Pressure Plate Failure on CPO 2015 Sportwagen

iowaparrish

Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2014
Location
Anchorage, AK
TDI
2014 JSW Manual (sold back) 2015 GSW S Manual
I've put about 16k miles on CPO 2015 manual Sportwagen TDI, which now has about 46k miles on the clutch. Warranty runs in June of this year. I had no noticeable slippage during that time and parked the car in the garage Saturday morning without incident. On Sunday morning, I went to start the car and the clutch dropped to the floor. Had it towed to the dealer on Monday, Tuesday they notified me that the pressure plate had failed, was not covered under the CPO warranty, and would cost $2800 for full clutch assembly replacement. They said VWoA would give me good will credit on half parts and labor, so roughly $1400.

I can't find a local shop in Anchorage, AK that can do it for cheaper, but I have read online that there are problems with the pressure plate springs/ possible manufacturing defects. Unless the dealer does a full teardown, however, they claim they cannot rule out wear and tear/driver abuse. This morning I authorized repair because I couldn't see another alternative and because it will take about 5 business days for the part to arrive. What puzzles me is how other components on the clutch could "wear" out before the friction material on the disc? How could this be anything other than a manufacturing defect?

Saying this, I recognize that getting a new clutch assembly on VW's dime would be a windfall since this is a component that will wear eventually, so I'm not entirely crestfallen, but I did pay a premium for a certified vehicle, so I'm still rooting for warranty coverage.

Any information from the knowledgeable folks on this forum would be most welcome.
 
Last edited:

iowaparrish

Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2014
Location
Anchorage, AK
TDI
2014 JSW Manual (sold back) 2015 GSW S Manual
That is what I expected, either a slave or master cylinder failure. They said, no, both appear to be working fine. There was no fluid spill either. I have read the springs can shear and wreak havoc within the assembly. I asked that they document everything, including photographs.
 

740GLE

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Location
NH
TDI
2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
Yeah they can go all springy sprongy, but that wouldn't result in the peddle going to the floor.
 

thundershorts

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jul 15, 2010
Location
west chester pa
TDI
2015 passat tdi sel premium 2015 golf s tdi gls tdi b5.5, 2002 eurovan,Peugeot 505 td,Citroen cx25 prestige
Possible release bearing disintegrated?
 

iowaparrish

Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2014
Location
Anchorage, AK
TDI
2014 JSW Manual (sold back) 2015 GSW S Manual
Thanks for the possibilities. The dealer said they won't do a teardown to diagnose the issue until they have the parts, so I'm in limbo until then. Again, cannot wrap my head around how user abuse could result in any of these issues.
 

iowaparrish

Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2014
Location
Anchorage, AK
TDI
2014 JSW Manual (sold back) 2015 GSW S Manual
Just got a call updating from the dealer representative. I pressed him on why the pedal would drop if the pressure plate failed and how they ruled out hydraulics and he said that when the master cylinder goes, the hydraulic fluid goes everywhere. I asked about the slave cylinder, and he said there is a little peephole where the slave can be viewed without having to teardown the clutch assembly, but he said the slave appeared to be working and that, again a teardown would be required to diagnose that. When I pressed on what exactly tipped the mechanic off that the pressure plate was the root cause, he didn't provide anything definitive, and started to sell me on the mechanic's qualifications. He said there are no written notes available at this time. He then pivoted and said that since they will have sunk all the cost into tearing down the clutch, why not go ahead and replace the entire assembly since I would surely be back in 20k miles anyway, which seemed an odd response given the fact that I appear to be headed toward a 1400 out of pocket costs on a possible pressure plate hunch. Again, he claimed he couldn't pinpoint how a failure of this type was consistent with wear and tear/user error.

Also said he couldn't assess the state of my dpf, which is near constantly regenerating to the point that I almost get the same mpg as my GTI, until he has the car up and running. It has been a cold winter in Anchorage, and I've had to run the TDI extra just to get it up to temp to complete a regen. I get 34 mpg in the TDI, and nearly 31 mpg on the GTI with premium fuel and I get nearly instant heat output. Them's the breaks I guess.
 

740GLE

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Location
NH
TDI
2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
Short trips with the TDI will get you 34MPG if the temps are cold enough.

Also how are you monitoring these "regens" you notice? When it's around 30 or lower our Passat has a high idle until oil temps is around 180 or higher, yet it's def not going through a regen.

As for the BS story being fed about the pressure plate, you know you caught him tip towing around his own BS. I'd find another shop and have her towed from the dealership on principle. Sounds like the shop has already marked you for the $1400-2000 repair job they are just filling in the gaps to make you blelieve them.

If the service writer instead said the throwout bearing is failing and we can replaced that at X in parts and XXX in labor and it may fix it or we can charge you XXXX and replace the clutch & bearing while were in there, it's your choice.

He is right that labor for a small part is prob the brunt of the cost, but any worthwhile indy shop cuts their teeth on 5-6hr clutch jobs.
 
Last edited:

dasjefe

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 22, 2017
Location
Taylor Texas
TDI
Golf Sportwagen
Sounds like your dealer is a dildo. I had the same problem and they misdiagnosed it twice before eventually determining that my Slave Cylinder is bad. VW is covering the complete cost of the repair via the CPO powertrain warranty. May want to ask them if your hydraulic fluid looks dirty. Mine got nasty really quickly after blowing out the system due to the clutch system sucking in air. I never had any noticeable fluid loss. I'd also call Volkswagen of America and try to get some relief there. No way you should have to pay for this.
 

iowaparrish

Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2014
Location
Anchorage, AK
TDI
2014 JSW Manual (sold back) 2015 GSW S Manual
I have called the other shops and none can do it for cheaper, at least a clutch assembly that is. Being Alaska, its my only VW dealer in, like a 500 mile radius.

My dilemma is, if it turns out the slave is bad, which the symptoms seem to strongly suggest, and the clutch turns out to be 70% gone once they actually pull the clutch to get at the slave, does it make sense to take the dealer offer of half on the clutch replacement? I mean, they'd have to cover the labor to fix the slave which would be duplicated later on when the clutch inevitably goes, and by then I'm out of warranty.

What peeves me most on this is if, as dasjefe suggests, there is a pretty easy diagnostic they could have run simply by sampling the fluid. We've been down the car for 10 days as it is.
 

iowaparrish

Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2014
Location
Anchorage, AK
TDI
2014 JSW Manual (sold back) 2015 GSW S Manual
Well the part came in and the teardown was performed and they said the slave was working fine??, but there were grooves developed in some of the pressure plate springs and that this was apparently the problem. I had read that long periods of inactivity can result in rusting of the slave, which parking these TDIs would have entailed, but I've got nothing to dispute the dealer diagnosis, so $1400 gets me new clutch assembly and I'll just accept it at this point. Thanks for the responses.
 

iowaparrish

Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2014
Location
Anchorage, AK
TDI
2014 JSW Manual (sold back) 2015 GSW S Manual
These were the images provided by the dealer of the pressure plate. I can't understand what failed here - they stated that there was scoring on one or more of the springs, but how this explains the total sudden loss of pedal pressure is lost on me. The pictures of the disc in the background seem to show friction material was intact.



 
Last edited:

thundershorts

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jul 15, 2010
Location
west chester pa
TDI
2015 passat tdi sel premium 2015 golf s tdi gls tdi b5.5, 2002 eurovan,Peugeot 505 td,Citroen cx25 prestige
If the Hauserman(sp?) spring cracks, and s likely thats what happened, its a part failure and should be covered as a part the crack may not be visible, it results in low pedal pressure. easy to check by measuring pressure to compress the spring. If so, and it failure, not as a wear item. No way the op is the cause of failure. I've seen quite a few of these failures on other cars over the years.
 

thundershorts

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jul 15, 2010
Location
west chester pa
TDI
2015 passat tdi sel premium 2015 golf s tdi gls tdi b5.5, 2002 eurovan,Peugeot 505 td,Citroen cx25 prestige
Its pretty obvious from the disc that its neither worn nor burnt from any abuse.
 

turbobrick240

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Nov 18, 2014
Location
maine
TDI
2011 vw golf tdi(gone to greener pastures), 2001 ford f250 powerstroke
Are you looking at the clutch disc in the background of the last picture? I don't see anything burnt. Looks fine to me.
Mostly based off the pressure plate contact surface. There isn't a very good shot of the disc, though it looks like there may be some damage near the circumference in one area.
 

740GLE

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Location
NH
TDI
2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
i think it's the blueing on the springs/forks fingers, is that normal?
 

iowaparrish

Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2014
Location
Anchorage, AK
TDI
2014 JSW Manual (sold back) 2015 GSW S Manual
Thanks for the replies. I should have requested preservation of the parts, but didn't, and these were the only pictures I received, so I don't know that I can really provide any additional answers to advance any warranty claim.

I don't feel I got a fully raw deal as the clutch is a bit of a gamble on a used vehicle, even one that got a CPO endorsement from VW. The final bill was $1250 after comping half the labor and inflated parts. Again, couldn't have gotten it done cheaper outside the dealer. So all the evidence I have is a work order saying the pressure plate failed - no specifics, and the four pictures I was provided. I'm doubtful I could pursue a warranty claim on this alone.

I think I'll count my blessings given the present state of things and let this go.

Thanks again.

David
 

Lightflyer1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Sep 13, 2005
Location
Round Rock, Texas
TDI
2015 Beetle tdi dsg
Consider it good in my opinion. You could have just been blown off completely! No one likes getting hit for an unexpected repair bill but paying some is better than paying all of it, and you have a completely new unused clutch installed now. Should last quite some time if you drive right.
 

740GLE

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Location
NH
TDI
2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
Now lets just hope the shops torqued everything down and you have many happy miles ahead.
 

Victor Huge

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2009
Location
Alberta
TDI
Mk7 Golf TDI
I know I'm a bit late to this but i had a pressure plate fail on my mk4 after 2 years and it was similar in that you couldn't see anything obvious once it came out. Turns out there's some sort of wire by those pivot pins that snapped (single wire welded into a circle) and it presented very similar symptoms: clutch pedal became soft and would not disengage fully. It was very hard to see anything wrong with anything in the clutch system until i looked at pressure plate very closely
 

iowaparrish

Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2014
Location
Anchorage, AK
TDI
2014 JSW Manual (sold back) 2015 GSW S Manual
VW comes through with extra $$

Thought I'd update this a little further - the dealer called me this weekend out of the blue to inform me that VW came through with extra $$ against this repair. Initially they went in for half parts half labor, and I had $1250 out of pocket. I guess the warranty department made some kind of determination based on the photographs??, or some argument I may have made in discussing this with their corporate rep??, but for whatever reason they ponied up an additional $730, and refunded it to my credit card.

So a new clutch installed for $520 on my end. I figured I would highlight when a company does right.
 

wonneber

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 12, 2011
Location
Monroe, NY, USA
TDI
2014 Jetta Sportwagon,2003 Jetta 261K Sold but not forgotten
It's great they took care of you with this one.
They must have checked it & realized they had a weak part (or such) and possibly they have to upgrade it.
 

pedroYUL

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2011
Location
MI, USA
TDI
2015 Passat CVCA; 2015 GSW CRUA; 2012 wagon CJAA; 2004 wagon BEW
Basically you paid for parts, and by that I mean LUK parts bought somewhere else, not from the dealer...not bad at all.
 
Top