Catastrophic Clutch Failure at 16000km !!!!!

[Umai Naa!!]

Yes, you need an OBD2-compatible scanner.

But in all honesty, what are you expecting to find?

[BlackSuperb]

Missing evidence (thrust bearing) could work in your favour. It implies the workshop, for whatever reason, didn't want you to see/inspect it because it was faulty.

[woofy]

Its a tricky one. Could be something else and if it is, it will show up soon enough again if not picked up now. But then again, if one or either of your parents are doing something, it will also possibly happen again. I know they have been driving all their lives with a manual, but they are at the age where people start doing strange things as they get older. My in laws are much the same age and to say they drive like they did even 10 yrs ago would be an outright lie, we can see that they may need some encouragement to stop driving sooner rather than later.

The SKoda clutch is very very light, not like the heavy ones of old, so it may be possible that one (does one drive it more than the other?) is resting their foot on it without realising, or thinking its the foot rest next to it. You would want to rule out that, otherwise it's going to repeat all over again. The fact it had been going on a while before happening and them not noticing is what makes me wonder. I had to reverse up a very steep driveway with a handbrake start about 6mths after getting ours and the smell of the clutch was noticable within seconds.

[BluChris]

Both causes are possible and as others have said the answer may never be known. Across the board manufacturers generally don't warrant clutches. They are seen as wear and tear items.

However, given the very large sum of money involved it would have been nice to see Skoda do the right thing and contribute to the cost, on the understanding that if it happened again with no cause established they would not do it twice. A small sum to maintain goodwill versus a very unhappy customer who may well sell the car and warn others off the brand? A no brainer I think.

[Mysticality]

As far as riding the clutch is concerned, I've found that I rest my foot on it between shifts 1->2->3.
I only realised one day when I floored it, boost built and the revs hit 4k without really moving anywhere.
From now I move my foot to the foot rest, even between very close-together shifts.

[ausspace87]

Clutches are a very hot topic by most auto manufacturers when it comes to be being covered by warranty. I remember my entire clutch assembly on my Hy-undie Tiburon failed after only 25,000km and the warranty covered only 20,000km.
Hyundai was good enough to repair under warranty because that's what good customer service is about & to this day I still think that their service is one of the best in Australia when it comes to warranty claims and servicing.
This limited warranty coverage is due to most people not knowing how to operate a manual transmission.
Anyway on a side note; do you not think that the last photo you posted is a bit shock factor / off topic? Seeing as though it's not of the vehicle in discussion and also not even of a VW Group car? Particularly when the heading is "Catastrophic" and you scroll down to see something that would very rarely happen in real-world driving conditions?

[BottomScratcher]

A lot of reasonable comments. It is, as others have said, ultimately their word against yours - unless you can provide a bit of weight to your side of the argument, and the only way to that is with an independent inspection. I agree that not returning all of the parts could work in your favour. The engineer's report would perhaps be technically inconclusive, but his/her comments after the technobabble won't reflect well on not being given the material required for him/her to effectively do the job they were given. The RACV can also advise on the consumer rights side of things without going to Consumer Rights Victoria in the first insurance. You could always do that later. Slowly, slowly, step by step. If the dealer sees that you're serious about following this through then they may become a bit more willing to come to the party, rather than go through a lot of hassle. I only said, "may", but that is unquestionably better than the straight out "No" that you're getting now.

While you can't prove a direct correlation, Skoda Octy IIs have form in this area. Google "Skoda clutch failures" and you might be surprised. Perhaps something else that the dealer mightn't want to get into a lengthy discussion with the RACV and CRV about. There was even a UK recall of the dual mass flywheels,
Recall Ref: R/2006/035
Exact Model: Octavia II
Description: Flywheel may fail resulting in fire
VIN:
Build Date:
Numbers: 1687
Defect: It has been identified that the two mass flywheels can become damaged because of a not optimally aligned through-flow restrictor in the clutch pressure pipe. This situation can lead to total failure of the flywheel and under unfavourable conditions a fire.
Action: Recalled vehicles will have the make of the two mass flywheels identified and if necessary, replaced together with the breather of the clutch pressure pipe.
Launch Date: 19 April 2006.

It's not recent, but it does establish a history of a problem that can be attributed to the car, not the driver. Your best way to achieve a result may be to be a polite, but complete and utter pain in the you know what. "Look, I see what you're saying, but if I agree with you, well, I think that then we'd both be wrong, so I'll go and have a chat with an RACV engineer, the RACV consumer advice people, and maybe even Consumer Rights Victoria to see where they all think that I stand before getting back to you. Unless, of course they contact you first, in which case would you mind giving me a bell? Thanks." The dealer may come to realise that if you are serious in following through, and are not going to relent, then it might be in their own best interests to fix the car than continue to put up with you. Even if they offer to split the bill, or pay for the parts, something is better than nothing. At this stage of the proceedings I really don't think that you've got anything to lose.

[bobski]

C'mon guys, clutches should be a pretty hardy beast and should be able to withstand a couple of fogies tootling around at 5000k's a year. To blow out within 16000k's is lame and I highly doubt user error according to the ops information (even if they do slip the clutch, rest their foot etc).

$3500 repair is pretty bullsh*t too, get some second opinions on that!

[woofy]

C'mon guys, clutches should be a pretty hardy beast and should be able to withstand a couple of fogies tootling around at 5000k's a year. To blow out within 16000k's is lame and I highly doubt user error according to the ops information (even if they do slip the clutch, rest their foot etc).

$3500 repair is pretty bullsh*t too, get some second opinions on that!

I have a mother in law known as the clutch destroyer, she killed many a manual and even after showing her how she was doing it, the only solution was an auto. 16k does sound low, but if that was everyday traffic, then I can see it happening pretty fast.

[Umai Naa!!]

C'mon guys, clutches should be a pretty hardy beast and should be able to withstand a couple of fogies tootling around at 5000k's a year. To blow out within 16000k's is lame and I highly doubt user error according to the ops information (even if they do slip the clutch, rest their foot etc).

$3500 repair is pretty bullsh*t too, get some second opinions on that!

Have you ever priced up a clutch kit on one of these?

I'll give you a hint; the labour is the cheap part.

[ian]

Have you ever priced up a clutch kit on one of these?

I'll give you a hint; the labour is the cheap part.

You can get a good clutch kit from the UK a lot cheaper than in Aust
Skoda Octavia clutch kit | eBay

[woofy]

You can get an awful lot of things cheaper in the UK, over here Skoda is treated like its BMW parts instead of Suzuki like there. Therein lies 90% of Skodas issues here.

[bobski]

Have you ever priced up a clutch kit on one of these?

I'll give you a hint; the labour is the cheap part.

No, obviously I haven't, it just sounds well out of the realms of reasonableness. What do they charge for them? Are they made from moonrock?

[Umai Naa!!]

The flywheel itself is around $1200, the clutch kit is around $800.

Although this can fluctuate a bit from dealer to dealer.

[Creniac]

Get both out of the UK mate....... waaaaaay cheaper than here..... SKODA OCTAVIA 150 1.8T 1997 ONWARDS L&B FLYWHEEL + CARBON KEVLAR CLUTCH | eBay

I don't have anything against AU supplied products and everyone needs to make a living but we do get unnecessarily price raped sometimes.....