C-max 2004 Slipping clutch told €350 to fix

Pixied

Hi

I felt the car was losing power It was due a service, so I took it in and had it fully serviced.

Upon collecting the car, I'm told the clutch is slipping and needs a part to be replaced. Estimate is €350 for parts and labour. He is going to ring me later to confirm definite price.

On driving car home, I'm finding a little shudder on the accelerator when pressed and the enging light is coming on and off. Feels a bit worse to drive.

Question is does this all sound right? The way the car is after the service onsidering the problem they have told me it has?
Does the price sound reasonable?

This is new to me, so any advise appreciated.
Thanks,
Pix

Irishcrx

I'm sure others will correct me if I'm wrong here, but I don't think a slipping clutch would show up as a fault on engine light?

Is the part they are replacing the clutch itself? If so €350 sounds average enough for parts and labour but make sure you know exactly what they are changing, if it's not the clutch itself find out what it is to avoid being ripped off.

defforirl

Its possible the loss of power you felt was the clutch slipping however if the car was not shuddering when accelerating and the engine check light wasn't coming on before the service then this is not acceptable and you should insist these issues are resolved for free before handing over any other cash. Be firm with the garage/mechanic and don't be put of by technical jargon - Any experienced mechanic will be well used to explaining problems in lay mans terms.

George Dalton

€350 is too cheap to include the concentric slave cylinder. You should definitely get this replaced along with the clutch. The total should be more like €450 than €350.

The juddering and MIL are almost certainly a separate issue.

dieselbug

Is this petrol?

Because I have a 06 diesel 1.8tdci that wont start sometimes, throwing all sorts of codes and sounds like it

has a misfire. All down to a failing dmf I suspect. I dont think €350 will fix it though.

jimgoose

George Dalton wrote: »

€350 is too cheap to include the concentric slave cylinder. You should definitely get this replaced along with the clutch. The total should be more like €450 than €350.

The juddering and MIL are almost certainly a separate issue.

Is it possible that a slipping clutch or a failing DMF could "fool" the misfire detection algorithm?

Pixied

Thanks a mill everyone.

I took the car back. Turns out one of the new spark plugs had broken he replaced it. He put the computer on it and worked on it for about 20 mins and it was fine driving home. No light on. No shuddering on the accelerator.

Its petrol, 1.6 litre. About 72k on it, all local driving.

He still has to back to me on the price, so I'm not sure exactly what he was quoting me for yet.

I got another quote for €521 including vat to get all three parts replaced. And €500 to get just the 2 replaced in another place.

Thanks again, all advise welcome. Sure people have said to me get all three done, others that the cylinder can be done if the gearbox goes..?? So I'm not sure which is the best option.

My usual mechanics looks shut down, so I think they have shut shop.

George Dalton

Pixied wrote: »

I got another quote for €521 including vat to get all three parts replaced. And €500 to get just the 2 replaced in another place.

Thanks again, all advise welcome. Sure people have said to me get all three done, others that the cylinder can be done if the gearbox goes..?? So I'm not sure which is the best option.

It is definitely best to get the three part kit done. The labour involved for both is the same so if you don't replace the concentric slave cylinder and it subsequently develops a problem then you are looking at paying double the labour as the gearbox will have to come out again to change it.

daveob007

i paid 760 for a service and new clutch a few weeks ago on a 2l petrol car and was told by others that that was a fairly good price other quotes were 100 more so your 350 price sounds good,get a second opinion though

dgt

Pixied wrote: »

Thanks a mill everyone.

I took the car back. Turns out one of the new spark plugs had broken he replaced it. He put the computer on it and worked on it for about 20 mins and it was fine driving home. No light on. No shuddering on the accelerator.

Its petrol, 1.6 litre. About 72k on it, all local driving.

He still has to back to me on the price, so I'm not sure exactly what he was quoting me for yet.

I got another quote for €521 including vat to get all three parts replaced. And €500 to get just the 2 replaced in another place.

Thanks again, all advise welcome. Sure people have said to me get all three done, others that the cylinder can be done if the gearbox goes..?? So I'm not sure which is the best option.

My usual mechanics looks shut down, so I think they have shut shop.

Talking as someone who replaced a clutch and slave cylinder separately, I'll say get them done at once. Personally I think those cylinders are one life use only ie change it with every clutch change

colm_mcm

Moved to Motors, not a DIY question

dr.fuzzenstein

dieselbug wrote: »

Is this petrol?

Because I have a 06 diesel 1.8tdci that wont start sometimes, throwing all sorts of codes and sounds like it

has a misfire. All down to a failing dmf I suspect. I dont think €350 will fix it though.

Have the same car, this does not sound like failing DMF.
You will have clattering noises coming from the clutch, which go away when pressing the clutch pedal. There will be shudder on takeoff and at slow speeds, once it gets worse.
When slowing down in gear, there could be more cluttering.
Once you're on the move it should be fine.
You will not get a misfire and no codes.
If you get a misfire, you could have a dodgy injector and if it throws up codes, you could have a fuel line issue, a fuel line that draws air will throw up error codes and cause loss of power and stalling.
If you get that, make sure you fuel filter is replaced and if the fuel line from the filter to the pump at the engine looks in any way scruffy, get a new one.

dieselbug

The car is gone back to the owner. It came from a friend who has he's own garage but deals mainly with Toyota. He didnt have anything to scan it with very well so asked me to have a look.

Dmf is definately gone, vibration gives the impression of a misfire. I cleared the codes and none returned on test. Pulls like a train. All live data looks good. No injector codes, knock threshold exceeded etc. Stored codes may have been old.

The owner is a bit tired of it and talking of trading it. I'l let you know what happens.

Pixied

Thanks again everyone for your help. So next part of this now saga.

The head guy hasn't gotten back to me with a price on the clutch.

Yesterday the Airbag light came on. This has never come on.

I brought it back into the mechanic, head mechanic not there. He ran it on the computer, he rang someone to talk to about it and I could make out he was talking about electrics. (he was talkign in polish but said that in english) He said it came back as a problem with the passenger seat belt. To bring it back in for 2-3 hours.

So I said I why does it need to come back for 2-3 hours if its just a selt belt? His english wasnt great and he said something about it may need to be replaced, I need the electronics guy to be here. We may need to just clear the message from the display. I said, but I didnt have any of these problems before I came here so why should I have to pay. He said I don't know. Come back when the boss is here.

I did have the enging light come up at christmas, my old mechanic checked it and said it was to do with the catalytic convertor but was not an immediate issue.

I'm beginning to despair

Any more advise appreciated.

dieselbug

dieselbug wrote: »

The car is gone back to the owner. It came from a friend who has he's own garage but deals mainly with Toyota. He didnt have anything to scan it with very well so asked me to have a look.

Dmf is definately gone, vibration gives the impression of a misfire. I cleared the codes and none returned on test. Pulls like a train. All live data looks good. No injector codes, knock threshold exceeded etc. Stored codes may have been old.

The owner is a bit tired of it and talking of trading it. I'l let you know what happens.

Just to follow up,

The owner decided to repair the car. New dmf, t belt kit and service.

He's delighted with it, says it never went as well. Dmf was probably on the way out for a good while.

Supergurrier

What geo said if you are paying almost 300 on labour to get the clutch out I would replace the whole thing or end up paying the same down the road.

Alternatively buy a focus rs clutch and it will never slip again

dieselbug

Supergurrier wrote: »

What geo said if you are paying almost 300 on labour to get the clutch out I would replace the whole thing or end up paying the same down the road.

Alternatively buy a focus rs clutch and it will never slip again

I was talking of a different car. I sent the post a bit off the op's topic.
My fault. Apologies.