Wheel alignment after clutch change?

[Munter]

Is my main dealer a lying bunch of ***ts?

Kia Cee'd had a slipping clutch. Dealer replaced rear main seal, fly wheel, and clutch. And returned the car with the steering about 5-10 degrees to the right, when going straight ahead.

I've never changed a clutch flywheel etc, but my impression is that the gearbox would have to come off. Which would mean removing driveshafts and possibly messing about with the struts to do that. And after that kind of thing you'd probably need to realign the wheels.

Kia dealer says "we didn't do an alignment, so not our problem, we'll happily charge you for one though".

So I figure either:
A)I'm wrong.
B)They should have done an alignment but didn't
C)They did an alignment but with the steering wheel off center

So is it A or are they a bunch of lying c***s. (This is a garage that said I could have worn a clutch out in 5000 miles of motorway driving. Happens all the time apparently...)

[xjay1337]

Not sure about your C apostrophe D but on my old 1.9 TDI Golf I had done loads of clutch changes (or rather gearbox removals) and never messed with tracking. You only needed to undo the driveshaft from the gearbox side.

On my 2.0 TDI it's a bit different having a bigger engine/gearbox so the subframe has to come off. It's possible that if a rush job is done it could cause issues.
To ensure my alignment wasn't put out then we had to just ensure the subframe was centered when it was put on (there is a bit of wiggle room...)

For the sake of a £15 alignment at the local tyre shop I'd just move on. Not worth the argument.

[Munter]

xjay1337 said:

For the sake of a £15 alignment at the local tyre shop I'd just move on. Not worth the argument.

This is currently underway

I'm more trying to decide if I want to trust the dealer with the car ever again. They seem to have a policy of say anything to deny it could be the car or dealer at fault. They describe recalls as "service items", when you say I'll leave it to the service they get very agitated and eventually point out it's a recall and the fuel tank could fall off. Why not just say it's a recall, that kind of thing. Plus the clutch "it's going to be your fault and we'll charge you £700 to change it" saga I just had. Which then turned out to be a failed oil seal covered by the warranty. Not a surprise to me, but shocking to them apparently.

It occurs to me that if I even felt the need to start this thread I've lost all trust in them anyway.

[xjay1337]

I think if you need to question if you trust a garage, then that trust has already been abolished.
They sound like pass-the-buck guys to me.
Maybe worth a report to Kia UK ?

[Munter]

xjay1337 said:

I think if you need to question if you trust a garage, then that trust has already been abolished.
They sound like pass-the-buck guys to me.
Maybe worth a report to Kia UK ?

I think I'll start using the Kia dealer near the office (for servicing to maintain "goodwill" during the warranty), rather than the one near the house. See if they are all the same. Some of the lines I've been fed appear on other forums in posts almost word for word. It might be the lass on the desk is following her training very well.

[xjay1337]

I hope they are better for you.
Generally I understood Kia were pretty good for warranty work, customer service etc.
Fingers crossed! Those 7 year warranties seemed so good to begin with.. :-)

[Munter]

Apparently they have put the bolts into the subframe/steering rack incorrectly. Wheel alignment guy doesn't want to touch it because of that.

:sigh:

[phumy]

Munter said:

Apparently they have put the bolts into the subframe/steering rack incorrectly. Wheel alignment guy doesn't want to touch it because of that.

:sigh:

If its their fault why are they charging you for their incompetence?

[WinstonWolf]

phumy said:

Munter said:

Apparently they have put the bolts into the subframe/steering rack incorrectly. Wheel alignment guy doesn't want to touch it because of that.

:sigh:

If its their fault why are they charging you for their incompetence?

I'd say they thought they did it correctly. OP, that's all the ammo you need to get the dealer to take responsibility

[Munter]

phumy said:

Munter said:

Apparently they have put the bolts into the subframe/steering rack incorrectly. Wheel alignment guy doesn't want to touch it because of that.

:sigh:

If its their fault why are they charging you for their incompetence?

I've yet to go back to to the Kia dealer and ask them to look again at their work. Hopefully if the bolts are wrong they will do it properly and apologise. We'll see tomorrow.

[Munter]

Ok so here is what my normal garage saw.

There are 2 holes in the frame. The one with lube all around it, and the lower one in the photo is the bolt holding the rack on. (Bottom of pic is towards the front of the car).

In the first picture you can hardly see any of the bolt. In the second picture, you can see the bolt is so far in that it's sticking out. Compare it with the i20 the garage has in the last 2 pictures where with the same design the bolts are relatively even.

I suspect they bolted one side down hard, then the other, and ran away. And the thing is all on the tilt.

Dealer says they'll "look" at it on tuesday....

Kia
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fdo8800gimhml6v/YS11%20Y...

Kia
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dd6ypos7qcww81w/YS11%20Y...

i20
https://www.dropbox.com/s/q2pjeec6sz24huk/i20.JPG?...

i20
https://www.dropbox.com/s/d8iuvvwsrm50u5t/i20-2.JP...

[227bhp]

They've messed up, it's 100% their fault and they should correct it.
I wouldn't go back there after they've corrected it either, if anyone rings up to say the steering is misaligned after a clutch job it should have set alarm bells ringing and them got you back in straight away to see what it was as it could have been dangerous.

Edited by 227bhp on Friday 16th October 14:38

[Royce44]

To remove most driveshafts, involves dropping off the hub from the wishbone to give you the slack, if you dont refit that exactly as it was then that alone is enough to put tracking out. Id say its very possible that tracking is affected after a clutch change.
Kia should surely realised tis kind of stuff is possible and have offered to check at a minimum

[Munter]

Well they put it right in the end.

The 2 bolts are different lengths. They had put the short one in the long hole and vice versa.

Then as a "gesture of goodwill" did an alignment.

Fingers crossed I can not interface with kia for another 20,000 miles.