Volvo S60 flywheel and clutch problems warranty

Fountain man

Hi all,
I have a Volvo S60 coming close to the end of the manufacturers warranty. I noticed a rattling sound when the engine was at idle and also a whining noise when pulling off from being stopped. Brought it to my local Volvo dealership and they acknowledged that the flywheel needs to be replaced along with the clutch. They said they would have to get approval from Volvo Ireland to proceed with the work. About 4 weeks later after a trail of emails from myself they told me that Volvo Ireland would cover 70% of the cost (total cost approx €2500) and that I would have to pick up the balance (€750). I looked at the attached invoice and it included €500 for labor for the clutch along with )€100 for an investigation into the problem (which I note had already been completed!!).

While I anticipated that the warranty may not cover clutch issues can anyone advise if the clutch has to be replaced/removed anyway to get at the flywheel. I can’t help feeling that I am being hit with labor costs that would be incurred anyway to replace the flywheel?

Thank you

bazz26

Normally a worn clutch/flywheel are treated as consumable items unless the parts are shown to have failed prematurely. But what is a bit baffling to me is that how they have come to the conclusion that they only need to cover 70% of the cost? Surely it's a case of either the parts prematurely failed or reached the natural end of their usefulness so either 100% is covered or 0%?

But yes the labour charges involved in goodwill always seem to favour the dealer a bit which is probably a bit of gratitude by the manufacturer but €750 for a new clutch and flywheel from a main dealer doesn't sound bad at that imo. I'd say you will struggle to find an indy garage to do the same job for that sort of money even if there is a bit of extra labour added to the bill.

Also it's always recommended to replace the clutch and flywheel at the same time as it saves you money on labour costs in the long term when they do the job.

Fountain man

bazz26 wrote: »

Normally a worn clutch/flywheel are treated as consumable items unless the parts are shown to have failed prematurely. But what is a bit baffling to me is that how they have come to the conclusion that they only need to cover 70% of the cost? Surely it's a case of either the parts prematurely failed or reached the natural end of their usefulness so either 100% is covered or 0%?

But yes the labour charges involved in goodwill always seem to favour the dealer a bit which is probably a bit of gratitude by the manufacturer but €750 for a new clutch and flywheel from a main dealer doesn't sound bad at that imo. I'd say you will struggle to find an indy garage to do the same job for that sort of money even if there is a bit of extra labour added to the bill.

Also it's always recommended to replace the clutch and flywheel at the same time as it saves you money on labour costs in the long term when they do the job.

Thanks bazz22 for that advice. Just to point out that the total quoted cost of the work is about €2500. The €750 represents the 30% that Volvo Ireland claim I am liable for. Only about 70000 km on the clock, is that a bit early for a flywheel to go? If they have accepted 70% liability while the car is still under the manufacture warranty surely they are acknowledging full liability. The funny bit is that they have stated in their quote that the new clutch comes with a warranty, ironic seeing that they are not honoring the current manufacturer warranty!! Any further advice would be very welcome.

bucketybuck

bazz26 wrote: »

Normally a worn clutch/flywheel are treated as consumable items unless the parts are shown to have failed prematurely. But what is a bit baffling to me is that how they have come to the conclusion that they only need to cover 70% of the cost? Surely it's a case of either the parts prematurely failed or reached the natural end of their usefulness so either 100% is covered or 0%?

Warranty is not covering the cost at all, so it is 0%.

I would be very confident that the cost is being covered by a commercial goodwill fund without any acceptance of technical liability. Hence it being a question of how much goodwill to offer rather than a case of covered or not.

70% is a fair contribution I would say, considering the years of use the customer got from the clutch to this point and the possibility that usage contributed to the fault.

The OP is correct on one point though, you do have to remove the clutch to access the flywheel. So €500 labour would be a lot, except that I don't think he/she is being charged that at all, thats probably just how it looks on the invoice.

Say that the invoice for the total repair came to €2500. The OP has to pay 30%. The only important part now is that the OP's invoice is €750. How do you present that on an invoice? Lots of ways, depending on your software, but in an industry that sells parts and labour they might simply have put all the labour on one invoice and all the parts on the other, and coincidently the values of each might have been close to 70/30.

So your 500 labour is actually the labour for the entire job, but it doesn't really matter because if it wasn't done that way it would have been parts or something else displayed there, whatever it took for them to split the costs onto two invoices, 70% to warranty and 30% to you. Again, at that point the important bit was the final total, the €750.

(Note that I don't actually agree with dealers splitting invoices that way, it affects your statutory rights. If you pay even just a percentage of the cost of a repair then you are entitled to full parts warranty on the items changed. If your invoice doesn't include those parts then you cannot claim that parts warranty should they fail again within the next year).