla estate and the clutch went at about 60 k miles, the previous owner was an elderly sort of gent and older people have a habit of riding the clutches, this results in premature failure.
Is it possible that your wife has been treating the clutch more like a petrol car? ie, engaging the clutch at higher revs than normal? Diesels usually have long clutch life because the engagement happens at lower engine revs.
maybe the previous owner was abusing the clutch by slipping it too much?
A clutch should only cost somewhere round 500 fitted.

We are getting it very hard to get a price from the garage for replacement which always makes me nervous, but have been told that parts probably will cost €400 and there will be at least 4 hours of labour.

Surely they should know how long it would take to fix!