[urvi]

So Saturday night about 1 mile from my house my car starts to smell like burnt clutch. I take it in to my dealer today (no smell from the clutch). They take a look at it for 2.5 hours and tell me the clutch has to be replaced and the warranty doesn't cover it. The car only has 19,000 miles on it so I say that there has to be some other underlying problem but they say no. What is the next step I should take? Not sure if I can post the dealer name here but I want to say that we have a member here that may work there.

 

[five-by-five]

Are they claiming abuse? With only 19k on the ODO they must have seen something that triggered that response.

 

[urvi]

They didn't come out and say abuse. They just said that it went bad with no other explanation.

 

[five-by-five]

That should be covered under warranty (IMHO) unless they have proof that you have been hot rodding it or slipping the clutch while pulling heavy loads or off-roading.

 

[urvi]

No off-roading or towing. Any advice on how I should handle the situation? Should I just flat out ask what evidence they have of abuse?

 

[five-by-five]

Or just take it to another dealership...

 

[1911]

Clutches are usually considered wear items like batteries and tires, but 19K miles is way too short of a life. If no one has been riding the pedal, I would suspect the clutch fork had too little freeplay, maybe from the factory.

 

[wanderlustguy]

I have over 110k on mine, off road it, AND pull a trailer back and forth across the western US through mountains, no clutch problems.

My brakes are still original and at 50% too though....not sure what that means.

I do have a syncro problem though...

 

[Turbo Dog]

Clutches are usually considered wear items like batteries and tires, but 19K miles is way too short of a life. If no one has been riding the pedal, I would suspect the clutch fork had too little freeplay, maybe from the factory.

I agree that it may have been set up without enough free play. Have you tried to make the clutch slip? Try starting out in 3rd gear and see if the clutch will slip.

 

[urvi]

I agree that it may have been set up without enough free play. Have you tried to make the clutch slip? Try starting out in 3rd gear and see if the clutch will slip.

Third gear start was fine. We are in the beginning of an ice storm so the lack of traction may have helped that. I'm going to speak to the service manager tomorrow to see what happens. I also have the TSB in hand to see if that helps.

 

[urvi]

Well service manager was no help. He said i just used it to much and wore it out. If i go to another dealer should i tell them what this dealer said or no?

 

[07voodoo]

heres the deal on clutch's they are considerd a wear item and are not coverd by warrenty unless its deamed a factory defect also if u only had a clutch smell u may have just briefly overheated the clutch if the veh does not have a clutch slip or driveabily issue then i wouldnt replace it yet, but also i dont see how the dealer said it wasnt covered without pulling the trans and inspecting the clutch, pressure plate and flywheel visually for sighns of abuse or excessive slippege u cannont completly know until the trans is pulled.

 

[dacruiser]

If you were driving it normally, no way the clutch should be done in 19k miles. I would send an email to Toyota, and also contact a few other dealers.

 

[urvi]

Thanks for the advice guys. I will contact some other dealers and if I get the same answer I will email toyota. I fully understand that a clutch is wear item. If I was at 50,000-60,000 miles i could understand but not at 19,000, im just not buying it. They definatly didn't pull the trans, I was only there for 2.5 hours. They said they looked through the access cover and then took it for a spin and this was the conclution they came to. I just drove to downtown Chicago in it and there was no smell also. I'll see what happens on the way home in rush hour.

That being said if it does trully need to be replaced should I stick with a stock clutch or go aftermarket?
Edit: Looks like URD flywheel/clutch will be the way to go if i have to.

 

[07voodoo]

i dont know if it will help to go to outher dealers most dont know this but all yota dealers do communicate we can access all work done at a dealer warrenty or not at a click of a mouse according to vin number and if they looked through an access hole is crap on fj the hole is 1 inch by 2 inches and u cant see the clutch.

 

[brianh]

If the clutch doesn't seem to be slipping or chattering, I wouldn't worry about it too much. My wife was pulling up a pretty nasty hill a couple years ago and when she got to the top, I could smell the clutch. It's been fine ever since. You may just have overheated it briefly.

 

[urvi]

Thanks again guys. There is no chattering or slipping at all so I'll just chalk up to a fluke.