Cupra Clutch Issues

[zedlor]

Hi all, I've had my Cupra SC since August, 64 plate. Recently, I've been finding the car pretty difficult to drive (I really can't remember if it has been this bad the entire time I've had it), with it being pretty jerky and unresponsive setting off and changing between 1st and 2nd. The bite point is about half way up the clutches travel back, if that makes sense.

Yesterday my dad, who used to be a mechanic, only drove it on and off the driveway and he came to me straight away and asked me if there is something wrong with the clutch, as he said that it was sticking...to be honest I can't say I've noticed it sticking but that might just be my own relative inexperience.

I rang the dealer I got it from yesterday and booked it in on Monday to have them look at it (thankfully I have a 12 month warranty with them, even though at first they claimed they "couldn't see it" on the order...yeah right), but I just wanted to see with anyone else if I'm going mad? It feels like it needs to be a fine art just to set off without jerking around, and I might have expected an engine like my old Alfa which was a 0.9 litre 2 cylinder to need a bit of power to get going, but not a 2 litre turbo petrol?

It's only done 15,600 miles too.

 

[steelmaximus]

Similar Problem....

I had a similar issue on my Cupra.

From new the clutch felt a bit strange, hard to set off smoothly and shift 1st to 2nd. Strange behaviour when trying to reverse, unless you gave it a reasonable amount of gas it felt like it would stall, unlike driving forwards where it is happy for you to use clutch only to roll forward in traffic?

I put it down to the turbo, torque and some power cutting, maybe the diff doing its thing?

Then at about 15,000 miles occasionally if you were in 5th or 6th cruising and used the torque of the engine to accelerate instead of changing down the clutch started to slip.

SEAT said there was nothing wrong with it and it wouldn't do it when I took them out in it.

Their test is to put it in 3rd/4th at 20mph and mash the throttle, (which didn't cause it to slip, presumably due to having naff all torque at 1200rpm )

I even took it to see them 3 days before the warranty expired and they said it was fine.

Then 2 weeks later the clutch started to slip like mad low rpm high gear high torque.
Still didn't slip using their method! 30 000 miles.

When they took it apart they said the cutch was worn but not to rivets (read not enough to make it slip) but the flywheel was discoloured, a blue colour apparently as if it had got scary hot at some point! A bit of a sanding to key it up wasn't going to cut it!

I opted to change the flywheel whilst they were in there as most of the cost to that point was labour anyway. Extra £500 ish....

SEATS diagnosis was wear and tear, apparently they've had them back in 3000miles clutch welded to flywheel!

All in all a £1500 repair bill and no answers really . Im wondering if the clutch delay valve thingy causes more problems than it solves but there you go?!

If you have any questions let me know!

 

[dsj20v]

A guy on briskoda had issue with his vrs clutch on brand new car, he fought and fought with Skoda then getting independent engineers report that showed manufacturing defect from new, and after a long while got his money back

 

[zedlor]

Thanks for the responses, at least it tells me that maybe it's not just me...sometimes I'm driving along though and it feels fine, but then I do a quick change from 5th to 6th and there's a judder because the clutch doesn't come straight back up with my foot.

I just hope they don't do the whole, yeah mate it's totally fine you're just driving it wrong. The dealer I bought it from is in Stockport as well, whereas I'm in Warrington, so when I take it I'm going to be stranded there...my closest Alfa dealer was 25 miles away and that was a pain in the ar5e whenever anything needed doing (which isn't that uncommon for Alfa's...).

I'll update this thread again though tomorrow with what they tell me, hopefully not that I need to have driving lessons from SEAT...

 

[steelmaximus]

Mine Too..

My dealer is the stockport branch as well.

Taking the bell housing off is 5-6 hrs work then they have to re build it. My experience is that it will be with them for more than a day if you have it changed and from what you're saying the only way to check it is to split it!!

All they can do otherwise is a road test and unless their chosen method of trying to get it to slip in 3rd generates slip or you have a very reproducible fault you will drive their tech around for 1/2hr in traffic and then be on your way!

You can get it fixed much cheaper than what they will charge you, if I were you Id take it to a good independent. I left feeling thoroughly ripped off!!!

Try telling them that its a common fault and you know of other cars that have been in but they will just blame driving styles.

The Golf lads also seem to have had similar problems with the GTI's clutch'.

Good luck tomorrow let us know how you get on....

 

[zedlor]

The car is under warranty with them so hopefully anything they find won't be charged to me...surely it would make more sense for them to drive it to see if it's normal rather than just me??

 

[steelmaximus]

They drove mine as well, even on they day that they split the gearbox and said it was fine, it obviously wasn't because the clutch was slipping in 5th and 6th gear, but it didn't slip in 3rd so in their opinion was ok. (they obviously have a prescribed way to test a clutch for slip.)

SEAT uk said that even under warranty it would not be covered because the clutch AND flywheel are consumable parts, like brake pads and disks etc.

If its the master cylinder leaking, I would have thought you would have more problems than just one gear, if its the slave you'd not be able to get it in gear at all or it would be slipping like a good un.

The only other option is friction material which they won't cover without one hell of a fight.

If they split the gearbox and find nothing its an £800 bill before they fix anything!

Even **** Turpin wore a mask!

 

[kazand]

They drove mine as well, even on they day that they split the gearbox and said it was fine, it obviously wasn't because the clutch was slipping in 5th and 6th gear, but it didn't slip in 3rd so in their opinion was ok. (they obviously have a prescribed way to test a clutch for slip.)

SEAT uk said that even under warranty it would not be covered because the clutch AND flywheel are consumable parts, like brake pads and disks etc.

If its the master cylinder leaking, I would have thought you would have more problems than just one gear, if its the slave you'd not be able to get it in gear at all or it would be slipping like a good un.

The only other option is friction material which they won't cover without one hell of a fight.

If they split the gearbox and find nothing its an £800 bill before they fix anything!

Even **** Turpin wore a mask!

I had the same issue on a 64 plate 280. It started slipping in 5th & 6th. Had done around 12k iirc. Was told if dealer took it to bits and found 'no manufacturing issue' then I'd be left with the thick end of an £800 bill. It wasn't slipping badly, nor would it do it every time, so could possibly have been the release valve delay thing. As it wasn't serious ( only happened when, ahem, pushing on) and getting offered a good deal on a 290, I chopped it. Wonder if the new owner had any issues?

 

[Snah]

My dealer is the stockport branch as well.

Taking the bell housing off is 5-6 hrs work then they have to re build it. My experience is that it will be with them for more than a day if you have it changed and from what you're saying the only way to check it is to split it!!

All they can do otherwise is a road test and unless their chosen method of trying to get it to slip in 3rd generates slip or you have a very reproducible fault you will drive their tech around for 1/2hr in traffic and then be on your way!

You can get it fixed much cheaper than what they will charge you, if I were you Id take it to a good independent. I left feeling thoroughly ripped off!!!

Try telling them that its a common fault and you know of other cars that have been in but they will just blame driving styles.

The Golf lads also seem to have had similar problems with the GTI's clutch'.

Good luck tomorrow let us know how you get on....

On Dutch Seat forum a member changed the whole clutch assembly for a Sachs performance one by himself in 3 1/2 hrs. So where do they take that 5 to 6 hrs from for only dissasembling the bell house????

 

[zedlor]

Well I've left it with them, they've actually given me a loan car (a 1.0 litre SEAT Mii, better than paying £18 a day or getting nothing...) and they're going to let me know. I only noticed a few weeks ago but the front bumper just on the driver side has clearly been resprayed, and not well, because it's a different colour to the rest of the car. They said they'll see what they can do with it, but I'm not expecting miracles.

 

[steelmaximus]

On Dutch Seat forum a member changed the whole clutch assembly for a Sachs performance one by himself in 3 1/2 hrs. So where do they take that 5 to 6 hrs from for only dissasembling the bell house????

Do you have the link to the post on the Dutch forum? I'd be really interested to see how he did it.

I'm not sure why they take so long, either they are taking the mickey with it, or that is what the workshop manual says it should take, they do it quicker but charge the time anyway or it really takes that long to do it properly, two separate dealers gave me the time frame and quote though so i am reasonably confident that is the going rate, how that rate is justified I don't know.

I should have paid an independent to install a Sachs clutch, i was so sure SEAT would find a manufacturers defect that I ok'd the £800 bill as I was sure I wasn't going to end up paying.

Its the worst thing when you know you haven't done anything wrong and you know it has to be a manufacturing fault but you have no real recourse and have to pay if you want to keep your car on the road...

With so many cars suffering the same fault I'm wondering if there is something we can all do retrospectively to get some of the money back for the repairs we have forked out for?

 

[Snah]

Do you have the link to the post on the Dutch forum? I'd be really interested to see how he did it.

I'm not sure why they take so long, either they are taking the mickey with it, or that is what the workshop manual says it should take, they do it quicker but charge the time anyway or it really takes that long to do it properly, two separate dealers gave me the time frame and quote though so i am reasonably confident that is the going rate, how that rate is justified I don't know.

I should have paid an independent to install a Sachs clutch, i was so sure SEAT would find a manufacturers defect that I ok'd the £800 bill as I was sure I wasn't going to end up paying.

Its the worst thing when you know you haven't done anything wrong and you know it has to be a manufacturing fault but you have no real recourse and have to pay if you want to keep your car on the road...

With so many cars suffering the same fault I'm wondering if there is something we can all do retrospectively to get some of the money back for the repairs we have forked out for?

NP. probably you can use google translate because it is in Dutch:

https://www.seat-online.nl/showthread.php?23037-SEAT-Leon-5F-Leon-Cupra-koppeling-vervangen

 

[zedlor]

Got a video back from them, their tech said that it was horrible to drive and the clutch is slipping! So a result...kind of!

Master cylinder was leaking so that's going to be replaced. And it's all being done under warranty, no £800 investigation charges, woohoo!

Only just made it home in the courtesy car though...got stuck in traffic and was just watching the fuel needle go down!

 

[zedlor]

Another update...rang today as I hadn't heard anything since Monday, they're actually replacing the whole clutch, not just the master cylinder. So I'm stuck with the Mii over the weekend until at least Tuesday, but at least I'm not being charged for it...!

Still surprising though that it needs a new clutch when it has only done 200 miles shy of 16,000.

 

[steelmaximus]

Thats great that you don't have to pay for the clutch replacement!

I wonder if they are starting to see that there is no way that all of these clutch failures are down to the owners and are more than Likely due to a manufacturing defect?

Come to think about it if they did the master cylinder and then test drove it again and the clutch still slipped they might work on the basis that the master cylinder killed the clutch therefore it is a defect?

Did they mention how your flywheel looked?

 

[zedlor]

Thats great that you don't have to pay for the clutch replacement!

I wonder if they are starting to see that there is no way that all of these clutch failures are down to the owners and are more than Likely due to a manufacturing defect?

Come to think about it if they did the master cylinder and then test drove it again and the clutch still slipped they might work on the basis that the master cylinder killed the clutch therefore it is a defect?

Did they mention how your flywheel looked?

When I got the video from the tech he said that it needed a new clutch, when the guy on the desk rang me he said that the cylinder had leaked onto the thermostat housing, so I don't know if they've replaced one and then had to replace another.

I didn't ask about the flywheel either, if I remember I'll ask when I get it, because I want to ask them why they think the clutch has gone so early. Maybe the previous owner ragged it everywhere, you just don't know...

 

[zedlor]

Well I'll give some closure on this thread now I've just got my car back!

It's had a new clutch, master cylinder, slave cylinder, and thermostat housing. They also resprayed the front bumper. All free of charge, under warranty! This is from the Lookers SEAT branch in Stockport, so really happy. It feels a million times better now than it did!