[taylordh]

I have a Yeti which is now 11 months old. Last week I was in the Lake District & went over 2 of the steepest mountain passes in the country. There was something of a traffic jam on these passes which meant a lot of stopping & starting and a fair amount of clutch slipping . By the time I got to the top of the second pass there was a strong smell of burning and a squealing from the clutch. The squeal continued for about 15 minutes as we descended and eventually stopped presumably as the clutch had cooled. I called out Skoda Assist & a specialist mechanic arrived. We re ran the route again & the same thing happened . He said the clutch was burning and that was 'normal' on such a steep hill with a fair degree of stop start & clutch slipping . However he said he had never heard a similar squeal before & recommended I take it in to my dealer for a check.
This I did but they said that the only way to check it was to strip it down etc & this would cost about £800 and would only be covered on the warranty if they found it was a manufacturing fault. But they implied it was more likely to be because of my driving style & I may have worn the clutch out
I was not impressed ! & declined to have it done
I have been driving for 40 years & never had a clutch wear out. Moreover I previously owned a VW Sharan for 16 years & went many times over the same route in the Lake District - & never had a clutch burning smell
A friend in the caravan Club has told me of instances of similar clutch problems reported by their members on Yetis & other Skodas

My question are- 1.has anyone else experienced any similar problems with the clutch
And 2. has anyone had a dealer who has been prepared to look at it under warranty

 

[plbxr]

I have a Yeti which is now 11 months old.

taylordh, this isn't much information to go on. Could you please post info on what specifications your vehicle has. Such as diesel or petrol, manual transmission or DSG, 6 or 7 speed, FWD or 4WD, and did the vehicle have a lot of weight, eg luggage, onboard?

 

[adobedon]

your clutch is not a footrest so dont treat like one. weve just done 1300 miles around scotlands highland hills and munros and going places I would not have taken the volvo xc 70 I had before. the yeti did not miss a beat and was foot perfect in some terrible conditions we averaged 44.4 to the gallon I will say that this 2lt 4x4 diesel yeti is about the best tool I have had for my line of off and on roading

 

[Grumpy]

Not directly relevant but maybe of some help. Previously I had a Land Rover Freelander 2 which was great but, occasionally, when reversing on a hill the clutch would smell. I checked with the 'owners' forum and it was found that certain cars had duff clutches fitted (weak pressure plates). Only some cars were affected but it was, initially, a struggle to get LR to act. My own one was fine apart from the very odd occasions mentioned.

Worth checking with fellow owners

Grumpy

 

[Mike Tee]

Can't really see just where you are coming from with your reply "adobedon". The guy is asking for advice on what is an obvious clutch problem, nowhere does he mention resting his foot on the pedal so why "instruct" him not to. Your own recent uneventfultrip around Scotland is not really relative to taylorde's situation as you didn't have anyrelated problems.As a matter of interest I have always thought that my own Yeti 2.0 TDi has an unusual "feel" through the clutch pedal so I am always careful to avoid any unnecessary slipping although I can appreciate that in the situation described by taylorde it is sometimes unavoidable. At least it has been reported to his dealer during the warranty period. Does anyone know if a Dual Mass Flywheel transmits a different feel through the pedal ?.
Thanks.

 

[adobedon]

Sorry Mike Tee. it was only an obsevation with how easy it was to fall into the habit of resting ones foot on the pedal and hand on the gear stick and was not intended as a rebuke so my apologies for that. the scotland thing was to save writing twice. adobedon

 

[RickT]

A burning smell from slipping the clutch inmore extreme situations than normal is normal. Just like the brakes it has a job to do and wears out eventually.
Driving styles vary a lot and for examplesome people can be hard on the brakes and wear em out much quicker than others do.

When the clutch is worn too much it will slip all the time so you may have shortened the life of it but by how much is any ones guess. Unless it is stripped down an measured but if you are not having trouble with you would be best towait till you have.

Regards the Squealing its hard to tell without hearing it,

so itwould help if you could answer my questions.



1,Does it or did it squeal when you have your foot on the clutch (disengaged) or when the letting it out to drive away?

2, You say it stopped squealing when It had chance to cool down, has it stayed quiet since then?

3,Does the clutch operate smoothly at present time?

4, If you try to accelerate in a high gear about 40 or 50mph do the engine revs increase but the road speed does not?



Please let me know your answers

Rick.

 

[Mike Tee]

Hey, no sweat Adobedon, must have had my Lone Ranger hat on this morning !!. So hand shakes all round. All good friendly folk on here.
Cheers.

 

[taylordh]

Thanks for reply Rick TAnswers to your questions as follows
1,Does it or did it squeal when you have your foot on the clutch (disengaged) or when the letting it out to drive away?
It was squealing continuously for about 10 mins after the steep hill climb whilst driving down the other side of the mountain & along the valleyiewith foot off clutch
2, You say it stopped squealing when It had chance to cool down, has it stayed quiet since then?
Yes it has stayed quiet since then
3,Does the clutch operate smoothly at present time?
Yes the clutch has been operating fine since the incident - which a couple of weeks ago
4, If you try to accelerate in a high gear about 40 or 50mph do the engine revs increase but the road speed does not?
I have no such problems



I think you are probably right in that I must have caused some clutch wear during the hill climbs . I suspect the squeal might be because the clutch had got very hot & maybe some metal parts expanded & started to rub. SoHopefully no significant damage



I posted this notice just to see if anyone else had experienced a similar issue - because if so it could be related to a manufacturing defect. The only way you can find this out is to see if other users have similar issues. - As the cynic in me suggest the Skoda dealers are unlikely to be in rush to tell you about manufacturing defects .



What actually sparked this conversation was an email I received form a friend telling me a about a clutch problem on a brand new Fabia Copied below:



Fri 24 May 2013 16:19
Skoda Fabia - skoda clutch problems - dukepjilly


My Dad's 2013 Skoda Fabia needs a new clutch after only 700miles and
Skoda dealer says it is wear and tear so not covered by warranty , is
it possible to burn out a clutch in just 700miles no matter how bad the
driver though my Dad does not ride his clutch and does mostly motorway
driving so not much gear changing

Tags: technical issues warranties
clutches dual mass flywheel dealers

Reply to this message | Report message as offensive |


Sun 26 May 2013 09:50
Skoda Fabia - skoda clutch problems - Oli rag

It would take a lot of abuse or riding of the clutch pedal to get a
failure after such a short time, however with persistance it can be
done!
If your dad has not had a short clutch life with any previous car, then
maybe a mechanical fault in the clutch assembly has caused it to fail.
I think without you managing to get hold of the failed assembly and
getting it independently inspected, you'll have an impossible job of
proving it was. I don't think there is a chance that the dealer will
change their opinion without this.


In any event - Thanks to everyone who has taken the trouble to reply to my Yeti Clutch conversation
And I accept the apology of the guy who suggested I might be using the clutch pedal as footrest . -- I have been driving for 40 years - & feel I do know how to suck eggs !

 

[Wiki88]

Hi all, I know it's a little late but I've just had this problem. I was on a hill and

 

[Wiki88]

a nasty smell started looming. Soon after, white smoke started coming through the bonnet. I called out skoda assistance who got to me very quickly. He started playing around with the car and testing the clutch. It worked fine and we drove the car back home (felt like a right numpty). The car seems to be driving ok but does anyone think I should take it to the garage?

 

[adobedon]

just been reading the forum from before. right where shall I start. first of all. sorry to all clutch pedal people. I didnt mean you had lead feet and burning the clutch because of them. the yeti people who have taken their wonderful vehicles off road. I really really am sorry. and just in case there are any other people ive insulted.please except my deep down whole hearted apologies where mi hanki.
and I wish all yeti owners a happy christmas and a brilliant time in the snow.

 

[wakev]

If it under warranty I would have it checked out it should not do that, smell and smoke are only produced if your clutch is slipping, to have that happen is only down to two things. Keeping your foot on the pedal (which i,m sure you wouldn't) or something holding the pressure plate off the clutch plate, internal fault, best to let the dealer have it and log your problem in case it happens when it's older.
Edited by: wakev

 

[The Hood]

The only time I had anything like that was years ago when I had a Morris Marina (I still wake up screaming and having nightmares about it). Just after the 12 month warranty had expired the clutch started to squeal, when I stripped it down, the friction plate had been put in back to front and the noise was the springs scoring the flywheel. The year of motoring in London had worn the plate just enough to make contact. I would just like to add that I am very light on the clutch, last car 152,000 miles and the one before 184,000 miles and both on original clutch plate when sold.

 

[adobedon]

talking of milage I had a volvo v70 petrol y reg and i passed it on to the eldest with 170 thou on the clock.hes just given it an m o t costing 200 quid and now the total miles on the clock is 185.000 not bad on one clutch eh!

 

[CSC]

Hi. I had problems with my VW Golf witch I have just changed for a Yeti. After 31k miles I started to get a judder on occasions when starting on a slight incline. As it was still under warranty it went into the local VW dealer who diagnosed a faulty DMF ( dual mass flywheel ). It was replaced under warranty but after another 5k miles I had the same problem so back it went to the dealer as the warranty was due to end in a months time. Once again it was diagnosed as the DMF but this time they said the clutch was worn out as well. The dealer said that the clutch would not be covered under warranty as it was classed as a wear and tear part. I argued with them that the clutch had been damaged by the failure of two DMFs and that it was recognised that if the DMF is replaced the clutch should be replaced as well. I didn't win my argument so I contacted the VW customer support department and still failing tto win my argument so ended up paying for the clutch put got the DMF under warranty again. I know this is different from your problem but VW group cars do have problems with DMF failures and it does contribute to clutch failure and in some instances starter motor problems. If you end up having a repair I would definitely ask to see the parts that have been replaced. May be if you have an independant VW garage in your area they may be able to examine it for you and give another opinion. When I decided to change my car I vowed I would not have another manual diesel car because of the problems with DMF and particle filters. So what do I do go and get manual diesel Yeti. We'll I hope the problem gets sorted with out being to much Argo. By the way have you thought about e mailing HonestJohn of the Daily telegraph as he gives quite good explanations to this sort of problem. Good look.


Edited by: CSC

 

[Graham]

I have a Subaru 4x4 Legacy (waiting for my new Yeti!).I have, on a few occasions had the same problem. A burning smell from the clutch. This happened when
the car was virtually new and I was in heavy stop start traffic on my way to Yorkshire from Kent. I was trying to work out whose car was causing the smell when I realised it was mine!
I've now done 50,000 in the Subaru and it has happened once more but is still going strong.
Maybe nothing to worry about. You were driving in extreme conditions so it may never happen again.
I have been driving 39 years and had not had that problem before.
All I can say is see how it goes and if, like me, it doesn't happen for ages it will just be the extreme
driving conditions you found yourself in.
Graham

 

[lesley]

I am very interested in this problem. I was driving up a steep long hil went to change down to overtake on the overtaking lane and my clutch just refused to respond apart from lots of thick smoke, in and out of the car. I was nearly hit by a lorry coming behind me as I had no power to speed up. AA chap says he rarely sees this in these cars. I drive all over the highlands where I have my home, and all around hertfordshire where I work, there was nothing out of the ordinary and I felt confisent to move out of the crawler lane...until I found I could not. AA chap said ok to drive 134 miles home which I did but at the end of the fast roads the lower gears were not happy, more smell and no actual momentum..it was like try to go up hill in 6th????? just taken it to the dealers as is only 18 months old. I wondered wheather they would try and say it was driver error...hope not. The girl in the dealership was excellent and as I was in shock yesterday she called the assist and phoned several times to see if I was ok...what an angel..but I was very frightened and so was the poor lorry driver.

 

[Chocki]

My experience of clutch issues was in my previous car a Vauxhall Vectra CDTi 150 (Tuned to 200bhp and 420Nm or there abouts).Now this actually exceeded the torque limits of the clutch which caused it to slip and get hot(I hear you saying, well there is your problem, but listen on!), this resulted in what I can only describe as a glazed clutch face which caused a reduction in friction which then caused the clutch to slip easier and heat up more, which glazed it up even more which.... you getting the idea, basically once the clutch gets hot and slips once, it then slips easier the next time so revving harder to try to get going is only going to make matters worse.

Now, what I also found out is that if I then drive the car gently with lots of gear changes and use of the clutch and minimal power, normal wear takes this glazed surface off and the clutch regains full friction again, but this wear must not introduce excessive heat so just pressing the clutch on and off repeatedly is not going to help, but with some gentle driving (M6 in the rush hour?), your clutch will recover.

It's all down to the materials they use these days instead of Asbestos.

And for anyone regretting buying a manual box, the DSG has a dry clutch as well but it is operated by a computer but can also overheat and potentially glaze over just like a manual box.
Never leave a DSG in Drive with the handbrake on and your foot off the brake as it will just sit there slipping the clutch, get into the habit of putting it into Neutral.

 

[lesley]

I forgot to say that I drive a Yeti adventure permanent 4x4. It usually gets at least 44.6 per gallon. The t things i would critique is the water run off going over the wing mirror view in driving rain, and the water reservoir for the screen wash is far too small, not fit for purpose.