Team SNS

Hey guys,

Im frequently on other forums, but new to this forum, just wanted to get some feedback from you guys since its my own personal experience...

I just purchased an 06 TL from a local dealer, 41,700 miles, 6MT. I had it since 2 saturdays ago, and all of sudden this past saturday, my clutch burns out. Mind you, I put about 400 miles in the past 2 weeks, but I never rode the crap out of it, I am a calm MT driver, and didnt do anything stupid of that nature. I did notice a few days after driving the car, if I push the gas a little harder than normal after releasing the clutch, it would high-idle then i guess you can say turn into gear. So this last saturday, Im going home with my fam, driving uphill to my house, and the car just shoots out of gear and high-idles all crazy. I get to my house and my car is smoking.

So the dealer calls me today and say the clutch is burned out, which I already knew. I knew the dealer would come back at me and say the clutch is wear and tear and not covered by warranty, and they sure did. So we are calling them back and forth, and ultimately, they said, the whole job is going to be 1900.00, they asking us to cover 600.00 of it.

At this point, being a CPO vehicle (so they say), and only for driving it for 400 miles, and me not driving like an idiot, is it really possible for me to have a burned clutch with that amount of driving? Again, I know its wear and tear, but damn, this sucks. Also, Im sure some are going to say, why didnt you bring it sooner once you felt something was not right, which I was planning to do the next week.

Do I have any argument or should I even fight with the dealers more to cover the whole thing even though they hold the "wear and tear" agrument over me. Ive only had the car for less than 2 weeks. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks for your input!

Turbonut

iTrader: (1)

Must have been 400 miles of hard driving! Just kidding. You're certainly not going to wear out the disc in 400 miles unless it was rode hard and put away wet, if you know what I mean. Also, possible that the PP could loose tension and not clamp the disc causing it to slip. Can't believe no one noticed the problem when you purchased the car, oh well, water over the dam. Think $600 is a fair price considering it's at the dealer, but are they including a new flywheel? Looks like about $1000 list for the parts, including the flywheel.

SouthernBoy

You'd be hard pressed to cook a clutch in 400 miles unless you were really trying to do it. With a two week old CPO purchase, I should think this is in the dealer's court. He should cover this. Clearly either something went terribly wrong with the clutch with the previous owner(s), they abused the hell out of it, or they hadn't a clue how to properly operate a manual transmission because you should expect at least 4 to 5 times that sort of mileage out of a clutch before it needs to be replaced.

The dealer should own up and make you whole, but if he does, I would bet he will only do the absolute minimum which means you may still wind up with potentially damaged parts. So in the end for your own peace of mind, sharing the cost might ultimately be the way to go.

Team SNS

Thanks for the input guys...very much appreciated...after reading the replies, I felt like I had to do something else...

So last night I decided to send a long e-mail to the general manager of Cerritos Acura, pleading for help and seeing what he can do about this. I thought, okay this guy is not going to call me back and could care less. He called me this afternoon, and explained that this is a wear and tear item, and that he can mess up a clutch in 1 day if he really wanted to. But also, he asked me what is fair. I told him initially I dont want to pay a damn thing, but I do understand the "wear and tear" part. He then explained the cost of the job to the dealer with no labor just parts is about 1100.00. He asked if we would be willing to cover 1/3 of the cost. I said, sounds good. I guess it pays off to go the very top and seek help with that person.

So Matt Browning at Cerritos Acura, you's the man and thanks for taking care of us.

Anyone thinking of purchasing a car or thoughts of having service done on their Acura, hit up Matt Browning at Cerritos Acura!!!

ez12a

good deal. I'll keep that dealer in mind since i'm in the socal area.

Once working in retail, i can definitely see both sides of the argument. Good compromise.

Jesstzn

Is that 1/3 of the cost of the parts? $1100 for parts will be retail so the dealer isn't out a lot . But $366 is better than $600 if those $$ include the flywheel, clutch & pressure plate.

If its 1/3 of the total cost ( $1900) your portion just went to $633.