Driving home on the A1 a week ago, about 80 miles from home, my husband noticed that he had difficulty changing gear.We managed to get home with minimal gear changing, but it was clear something was wrong. We though we had previously noticed an oil leak or similar for the few weeks before (dark stains on the ground where we had parked) but local independent garage checked and said they couldn't find anything.
Bearing in mind, I m not technically minded and have got this info second hand from my husband, after an initial check, independent garage said a seal had failed and there had been a leak between the engine and the clutch box. If we were lucky it might just need a new clutch and mentioned £800. to repair
Today they have inspected further and said as a result of continuing the journey, whatever had leaked into the clutch box had super heated and essentially both the gearbox and clutch are destroyed and we are talking around £4000 to repair.
This is obviously a huge blow to us. The car is only 2.5 years old, and only done 50,000 mostly motorway/dual carriageway miles.
My question to you is do you believe we have any room for negotiation with VW about getting this repair cost reduced ?. (Obviously that will involve going to the VW garage where we bought the car) I don't know if the issue I described about the seal failing is rare for a relatively new Golf, which may give us some leverage. I understand clutches aren't covered under warranty but I'm hoping extenuating circumstances,,,,,
I have previously achieved something similar with Ford Customer Services, when the timing chain broke on a previous car after 20k miles and caused a lot of damage. Ford let us off 50% of the cost.
Advice on how to approach VW with this will be much appreciated
