Replacing Clutch and possibly fly wheel

[aaronbromley]

Hi there people,

I am experiencing a little clutch slip and because of this i would bet money that the fly wheel is also damaged. Now my question is... as my car is under warranty would SEAT replace these for me FOC?

Draw-back = The car has been remapped - can i still take this to the dealer? or should i have it set back to standard first? Obviously this is something which could be an expensive job. I spoke to one of the mechanics a while back and he said even if the car is remapped they still carry out the warranty work. But... the garage has changed hands a couple of times and i don't really want to risk it without knowing.

 

[T. Spark]

If you can turn off the map, then do it!

What plate and how much milage has it done?

 

[aaronbromley]

It is a 54 plate and done 35k miles, the problem was caused by Celtic Tuning i believe, i did get them to reduce the torque but by then the damage had been done in my opinion. Since then i have had a custom code remap done. I am hoping/praying the good guys there can help me out a little by putting back to standard and then back again.

 

[T. Spark]

As in Custom-Code did you go to JBS? You should be able to get the clutch done under warrenty imho, aslong as you can turn the map off.

 

[aaronbromley]

Yeah JBS, was very impressed with them to be honest!
Ok i will look into getting the map turned off and then the parts replaced.
Thanks for your advice, i will try and get in touch with Mike.

 

[T. Spark]

No problem matey, you dont even need to go back to JBS to turn it off (it can be turned off with vag-com) how soon are you wanting to get this sorted?

What other performance parts have you got on the car?

 

[aaronbromley]

No other performance parts at all, not urgent to be honest, would like to get it done within a august ideally. I do not have VAG-com unfortunately - damn.
Are you able to help me at all then? could be a couple of beers in it

 

[UncleFester]

I went through this with mine. I'll try and be concise .....

SEAT told me they cover the flywheel but not the clutch and they don't cover the clutch even if the DMF is dead as the clutch is considered consumable

Garage told me they'd have to take it to bits to check it, if they found the problem wasn't flywheel failure, they'd charge me for the labour and since i'd not be able to drive it ... they'd charge me for a new clutch kit too.

Working out the labour rates are £80 + vat per hour and it's a four hour job ... and they wanted £200 for the clutch + vat .....

580+ vat in total.

Speak to Mike and find out how much they'll fit a complete PROPER clutch for and then ask yourself again whether you want to run the risk of taking it in under warranty and then having to pay the same money for a stock clutch as for a fully uprated one.

I didn't know how much a full clutch would be so i took mine to inde-tech to get it done, turns out the DMF was fubar too which was unlucky as they are NOT cheap! SEAT are being very picky about clutches and DMF issues as are VAG in general - a quick search of the TDIclub forums tells all sorts of horror stories about dead DMF and clutches on cars with < 5k miles on the clock.

Honest advice would be if you're going to keep the car and you intend to enjoy the remap, take it to somewhere like JBS and get a decent clutch and flywheel system fitted now.

Had i known at the time what i know now, i'd not have had the stock flywheel replaced, i'd have had the full replacement uprated clutch fitted instead.

Bearing in mind mine is a heavier car, mine is a PD150 Leon also with a customcode remap ...... but it just might be something worth mulling over.

----

Out of interest does it only slip in the higher gears at slightly over motorway speeds and is there a rattling ( much heavier sounding than a loose thrust bearing) at tickover which goes when you depress the clutch?

 

[aaronbromley]

There is slip if i put my foot down, mainly in 4th 5th and 6th i think.
Yeah slightly over motorway speeds too.

And yeah.... there does seem to be a slight rattling at tickover and when i depress the clutch is goes, or is i put a very small amount of revs on it goes, i assumes this was normal though? You have me worried now. Is it bad?

 

[UncleFester]

lol depends on what you call bad - if bad means at least a new clutch maybe, if bad means a good excuse to upgrade a standard part that seems prone to post remap death then no

Only question is what you want to do about it. I ended up with a mew DMF and an upgraded friction disc ..... would have been the same price to get a decent one fitted instead.

They might change your DMF under warranty, if that's what has gone ..... but if it's just the clutch then i don't think it's covered ( speak to SEAT UK and confirm just in case something has changed ) and if it's just a new clutch and labour it will be almost as much as buying a full new upgraded clutch kit which will last a lot longer and cope with the torque better.

That's if you get the work done at a main dealer - an independant will charge around £200 for fitting and a stock clutch is about £130 from a motorfactor.

 

[aaronbromley]

Ok thanks for the info, so how much do you reckon i would be looking at for the parts and labour from the good chaps at JBS?

 

[UncleFester]

Wasn't a scary amount more than what SEAT wanted for a stock clutch and labour .... worth talking to Mike about it.

http://www.jbsautodesigns.co.uk/pdtuning.htm

http://www.allardmotorcompany.com/pages/products/pd_clutches.asp there's an example there from allards.

Have a search around, i'm sure there's a few folk who've had this done who could give you a better idea on price / what they had done.