Hyundai Tucson clutch gone after a year of ownership

[megaduff]

Hi all,

First post here and looking for a bit of advice!

My 2018 Hyundai Tucson broke down on the motorway the other week - I was driving, went to change gear and the clutch pedal just went to the floor. I couldn't change gears and had to pull over and get it towed to a local garage. Their summation was that the slave cylinder had burst and contaminated all the components of the clutch. The car will need a brand new clutch system including the fly wheel replacing, which they wouldn't do because it needed Hyundai parts, and them opening the car up would void any remaining warranty. 

Now, apologies first of all, because I'm not well up on my motors! But does anyone know if this should be covered under a Hyundai warranty? We've jumped through so many hoops to get it towed back to our local Hyundai dealership and made sure we are within the 5 year warranty period (it expires this Thursday) and have a full service history, so we do check all their criteria, it seems. But a woman has just been onto my wife to say the clutch only has a 2 year warranty anyway, and they would also have to determine if it was wear and tear or the result of a faulty part.

For more context, the car will be 5 years old on Thursday, we bought it a year ago. It has 25,000 miles on the clock, of which we have driven 7,000 of those. The one previous owner therefore, did around 18,000 miles. It's not a car you'd exactly buy for a drag race, and I've got two kids, so keep it calm and under the speed limit on the roads.

My question(s) I guess are, based on the information of the car and the issue, would anyone here think this was down to wear and tear? Or would this point, in theory, to a faulty part?

The other issue I had was, do we have a leg to stand on if the clutch only has 2 years on its warranty? I'd argue that the cylinder cause the corrosion of the clutch and therefore it's a different part that's caused this issue, and the flywheel is affected too. It seems car dealerships do not go down without an almighty fight, and this could cost us between £2000-£3000 to replace, so not a small amount.

Appreciate there's a few ifs and buts here, but looking for people with more knowledge than I on cars and what to perhaps do/say to Hyundai themselves if they try to wriggle out of their responsibilities. Any info or advice you have would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,
Chris

[rhyds]

Hello and welcome

One of the industry pros will be along to give a more definite answer regarding the warranty, but I can give you an idea of what makes up a clutch and how it works

In short, your clutch is made of

A clutch master cylinder attached to the clutch pedal, which operates the slave cylinder through a pipe
A clutch slave cylinder and release bearing which lives inside the gearbox bellhousing and operates the clutch pressure plate
A clutch pressure plate which clamps the clutch friction plate to the flywheel when the car is driving, but releases it when you press the clutch pedal, which disconnects drive and lets you change gears
A clutch friction plate which transfers drive from the flywheel to the gearbox/road wheels
And the flywheel which is bolted to the engine's crankshaft. Traditionally this was a massive hunk of steel but modern units are "Dual Mass", so much more complex and can wear out

Now, from what I understand of your post, its the slave cylinder and release bearing that's failed first, and that has then sprayed hydraulic fluid all oveer the flywheel, pressure plate and friction plate, which contaminates the friction material and means the friciton material is now useless. The secondary problem is that by the time you pull the gearbox out to replace the slave cylinder it makes zero sense to leave the rest of the parts in there because you save very little compared to the cost of labour by not replacing the friction plate, pressure plate and slave cylinder, and modern Dual Mass flywheels can wear out so you need to price in the possibility of changing that as well.

The problem with warranties is they don't cover wearing components like clutches usually because someone could be abusing the car, wearing the clutch out in triple time and just getting the garage to throw a new one in under warranty. As you say though this is an apparent failure of the slave cylinder and release bearing, however its difficult to prove that the slave cylinder failed due to a manufacturing defect rather than abuse by yourselves or the previous owner.

[Joepublic]

At best I think you can only expect some discount on parts from the manufacturer and negotiate a better price for fitting by the servicing garage - I’d expect no more than 20/30%

Tyres, brakes, clutches wear out and user abuse can shorten the life of all.

You could ruin a £100 pair of Clarkes shoes by dragging heels on the floor, scuffing the toes, bursting the stitching because you’re not untying the laces and forcing them back on.

For example, riding the clutch because you don’t use the handbrake creates heat - heat will damage clutch disc, pressure plate, flywheel and it won’t help the slave cylinder either

[OldGit]

It all hinges on what failed - you may need to agree to pay for the gearbox to be removed (most dealerships insist on this in the event that the cause is outside of warranty) so the causal part can be determined.

IF the causal part is the clutch slave cylinder, then that will be a material failure leading to consequential damage to the clutch, I'm not sure if/why the flywheel would need replacing, nor the pressure plate unless they have overheated beyond their service limits, only visual inspection will confirm this.

In short, you need to have a workshop authorised under the terms of your warranty to remove the transmission and inspect the clutch components to determine the causal part and the amount of consequential damage. The wording of the report can be a 'deal breaker' in terms of extended warranties - 'fluid leak' will often kill a claim dead in the water, whereas 'component failure leading to contamination due to leaking fluid' will be a green light for a warranty payment.

Obviously if the warranty claim is approved, you shouldn't be billed for the initial investigation & transmission removal, that would be covered under the 'remove' part of 'remove and install transmission' section of the work instruction to replace the clutch & associated parts.

The key part that should be mentioned to push the claim in your favour is that it occurred on a motorway, now if you are/were in the habit of riding the clutch, the failure would be most likely to occur around town and would most likely cause failure of the friction material, not the release bearing/slave cylinder. (inspection of the pressure plate 'fingers' will reveal any long-term clutch 'riding', this often causes failure of the release bearing but not the slave cylinder) You also don't mention any 'spongyness' of the clutch pedal, again, something to be highlighted as this indicates the release bearing was not overheated due to continual contact with the pressure plate and causing the hydraulic fluid to boil.

Get all of your ducks in a row, point out the salient facts and I think you should be OK with 100% contribution.

[Karl]

Work at a ford dealer

I can tell you how it works

Even if it’s only got one day left it doesn’t matter

Or even if it’s gone over the 3 years or 5 in your case

Just so long as the job was “ started “ before it actually ran out

By that I mean getting a job card made up and having the job in the diary



Thing is need to find out if the concentric slave cylinder has burst because the clutch is knackered or just failed though normal failure

So you’ll have to agree to front the costs
To at minimum remove the transmission if it’s a slave
So if that’s an a internal one . You would be looking at an average of around 5 hours to r&i a gearbox

It can be a good bit longer though depending on the make and model

So if the clutch assembly is good

It’ll be a warranty replacement of the slave cylinder

[megaduff]

Thanks all for your replies, the saga still continues for us.

Hyundai rang last minute today to say they had basically had a cursory look over it and still could be a number of things - why it's taken them three days just to do this is beyond us, so this was a slight annoyance. However, they then said that in addition to the full service history that was required (which we showed them), we now need the oil type that has been used for each service. Apparently this is part of their warranty, and it depends what oil each garage has used in their service. This was not communicated to us when I asked if they needed any more information, so to say we are hacked off is an understatement as we could have been searching for this information the past few days.

So my next question was if anyone has heard of this for warranties? I've never known needing the type of oil used to verify a warranty. I can't recall seeing this in Hyundai's warranty at all, although I will go over it again, with a fine tooth comb this time.


OldGit - thanks for your reply. Funny that you mention "spongyness" of the clutch - I felt this quite a few months ago and it wouldn't go into gear. It was like it needed to "re-breathe" fully before I could press it to the floor again and change gear. I'm trying to thing of a better way to describe the problem, but spongyness is probably the best wording. This actually caused me to come to a stop at a set of lights once and cause a bit of a traffic jam behind me, as I was pushing the clutch down but it wouldn't go into a gear for around 30 seconds or so. My father in law thought it was just me not getting my size 11's off the clutch pedal properly. I wasn't convinced at the time it was me, and even less so now! Maybe this problem has been there for quite some time and last week it just finally gave up.

Thanks again,
Chris

[Rhubarb]

Yes Hyundai do stipulate using their own parts to keep the warranty.

I think you're on a hiding to nothing with them personally.

Years ago I had two customer Hyundais with faults:

One was a 10000 mile 18 month old Car with leaking rear wheel cylinders. They wanted to charge 35quid to inspect the car. It was bought from them too.
Needless to say I repaired it.

And the next was a 3 year old one that the seatbelt warning wouldn't stop.
I don't know the end result but similar to above they wanted to charge to look at it.

[OldGit]

It's not unusual for oil type to be requested - it's basically to answer one of the yes/no questions on the insurance cover prequalifiers (extended warranty is basically insurance cover).

Obviously in this case it's irrelevant but it does need to be complied with to validate the cover.

TBH if they are putting up barriers at this stage, I'd be inclined to cancel the cover and get the car dragged down to 'Mr. Clutch' or similar. From what you've stated, it looks like they've already made up their mind and will have 'confirmation bias' if/when the gearbox is removed. It's likely that you could get a decent quality clutch kit supplied and fitted for what they'll want to charge you for 'investigation'.

[Karl]

The right oil and at what mileages it’s been changed at for a warranty claim on an internal engine fault


Yes for sure



But what ever oil has or hasn’t been used

Makes zero difference to a CSC cylinder failure

[OldGit]

For full servicing compliance, it makes a difference - i.e. 'has the vehicle been serviced to manufacturers specification?' yes/no are the only possible answers to insurance co's. The engine oil specification is part of the manufacturers specification so it either complies or not. Harsh in this case but if it was a claim for a rattly engine?.....

[remmington]

It is now time to tow the motor into an "indie" repairer...

Chuck a clutch/DMF and ecentric slave cylinder into it - pay and enjoy the car for what it is and put the thought of goodwill claim to bed!

It is a five year old car with 25000miles on it.

Just from now on - be aware of your driving style - make the clutch last (get the full value from it)

[Rhubarb]

Any luck with this?