Kia Sportage clutch goes just after service anyone else with experience of this ?

techman07

Please excuse the long post, but just to give all the info.
We have a 2012 Kia Sportage 4x4 .Which to be honest ,has an easy life up to now, no towing or off roading with just over 80k on the clock.
We had it in for a regular service about a week ago, and a few days later we started to have problems, getting into the lower gears.
As it was a Sunday, it had to be nursed the 20 or so miles home, ( Okay, not great on the clutch, but what do ya do, middle of nowhere on a Sunday !)
Monday rang garage, they said bring it in, few miles down the road bang, clutch goes with a thud !!
You guessed it, Garage coming out with the line, clutch not covered by Kia warranty, before they even check it.
But I know full well something else has caused this, as I or my wife has never worn a clutch out in thirty years of driving.

This stinks, something caused the issues with the gears, or transmission, can’t say for defo it was the service related, but is seems highly coincidenta,l in my opinion.
Also I have to factor in the recent flooding where I live may have had a contributing factor, but I know for certain that clutch was not ridden/over used.

I really don't need this headache at the moment, so any feedback of similar experiences would be helpful. Or suspected causes, I intend to fight this tooth and nail and will have the car interdependent assessed if needs be, hope not but I just won’t be, had over like this.

I will keep the thread updated, so please any feedback or ideas to cause would very gratefully received.

Techman07

Paddy@CIRL

A clutch is a wearable item, as I'm sure you know, so you would have to be extremely fortunate to get any where with this.

You've mentioned that you had to nurse it home on a Sunday which probably done most of the damage. What items were addressed in the service?

Special Circumstances

Pretend I'm stupid - does "clutch failed with a thud" mean that
a) you could no longer move the vehicle despite it being in gear and you revving it,
or
b) pressing the pedal was no longer actuating the clutch, making it difficult or impossible to select or deselect gears?

techman07

@Special Circumstances

I doubt that you are, a) is what happened.


Pretend I'm stupid - does "clutch failed with a thud" mean that
a) you could no longer move the vehicle despite it being in gear and you revving it,
or

techman07

PaddyCIRL

Yes, but the point remains, this is out of the norm... Lightly used, just been serviced, gear issues leading to clutch failure !
But I take your point, and appreciate the feedback.

Toyotafanboi

it really depends.

fortunately for you it was serviced a week prior, so you are in a good position to say that their technicians deemed the clutch as "ok", if it were slipping/ biting high/ or showing any signs of being close to the end of it's life, you can bet your bonnet that they would have tried to sell you a new one and they didn't.

it really boils down to an inspection. if the clutch is removed and the friction disc is worn smooth, you won't have much of a comeback, the clutch is just worn out. if the clutch is removed and the disc has snapped/ the bearing has failed etc etc, you might be in a position to ask for a warranty claim.

unfortunately there is no way to know until it is removed and inspected which is a lengthy process, so i guess if you go with the main dealer, be prepared to pay for the clutch if the damage doesn't fall in your favour.

this is assuming the clutch kit itself is at fault and not a broken mount/ linkage/ hydraulic problem etc which would be much more likely to be covered on warranty.

finalfurlong

Techman-dd you say to garage about that trip home?it was unavoidable for you but my experience is that dealer tries to latch onto the things like that in dispute regarding liability.Vital that you keep written record of all dealer comments in this and if necessary go over their heads to kia ireland