Cost of a new clutch ?

Got a call from the OPC today who have the engine out of my tt to repair an oil leak on the head. They advised me that my clutch is "nearly down to the rivets" and although it would still work they would recommend replacing it sooner rather than later. Basically they said while the engine is out they can replace it for the cost of the parts only, (£800 ish). Where as if they put the engine back in and it goes completely then I will have to pay for the labour to replace it as well as the parts! Now, this sounds like a good deal, but I have not seen the clutch nor observed it slipping. Some of the gear changes were a bit notchy, but with all those horses running through it I expected it to be. How much would you expect to pay for a clutch replacement at an indie? Should I just bite the bullet and hand over the credit card? Car has 48k on the clock, so not too many miles for a late 2001 registered car, wouldn't have thought a new clutch would be needed - but then you don't know how it has been driven in the past.

If the parts are £800 you won't get them very much cheaper from an Indie and 8 hours labour is going to cost you way more than the price difference in the parts... 48k is about right for a clutch anyway if the car is driven as intended, so I would change it anyway. I would query the parts cost though... My C4 clutch parts were about £450 from memory two years ago: I know the TT clutch is a bit different, but nearly double? :nooo:

Yeah, the £800 seems a little high to me too! Had they said £500 then I would have just said to do it! A Sachs power clutch kit is about £500 though, so stick on a porsche sticker, add 60% and £800 is probably about right :evil: If you look it up on JZM's website it is about £719 inc. VAT! I wonder if the OPC will let me supply my own genuine Porsche parts!!?!

High? I don't think so. The Turbo/GT2 clutch kit (disc, pressure plate, bearings) is almost twice the price of the Carrera 2/4/4S on parts price alone, so with your engine out I'd snap their arm off to get it remounted with a new clutch in place. It's silly little things like the Turbo has 9 pressure plate bolts instead of the Carrera's 6 at almost 7-8x the cost, the throw-out bearing & guide tube at 50% more than the Carrera.

Slightly off topic, but is the leak being repaired under warranty, or are you having to pay for the leak to be fixed?

elrao, You will not experience clutch slip until it HAS hit the rivets. Catch 22 here. Once you do hit the rivets you lose clamping force as suddenly you have a metal on metal. At this point you are damaging your flywheel. I would take their advice and change it. You will be saving the labour later. Murphy's law says within a month it would need the clutch done!

Leak is under warranty. Will get the clutch done, just going to try to negotiate on the price of the parts as they are over £100 cheaper elsewhere.

I would def go for it! I did....

OPC quoted £833+Vat for the parts JZM quoted £719 inc. VAT for the parts, but there would be some shipping. Told the OPC, who said they would do parts for £733+Vat (£861), also advised they would fit the parts if I bought and supplied from JZM as long as they were genuine Porsche product. Not sure if it is wirth paying the extra £100 just out of ease and it also means a single point of contact if anything goes wrong with the clutch inthe future, not OPC blaming JZM for the parts etc.

OPC are trying to make your free visit as profitable for them as they can. While they get paid to warranty work, it does cost them as you take up space they could be doing paid work etc. They would like to make something from you definitely. I'd just pay the extra 100 as like you say, if there is an issue, they won't necessarily warrant pulling it out again as they could argue a faulty supplied part even being genuine etc..... That's my take on it....

Told the OPC to go ahead and do it, JZM called me back to say they had mis-quoted on their website, rrp was £739+vat, but would do me 10% off as a result, making it only slightly cheaper than the OPC. I just want my car back, they have had it nearly to weeks, was only supposed to be in over the weekend while I was away so I didn't bother asking for a courtesy car either!