Emergency advice needed. Clutch gone, I think.

Gloucesternige said:

I am truly shocked by this as all the rivets must have failed??

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IMO, More than likely the rivets are still in place and the friction material failed around them.

Ritchie said:

IMO, More than likely the rivets are still in place and the friction material failed around them.

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I dunno?? If the friction material failed I would have thought a piece of it would break off and the clutch would slip or judder?

We need pics!!

Ask, and ye shall receive ;)

It's been a busy day again, probably 3hrs+ on the phone to various places. But I'm back home in NL too

- warranty repair is rejected in the UK. And NOT because of the tuning, but due to 'customer abuse'.
- I tried to appeal the rejection, but because car is on a Dutch plate, UK CRC will not allow me to open a case. They basically tolld me to FO on the phone.
- Dutch CRC will also not entertain a case because I elected to have a repair in England.
- Dutch CRC have refused a loan car here in NL for the same reason, which is a disgrace.

The only good news is that the total repair cost (Inc VAT) is £960, a sum which I can stomach. That's for a new OEM clutch and slave/release bearing all fitted at Ford with a 12m warranty.

Clutch is in stock and release/slave is 'back order referred'. One in stock in Germany, which will take up to 7 working days to reach the UK. Could be worse.

I priced up having the car made movable again at ford and then transported to Modurstang for an aftermarket part, but the numbers weren't really making sense. £400 at Ford + £300ish for transport + £1200+ for a MacLeod clutch + £200ish for a slave.

So EH in Hull will fix it, and hopefully in about 10 days time I can come and get it (at my own expense).

By the time I'm finished I'll be down about £1400, but worse than that is the way I've been treated by Ford. Apart from the lovely lady on the service desk at EH, who has been a star, everyone else from top to bottom has been a complete shower of sh*t. I couldn't feel less valued as a customer if they tried and I'm completely disillusioned with Ford.

My plan of action is to get the car back to NL and then submitt all the bills to the supplying dealer here in NL as a new warranty claim. That I'm sure will be rejected, at which point I might use my legal insurance and get a lawyer involved. The problem I have is that our lives are so damned busy at the moment that this is eating time that we just don't have.

Happily, the flywheel is fine. No damage.

And the only abuse it's ever had is a linelock here and there. A factory built in option. The pedal hasn't always returned fully since new, which the Dutch dealer said was normal... That will be included in my counter claim later on.

Customer abuse?? Yeah right!! How can they state that in s car that has launch control and a burn out mode?? I fail to see how you could put a clutch through more abuse than what Ford have designed into the car. What's next? "Sorry sir your claim for your puddle light is invalid because you opened your door too many times"??

Total bollocks if you ask me?

But clutches don't fail like that when they're abused, do they?!

They start slipping as they get worn not suddenly explode like that!

That has defect written all over it IMO.

It could be a long and expensive (financially and timewise) road to get somebody to cough up for it though.

I think a big issue is that it's a foreign car that's been stripped by someone else in another country and the original dealer didn't get the chance so now nobody wants to stump up for it.

Fingers crossed it gets sorted.

Centurion07 said:

But clutches don't fail like that when they're abused, do they?!

They start slipping as they get worn not suddenly explode like that!

That has defect written all over it IMO.

It could be a long and expensive (financially and timewise) road to get somebody to cough up for it though.

I think a big issue is that it's a foreign car that's been stripped by someone else in another country and the original dealer didn't get the chance so now nobody wants to stump up for it.

Fingers crossed it gets sorted.

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It's actually a foreign car wherever it is in Europe in reality?? But, as you say, if it were customer abuse it would be glazed, the flywheel would be blued and there would be dust everywhere.

Unfortunately this is s faulty part which has failed due to poor manufacture but the manufacturer is brushing off any responsibility. Imagine being in France with your nearly new BMW M4 and the clutch fails. Imagine how you'd be treated by BMW customer service?

kapiteinlangzaam said:

Ask, and ye shall receive ;)

It's been a busy day again, probably 3hrs+ on the phone to various places. But I'm back home in NL too

- warranty repair is rejected in the UK. And NOT because of the tuning, but due to 'customer abuse'.
- I tried to appeal the rejection, but because car is on a Dutch plate, UK CRC will not allow me to open a case. They basically tolld me to FO on the phone.
- Dutch CRC will also not entertain a case because I elected to have a repair in England.
- Dutch CRC have refused a loan car here in NL for the same reason, which is a disgrace.

The only good news is that the total repair cost (Inc VAT) is £960, a sum which I can stomach. That's for a new OEM clutch and slave/release bearing all fitted at Ford with a 12m warranty.

Clutch is in stock and release/slave is 'back order referred'. One in stock in Germany, which will take up to 7 working days to reach the UK. Could be worse.

I priced up having the car made movable again at ford and then transported to Modurstang for an aftermarket part, but the numbers weren't really making sense. £400 at Ford + £300ish for transport + £1200+ for a MacLeod clutch + £200ish for a slave.

So EH in Hull will fix it, and hopefully in about 10 days time I can come and get it (at my own expense).

By the time I'm finished I'll be down about £1400, but worse than that is the way I've been treated by Ford. Apart from the lovely lady on the service desk at EH, who has been a star, everyone else from top to bottom has been a complete shower of sh*t. I couldn't feel less valued as a customer if they tried and I'm completely disillusioned with Ford.

[/URL]

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[MENTION=18365]Andy Barratt[/MENTION] This is pretty disgraceful to be honest

Gloucesternige said:

It's actually a foreign car wherever it is in Europe in reality??

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That was my point. Even if it were "just" across the border, say France/germany wherever, it's a nice easy clause for them to be able to wash their hands of it. Combined with the "customer abuse" angle and no-one wanting to pay for it and it's easy to see why everyone is saying no.

I'd certainly be looking at getting some sort of expert to take a look at that and offer an opinion on what caused it.

A few linelocks shouldn't do that and even if they did, nowhere does Ford mention using a system THEY deliberately added to the car will void your warranty. Do they?

I would at least entertain the idea of getting Ford to use an uprated part when reassembling though. If they're not going to honour the warranty on their standard parts and you're going to have foot the bill yourself anyway, might as well upgrade whilst it's all in pieces in the hope that stops it happening again. Which it wouldn't anyway since it's a manufacturing defect.

RS owners are having similar issues. They are having problems with warranty claims because they've used their launch control too much?? FFS it's a feature of the car!!

Yet.. RS owners are getting full replacement engines if their EB goes pop, even if they have aftermarket tunes. Yeah, even Revo, so, surely Ford can cover this issue??

Andy Barratt needs to step in here.

Centurion07 said:

I think a big issue is that it's a foreign car that's been stripped by someone else in another country and the original dealer didn't get the chance so now nobody wants to stump up for it.

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I agree, this will be playing a part, but ive remained within the Ford network, and its only ever been serviced by them (twice).

The daft thing is, I (was) and still would be perfectly happy for the original dealer here in NL to do the work, its just that Ford quoted me 3-5 weeks to get the car back on Dutch soil, something which should take no longer than 2-3 days IMO.

Ive actually saved Ford a lot of money, as I would have been eligible for a replacement car that entire 3-5 week period had I elected for the repatriation. + Im also having to pay for the repatriation myself now, rather that at Ford's expense.

As a comparison, a good friend of mine had a problem with his Corvette Z06 up in Hamburg. Sprang an oil leak and couldnt drive it any further. Car was out of warranty but still Covered on GM breakdown recovery.

His car was recovered by GM within 2hrs, he had a replacement car within 3hrs (no quibbles, no calls, no stress) and his car was back in NL at the local dealer within 48hrs. Again no stress or questions asked, and thats over a similar distance.

Ford have got SO far to go, im not sure its even worth telling them where to begin.

If you scream and shout enough on Facebook Andy steps in. Might be worth a go.

Jimboy2 said:

If you scream and shout enough on Facebook Andy steps in. Might be worth a go.

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I think the problem will be that although the car is in the UK, he will do another pass the buck and refer me to Ford NL.

Ford NL will just tell me to contact the UK again.

I went round in so many circles today I was starting to go mad.

All the FB and Instagram shaming will come once I finally resolved it to a point here in NL. I dont want to prejudice any potential legal action I take either.

The biggest issue for me is time. i.e. I want/need the car back on the road ASAP. If the car were at my local dealer id let it sit on the ramp for a few weeks until someone there started screaming, but because its literally 500 miles away in a different country, the pressure is on me a little bit to get it sorted, one way or the other.

Im taking part in a charity day for terminally ill kids on the 10th September, giving ride-outs etc. Ill be really, really upset if I miss it due to the breakdown, so my aim is to have the car back here in NL before then.

[quoteThat's for a new OEM clutch and slave/release bearing all fitted at Ford with a 12m warranty.][/quote]

12 minute warranty sounds about right....

Do you have an equivalent to our small claims process in NL? I'd launch one of those at whoever you bought the car off. It's not about whether the warranty applies or not, it's something you bought that failed to meet reasonable expectations. It will cost them more to defend than pay.

slowhand99 said:

Do you have an equivalent to our small claims process in NL? I'd launch one of those at whoever you bought the car off. It's not about whether the warranty applies or not, it's something you bought that failed to meet reasonable expectations. It will cost them more to defend than pay.

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Yes, I presume there will be something I can do. Its also a lot easier to use a lawyer here to potentially sue them.

First step will be to let them have a go at paying my re-submitted claim, whenever I can prep that in the next month or so. That will be handed in to the dealer I bought it from. I feel a bit bad for them too, they are a good 200 miles from where I live and have never had the car back for servicing.

The whole thing sucks, to be honest. Plus I hate having to write letters in Dutch. It does my head in!