New clutch from OPC worth asking for a discount

New clutch from OPC worth asking for a discount

Author
Discussion

Dr mojo

Original Poster:

187 posts

178 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
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Been quoted just over £2k for new clutch and flywheel on my 997s. Car is 6 years old with full OPC history. Purchased 13 months ago from Same OPC. Only 27k miles from new and was serviced 10 months ago (major) with no comment on the clutch then although it has done a further 3k miles since then. Never tracked or driven in anger. Should I ask for a discount and if so how much?
Realistic Advice appreciated as I don't want to annoy the OPC who have been very good up to now.

ttdan

1,091 posts

192 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
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Annoy them. That's ridiculous. Unless you have lunched it yourself it there should be some serious goodwill from their side.

FisiP1

1,279 posts

152 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
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I'd be annoyed to be quite honest, I have no idea if you are likely to get anything from them but I'd be very annoyed at this happening so soon after a major service/having purchased it from them, and on such low mileage.

Slaav

4,240 posts

209 months

Friday 5th October 2012
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Isnt 60K a realistic expectation of a clutch on these in normal wear and tear?

TonyB66

242 posts

169 months

Friday 5th October 2012
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Ridiculous Price....go to an Indy and it will probably be less than half of that quote.

cd1957

647 posts

175 months

Friday 5th October 2012
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Hi Sounds about right to me,flywheel is £800,clutch kit around £350,plus all bolts replaced,labour time about 4.5-5hrs

Chris

Far Cough

2,190 posts

167 months

Friday 5th October 2012
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An expensive lesson not to ride the clutch. Not pointing a finger at OP but to anyone that does it !

Candellara

1,876 posts

181 months

Friday 5th October 2012
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The car is 6 years old and done 27,000 miles. You could have been riding or dropping the clutch doing smokey traffic light starts for all your OPC knows.

Clutch is a wear item and in fairness to the OPC, if the clutch operation was deemed ok at time of service (10 months ago) i think it's unfair to expect the OPC to cough up?

If the car was 6 months old and done 6,000 miles and still under Porsche Warranty - fair enough, you may consider some goodwill on a wear item.

mrdemon

21,146 posts

264 months

Friday 5th October 2012
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FisiP1 said:
I'd be annoyed to be quite honest, I have no idea if you are likely to get anything from them but I'd be very annoyed at this happening so soon after a major service/having purchased it from them, and on such low mileage.
hence why prep works makes me laugh.

prep means clean and respray the front end if it looks bad , and fit new tyres if badley worn ie under 4mm.

Pisses me off trying to sell my GT3 which is had 10k spent on it so like new ie replacing the bits you cannot see, inc Clutch, dampers, diff etc etc and traders don't give a monkeys, but will sell you a car which will neeed a new diff, damper rebuild and clucth in a few months .

Traders and I mean all OPC and 3rd party ones which say they spend x ammount on prep on this forum go on looks alone and tyres, and at a push disks and of course the famous rev ranges. they don't care about clutch's, diff,s dampers, rads , bush's etc and they are 100% not going to fit them in prep work.

This one of the biggest reason for NOT buying a 997 GT3 which is 6 years old and had no work done but at top money.
you can see a 10k bill quite easy on a 997 GT3 which has had no work donebut still command top prices.

Edited by mrdemon on Friday 5th October 09:40

Nano2nd

3,426 posts

255 months

Friday 5th October 2012
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mrdemon said:
hence why prep works makes me laugh.

prep means clean and respray the front end if it looks bad , and fit new tyres if badley worn ie under 4mm.

Pisses me off trying to sell my GT3 which is had 10k spent on it so like new ie replacing the bits you cannot see, inc Clutch, dampers, diff etc etc and traders don't give a monkeys, but will sell you a car which will neeed a new diff, damper rebuild and clucth in a few months .

Traders and I mean all OPC and 3rd party ones which say they spend x ammount on prep on this forum go on looks alone and tyres, and at a push disks and of course the famous rev ranges. they don't care about clutch's, diff,s dampers, rads , bush's etc and they are 100% not going to fit them in prep work.

This one of the biggest reason for NOT buying a 997 GT3 which is 6 years old and had no work done but at top money.
you can see a 10k bill quite easy on a 997 GT3 which has had no work donebut still command top prices.

Edited by mrdemon on Friday 5th October 09:40
buyers are just as bad though, people are obsessed with mileage, no of owners and the digit on the reg... having just spent thousands on maintenance doesn't factor into their buying mantra! and the trade is just the same when making bids (well that's what i found anyway)

anonymous-user

53 months

Friday 5th October 2012
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Dr mojo said:
Been quoted just over £2k for new clutch and flywheel on my 997s. Car is 6 years old with full OPC history. Purchased 13 months ago from Same OPC. Only 27k miles from new and was serviced 10 months ago (major) with no comment on the clutch then although it has done a further 3k miles since then. Never tracked or driven in anger. Should I ask for a discount and if so how much?
Realistic Advice appreciated as I don't want to annoy the OPC who have been very good up to now.
What is the problem with the clutch, exactly?

NA55

71 posts

154 months

Friday 5th October 2012
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Not being a driving God, would anyone care to explain what riding the clutch actually means in reality. Also how can you test if the clutch is slipping or getting to the point where it may need to replaced soon?

I have recently had a quote for a clutch replacement at £1400 for East London... it was for a Cayman S rather than the 997 but seeing as many parts are shared i would expect the prices to be relatively similar.

mrdemon

21,146 posts

264 months

Friday 5th October 2012
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floor it it 4th at low revs when moving do you move forward fast or does it smell lol

or put your foot brake on release the clutch does the car stall straight away, it should stall the car straight away.

riding the clutch is just that driving and resting your foot on the clutch, but also holding the car at lights just on clutch, or not rev matching on down shifts will all reduce clutch life.

you cannot really ride the clutch on a Porsche it's quite heavy.

Edited by mrdemon on Friday 5th October 11:11

201CHY

55 posts

147 months

Friday 5th October 2012
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I paid £1200 all in for a new clutch and fly wheel at Tower Porsche 6 months ago on a 997. Mine went after 45k miles.

201CHY

55 posts

147 months

Friday 5th October 2012
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btw from their experience most replacements are done in the 30-35k mark for the 997s, so your just a bit below average. I wouldn't feel too bad. I remember calling an OPC first who quoted £1600 but tower were recommended by a friend and were considerably cheaper so I went with them.

996ttalot

1,931 posts

174 months

Friday 5th October 2012
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201CHY said:
I paid £1200 all in for a new clutch and fly wheel at Tower Porsche 6 months ago on a 997. Mine went after 45k miles.
That is about the right price. Anymore is taking the p$%s

FisiP1

1,279 posts

152 months

Friday 5th October 2012
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NA55 said:
Not being a driving God, would anyone care to explain what riding the clutch actually means in reality. Also how can you test if the clutch is slipping or getting to the point where it may need to replaced soon?

I have recently had a quote for a clutch replacement at £1400 for East London... it was for a Cayman S rather than the 997 but seeing as many parts are shared i would expect the prices to be relatively similar.
In addition to what mrdemon posted, it can also refer to excessive clutch/throttle blending when accelerating from a standstill or(more usually) when going into second gear. People usually do it if they are not confident that the engine won't stall in a given situation.

gl20

1,121 posts

148 months

Friday 5th October 2012
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Clutch riding can be a problem in some marques but you don't hear about this on Porsches as much. I remember when testing a Vantage the dealer rep said they'd all been specifically told at their national dealer day to get off the clutch as soon as possible when pulling away or changing gear.

There was a thread on Boxa.net asking posters to record how long they'd made a clutch last and some had got to 100K+ miles on one clutch with many more at an impressive 60k+. This is Boxsers not 911s of course but not a world away wrt this sort of think you'd think.

So it seems the OP has been very unlucky here but, as others have said, not sure you will be able to do much about this. It was the same with my first Porsche purchase when I didn't know to check the insides of the discs for corrosion and that came back to bite me at the first MOT...

hopeydaze

298 posts

149 months

Friday 5th October 2012
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Mileage depends s always on where you drive. 100,000 motoway miles are very different to 20k in London in 2nd gear. Therefore if clutch goes erly it's justs likely to be driving considtions and not necessrily driving technique.

sidicks

25,218 posts

220 months

Friday 5th October 2012
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My clutch was replaced at around 35k miles on my 997.1 C4S.

If you'd owned the car for less than 6 months then you'd have some justification for a discount but after 13 months and on a car approaching 30k miles, I think the OPC is right to argue it's simply wear and tear etc.

Sidicks