Garage changed clutch its now worse!

[mt2man]

Right where do i stand.

My clutch was majorly slipping and needed replacing.

I bought a replacement clutch, release bearing etc to fit to my Nissan Almera, havent had time to change it my self so put it in to the garage. The plan was to do it my self but things have been hectic.

They charged £120 in labour and i obviously supplied the part.

My mum went to pick the car up and paid for it, the garage told me the release bearing was making abit of a noise but i need the car back asap so sent mum down with the money anyway.

Had a phone call from my mum saying she couldnt get it into gear, she managed to get it inn gear and drove it home but said it smelt abit funny and didnt feel right. She called the mechanic out and he took it down the road and said its got worse and is just saying the clutch was curse word and its a cheap release bearing.

But the car is now undriveable and its at the end of its adjustment, it was better before it went in for the clutch change!

Do i try and get my money back for the clutch, from the garage, both?
Or am i just screwed haha

Jack

[joem83]

Do you trust that the garage have actually changed it?

[bl1300]

doesn't sound right to me I think I would be pointing the finger at the garage to start with in this case

[mt2man]

Well apparently it doesnt slip anymore, but the bite is right at the top, its at full adjustment and the pedal feels terrible, back it off anymore and you cant get it in gear at all.

Since ive already paid what can i do? I cant really just demand my money back, I'm sure i would just get told where to go!

Legally what can i do? I'm not happy with the part i was supplied by the company but I'm not happy with the result of the work carried out by the garage.

Just read the clutch has a years warranty, but does that mean i need to pay the garage another £120 to remove it and send it back before i get any money back?! Id bassically be £240 down with no clutch and a completely broken car, so I'm not happy!

[dormeister]

You'll definately have to remove the clutch to see if it was faulty, either ask the garage to do it ( they will charge you) or take it out yourself.

Tgen if its a faulty part take it up with whoever you bought it off, and claim for labour charges from the garage - you'll need proof of payment.

If the part is fine, take it up with the garage, for wibblepoo workmanship.

From experience, every now and again you get a poor quality clutch in the batch - but you can still claim when this happens

Good luck whichever it is.

[bl1300]

Apr 23, 2013 18:21:23 GMT mt2man said:

Just read the clutch has a years warranty, but does that mean I need to pay the garage another £120 to remove it and send it back before I get any money back?! Id bassically be £240 down with no clutch and a completely broken car, so I'm not happy!

If you want to go about it this way id contact the clutch manufacturer before having the clutch removed again and see what they say. I imagine the fact you've had it professionally fitted rather than done it yourself may help in claiming against the part manufacturer.

what brand is the clutch out of interest?

[mt2man]

Clutch is Sumo? Not sure if anyones heard of them, they claim to be a top quality replacement and have a years warranty, but its been 1 day and 1 mile. Haha

They claim they need the clutch sent to them for a replacment but pretty sure they won't cover the hundreds in labour!

[gazjon]

Work a good mech not have noticed something wasn't right with the part and, if not, they must have noticed when they tested it. If they are happy to take your money, then they should deal with any complaints you have.

[willowandmikey]

Have you approached the garage about it, do it without hurling accusations and see what they say. Some are ok and can be reasonable

[mt2man]

The garage has been very defencive and are blaming it all on the clutch but they "feel my pain" ill probably remove it my self and take lots of pictures and see what's gone wrong but if its the fitting that has caused the problems I shall be demanding a refund or going through the small claims.court.
If the clutch is faulty where do I stand in getting them to refund the labour costs?

I should have done the clutch my self, but I was on a time limit and urgently needed the car so thought I would take the simple route... HA, that will teach me for being lazy.

[composimmonite]

Look at it from the garage point of view.
You supplied parts. They expressed concern about the release bearing but you said fit it anyway.
Personally I don't see how the garage can be held responsible for any additional expenditure unless you can prove their workmanship was the cause of the problem. Their "contract" with you was just labour and if the problem is a faulty component then that is yours to take up with the supplier.
If you dismantle and find a workmanship error then it might be a case of "your word against theirs". Even pics aren't definative proof as, in theory, you could say remove half the bolts etc and accuse the garage. The only way I can see would be have an independant garage correct the fault and then you'd have "expert" INDEPENDANT (this is the important bit) evidence.

Good luck.

paul h

[mt2man]

They didnt express any concern about any parts being faulty till they were already fitted. They told me the release bearing was noisy before my mum went to collect, they didnt tell me it was dangerous to drive, it wouldnt go into gear and the clutch cable would actually fall off!

[composimmonite]

Apr 28, 2013 10:05:36 GMT mt2man said:

They didnt express any concern about any parts being faulty till they were already fitted. They told me the release bearing was noisy before my mum went to collect, they didnt tell me it was dangerous to drive, it wouldnt go into gear and the clutch cable would actually fall off!

Accepted.
However they fitted parts you supplied. They had no idea before the job was finished and ready to drive away that there was a fault. Realistically they quoted to fit parts and did the job. The parts turned out to be faulty and would involve additional work in excess of the original quote to investigate / correct. If this additional work is because of a faulty part would you have been happy to pay them again - probably the same amount plus cost of replacement part ? Why should the garage be expected to suffer the costs as the problem MIGHT be of not fault of theirs.
If you correct the problem yourself then I doubt you will be able to claim anything from the garage even if they did make a mistake in the fitting. If another garage does the job then as I see it you would have to pay them but as an independant party you could then have their backing in an argument to either (a) get garage to pay second garages costs if it turned out to duff workmanship or (b) make a claim against part manufacturer.


If you contact Trading Standards for advice then they MIGHT give the first garage a quick ring to see if things can be sorted out informally. I'd expect something like if workmanship the garage pays and if faulty part then you pay (but garage will back you in claim with manaufacturer)

Hope it is resolved.

paul h

[penrhynrallycentre]

This is simply why I WILL NOT fit customers parts thatt they have supplied...REASON well it is quite simple really And I would take the attitude of the garage that you used....YOUR part YOUR fault if it is faulty.

I can not and would not gtee any part that was supplied to me by a customer.....been there had the tee shirt etc.....If I supply the part and it is faulty then it is MY FAULT and I like the garage would stand the loss of earnigns of taking them off etc .....In this case UNLESS you can catagorically PROVE the garage is at fault is fitting your clutch wrongly then great.....but sorry to say this BUT they are NOT at fault if the part is faulty..

A Hard lesson learnt tbh.

TOP TIP

Buy cheap buy twice


Dave

[dodgerover]

Apr 30, 2013 22:35:36 GMT penrhynrallycentre said:

TOP TIP

Buy cheap buy twice


Dave

There is never enough time to do it right, but theres always time to have to do it again..

[mt2man]

Yeah I fully understand this, but if the part is faulty where do I stand trying to get the labour costs back from the company that made the clutch? It has warranty but to use the warranty I need to send the clutch back to them, if they then say that the clutch is fine then I'm left with no clutch, no refund and £120 in labour to fit a "okay" clutch and have it taken out again!

[v8ian]

Clutch was slipping, so you had it changed, replaced the clutch, and still got the same problem, there is a common denominator here, The clutch cable, they do stretch!!!

[mt2man]

I haven't got the same problem, the problem now is that the release bearing has collapsed, the clutch now doesn't disengage, you can't get it into gear with the engine running. Atleast it didn't slip anymore! .....

[mt2man]

And the pressure plate has collapsed so the pedal drops to the floor and there is only 3 or 4mm of travel in the pedal

[scaryoldcortina]

Here's my opinion -

1 - The clutch doesn't work. It has gone from a worn, slippy clutch to a non functional mess.
2 - Cheap parts, although often lower quality than OEM are not usually so poor that they do not fit properly.
3 - Human error is rather common.
4 - Fitting the clutch plate back to front would produce these symptoms and destroy the release bearing in short order, followed by the rest of the clutch assembly.

I can't say for sure, but my feeling is that someone fitted the clutch plate backwards, no-one noticed until it all got re-assembled and then your mum paid them and took the car away instead of complaining. Chalk it up to experience, because no-one is going to be able to prove anything.