Rabbit Clutch Failure

Bought a 2007 Rabbit.
After 15k the clutch failed.
Normal driving use.
VW won’t cover it under the warrenty.
$3K expense.

Now that sucks!

July 24, 2007 · Filed under Uncategorized

8 Comments »

  1. fmichaelis Said,

    July 24, 2007 @ 4:12 am

    Anyone else have a similar problems. – Would like to know if this is a common issue?

  2. 297 Said,

    July 24, 2007 @ 5:05 am

    - What excuse did they give for not covering it under a powertrain warranty?

  3. Bolo Said,

    July 26, 2007 @ 12:13 pm

    - I wouldn’t be surprised if they say “owner abuse”. But if you are saying to us normal use, We assume you did not abuse it. Could be an uphill fight for you coming. Are the clutches on these newer Volkswagens still filled with some kind of fluid that tends to leak and ruin the whole clutch assembly.

  4. timwigle Said,

    August 27, 2007 @ 4:00 am

    See my post “Shitty Clutch” – My 2005 Jetta had the clutch blow at 15K also, and they said it was my fault too. $2300 to fix. Calling corporate has gotten me nowhere. I am trying to fight the legal battle with a lawyer, I get free legal counsel at UNC. my email is timwigle@unc.edu, drop me a line and let me know if you get anywhere.

  5. 297 Said,

    August 28, 2007 @ 6:35 am

    One more time… what did they say you did that made it your fault? – I’ve asked this on the 2005 Jetta post and on this one as well.

  6. timwigle Said,

    August 28, 2007 @ 11:24 am

    My fault – If you have dealt with them I am sure you have heard it….an outside influence must have caused my pressure plate to crack into 3 pieces, there is no way our massive corporation can swallow the repair cost on one automobile because we are criminals, etc…I have written a great letter to the CEO, called those robots at customer care about 10 times, and still nothing. It’s been 3 weeks and my car is still sitting a VW in Durham because I can’t afford to get it fixed, and they are charging standard mark-up on parts on labor, not even a discount. Now all I have left is a 15K mile car with a broken clutch and am bumming rides off people. I get free legal counsel through school, but these VW assclowns apparently have you by the balls in your leases agreement. I am probably going to walk into the dealership and throw my keys at the dirty rats, let them deal with their lemon and let them ruin my credit. I am Canadian anyway and am probably moving back there in a year or two.

    Seriously though, look at the National Highway Transportation Safety Admin website, about one third of all Jetta complaints on the 2005 and 2006 model are prematurely blown clutches. If standards are half their sales that would mean 2 in 3 Jetta complaints from the new models are clutch complaints. Passats and Jettas (2005) were recalled in Australia due to clutch problems and same thing in Finland. It’s going to take an act of God to have them admit they have a problem in the US. Can you picture if they had to spend 2300$ to fix every Jetta sold in this country? I can only warn everyone I know to stay away from this morally bankrupt and utterly corrupt company’s cars.

  7. timwigle Said,

    August 28, 2007 @ 11:28 am

    My fault – If you have dealt with them I am sure you have heard it….an outside influence must have caused my pressure plate to crack into 3 pieces, there is no way our massive corporation can swallow the repair cost on one automobile because we are criminals, etc…I have written a great letter to the CEO, called those robots at customer care about 10 times, and still nothing. It’s been 3 weeks and my car is still sitting a VW in Durham because I can’t afford to get it fixed, and they are charging standard mark-up on parts on labor, not even a discount. Now all I have left is a 15K mile car with a broken clutch and am bumming rides off people. I get free legal counsel through school, but these VW assclowns apparently have you by the balls in your leases agreement. I am probably going to walk into the dealership and throw my keys at the dirty rats, let them deal with their lemon and let them ruin my credit. I am Canadian anyway and am probably moving back there in a year or two.

    Seriously though, look at the National Highway Transportation Safety Admin website, about one third of all Jetta complaints on the 2005 and 2006 model are prematurely blown clutches. If standards are half their sales that would mean 2 in 3 Jetta complaints from the new models are clutch complaints. Passats and Jettas (2005) were recalled in Australia due to clutch problems and same thing in Finland. It’s going to take an act of God to have them admit they have a problem in the US. Can you picture if they had to spend 2300$ to fix every Jetta sold in this country? I can only warn everyone I know to stay away from this morally bankrupt and utterly corrupt company’s cars.

  8. 297 Said,

    August 29, 2007 @ 2:13 am

    - That’s just a way of them saying it’s not a defect and therefore not under warranty. That does suck — no actual reason, just an insistence that the pressure plate was fine and *something* caused it to fail. How a human being can cause a pressure plate to crack is beyond me (what, dump it in water and have it rust?).

    You might want to look into other clutch assemblies (non-OEM for your model) and just install that at a local mechanic’s shop (tow it away from the dealership). You can get one in there for $1000 + labor ($1500 total maybe) and since the warranty isn’t honored, it’s not like you’re breaking anything. These are typically “”performance”" based and so tend to be a bit more perky (most aftermarkets are single mass flywheels, which means better response but a bit of chatter noise).

    I know this sounds like a cop-out, but in the end, you need the car to be running and the best way to do that is to fix it. You can certainly pursue litigation with VW in the meantime, but first, get the car back up and running.

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