[Ceex]

Renault will help you out. Call then and they'll ask for an inspection to be carried out. But they will advise you that it could come at a cost to yourself if the liability is found to be on you guys.

The likelihood is, Renault could and probably will do some sort of goodwill gesture. But with your car standing for such a long period of time. It's very likely that the thrust bearing seized, thus holding the clutch plate and stopping it from spinning. Renault use a LUK thrust bearing and clutch plate. The plate isn't the problem. The thrust bearing is what tends to seize. I've seen it happen to a few Renaults.

Can I ask, did your car feel like it was jumping slightly when pulling off in 1st?

 

[Ceex]

Roof box, 70 mph on highway and full load just helped to overheat the clutch. But it must not happen that clutch pedal got stuck to the floor. Even if you somehow overheated it by your driving.
Wether the problem is in master clutch cylinder, slave cylinder or the clutch itself, it is not drivers fault.

Say your husband was driving and resting his left foot on the clutch pedal. Clutch would be overheated, the whole assembly burnt to replacement, but clutch pedal would still be working. And from what you wrote, that clutch pedal is still problematic in operation.

I'm guessing the thrust bearing kept getting stuck to the clutch disc - hence the clutch pedal staying to the floor.

I think Renault will help with some sort of goodwill gesture. Especially on a car with that low mileage.

@Gillybeany, who ever you speak to. Shy away from telling them that your car has been stud throughout the pandemic.

 

[Ceex]

That's where I am at.
While some drivers can and do wear out clutches really fast by bad driving habits, I have never known a pedal stick from burning the clutch.
That it stuck down made me feel initially that it was sticking prior to the journey, that the splines were not moving freely.
We've seen other people with sticky clutches during lockdown...to me this is another case of it.

Add to that the prices quoted, do those dealers wear a mask and mug old ladies as well?

I know right?! A clutch kit from LUK, with the bearing is less than £500. I'm going to say that the owner has a dual mass flywheel. So we'll add on roughly £800-900 for that. So we're now under 1 and half K 🤔

So let's wrap our heads around this. £2800 - £1300

So the dealership think this job is justifiably charged at £1500 for labor carry out 🤔

They have 4 post lifts, gearbox jacks, the exact tools which we all know they use air/electric impact guns to get the job done quicker. I can't imagine the renault "master tech" standing there and torque everything back to spec. The job should take no more than a few hours for them to complete. It's the *********** at it's finest, offering a price like that. They say pay that and we'll promise you we can call your car good once we've finished with it and caused more problems 👍

Sorry, I'm ranting. I don't mean to do that. But I lost my faith in dealerships a long time ago. IMO, once you get your head around the fact that they are there to serve us a car and make money and that's all. I think you come to peace with the fact that your mostly on your own from that point you move the car from the forecourt.

 

[Ceex]

Try again......
LUK Clutch Kit + Dual Mass Flywheel Repset DMF 600019700 - Lifetime Warranty | eBay
Under 500 for the lot!
That's without shopping about.

Labour..... dealers are expensive, around £100 per hour now including VAT.
My Scenic clutch required 7 hours labour according to the book.... add an hour for flywheel.
Specialist clutch place near to me did it in about 4 hours.
At about £40 per hour

If it were me I simply would not be paying dealer, prefer to get it picked up and delivered to a specialist clutch place

Wow... just wow! I can't believe what I'm seeing. £100 an hour is a joke. I can fit a clutch on my cars within around half a day if I start around 8 in the morning.

Battery tray out, terminal bracket out of the way, battery tray out, air box and pipes out of the way, shifter links unclipped, slave line removed.

Undertray removed, gearbox drained, Main hub nuts removed, pull out driveshafts, undo 2 bolts to the front rad support, drop the rad support, Jack to hold gearbox, undo gearbox bolts. Oh, forgot to mention to remove starter at the top end of engine bay. Remove passenger arch covers, remove gearbox. Work on the clutch and flywheel as needed and as you see fit which to replace. Fit back in reverse. Fill gearbox, check for leaks. Hopefully no leaks, bleed clutch and pray you did everything correctly and didn't miss any bolts.

Dual mass or single flywheel, both easy to fit. Refit exactly how the original was removed.

The pain in the a.ss part for, is bleeding the clutch. I hate that job on any car.

Still, £100 an hour! Lads, men, ladies, we are clearly in the wrong jobs.

 

[Ceex]

Know where to come now if I need one done.. 😉 😆

Haha, anytime Phil.

 

[Ceex]

Should I feel ashamed that it took me about 10 hours yesterday to replace a gearbox on a Zafira B? That included being hungover, removal of exhaust from cat down, dropping of subrame, swapping the gear selector from old box to replacement before bench pressing new gearbox into place in ridiculous stupid heat. I can usually strip a Zafira down ready to replace clutch in 2 hours. I blame the hangover 🤣

Lol nope.. I took the p.iss with my captur. A few days left on the drive, up in the air. I just took my time because we went into the initial lockdown. I thought sod it since I had nothing better to do.

 

[Ceex]

Luk are not as good as they once were. I've had a clutch gone out within less than 50k miles on our captur. Sachc or Valeo are of better quality these days. I personally went valeo for the clutch and Sach for release bearing. Suffice to say, the throw on the clutch pedal is much more softer and all around smoother. Renault take the absolute p.ss with their pricing on parts for fit and finish.

 

[Ceex]

Just for the record, I did a flywheel and clutch on a 2008 Ford Kuga (all wheel drive) for about £310 in parts (LUK flywheel and clutch kit including CSC bearing, gear oil and brake fluid). Ford had quoted in excess of £1200 for this job. Admittedly the flywheel had failed and locked up causing me to have to grind out the outer plate of flywheel to get to the bolts. Work out the book time (labour time) and then look at how much you are being ripped off!

That sounds about right. Without the labour, these dealerships wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

 

[Ceex]

Just have to play devil's advocate for a moment on dealer's labour charges. The overheads in running a main dealer site are horrendous. I know someone who has a garage in a modern industrial unit in loughton, essex. It can accomadate a maximum of 4 cars. He tells me his overheads work out at £200 per DAY. For a single industrial unit. The real stitch-up comes on parts. Renault dealers have to buy parts from Renault GB, they can't get them of a bloke on Ebay. Of course they earn 30% on everything fitted. On the original post, this was always clearly a master cylinder fault, probably caused by inactivity.

I agreed for the likes of the smaller dealerships. But Renault dealerships such as WR Davies, have been around for decades. At this point, they turned over a profit margin of 780 thousand in the year 2018. It may not seem a lot for a company as big as them. But that's a profit margin, not to be confused with outgoings. They have 9 mortgages unsettled out of 30 odd buildings owned. They do over charge for labour and parts as they pay a minor percentage for those parts as they are practically selling cars for Renault, while making a turnover profit from labour and parts.

But like I previously mentioned. Smaller dealerships I agree with your statement. Their over heads a considerable, since they are mostly small family run buisnesses.

Companies like WR Davies also make a huge profit out of used car sales. Then cheap out on any parts that have either clearly aged or completly degraded to the point of failure. They then try their very best to wiggle out of any warranty work. If I have to go to a garage/dealership. I will always prefer to give my money to those that deserve it and deserve the recognition for the work they've carried out on my vehicle.