Here are some details, hard to make it brief, War and Peace it is.
Car broken down and needs repairs, not drivable. Clutch has failed, 4cyl 4wd.
I am a qualified Mechanic, who has been out of the game for some time, still on the spanners but different field.
Dismantle car to find cause of fault, found it is a failed flywheel; these are a 2 part arrangement called a “Dual Mass Flywheel”. They have a fluid between the 2 sections which have dodgy seals that tend to give way.
I then sort through car parts shops for product and price over the phone.
Found well known car parts supplier who can get the parts in few days.
Parts value of $1,350.
Quotes for labor from various local mechanics varied from $490 – 620, I did consider sending the car to someone, but decided to save a few $.
Fit the parts and test drive, lasted 12 k’s then the car brakes down.
This is the difficult bit, the cause of the brake down is unlikely to be caused by the clutch or the flywheel.
A long saga of fault diagnosis began, which included mobile mechanics to come out with their diagnosis equipment to plug into the vehicle to interrogate faults.
Now this car was 1 of the 1st with common rail diesel fuel injection, this means the systems on this engine are somewhat lacking compared to the newer cars.
A very long episode of fault checks begun, plus me having to be home to be there for the mobile mechanics to show up.
It took 3 weeks of checks to find the new flywheel had damaged a sensor which reads the crankshaft position.
I removed the gear box and flywheel to find it had been fitted correctly and must have been made wrong. There was damage to the back of the engine and the sensor.
Contact with the cars parts shop was of little help, the manager did not know what side of the flywheel he was looking at.
I made contact with the maker, got from them the CAD Drawing and the specs for a measurement and checked this against the flywheel I removed and found an extra millimeter which has caused the damage to the back of the engine and gouged the sensor.
Immediate they sprung into action and re-called all of the flywheels about the country which had been made.
(Love to know how many were fitted)
A new flywheel had to be made and then sent to me with a new clutch etc.
Got this fitted with the new sensor and the car is now running well.
The hours of time I spent on this car fault finding is well over 80 hours.
Isuzu engineers failed to include a fault code in the system which gives notice of a flywheel making contact and destroying the crankshaft sensor, funny that…
At the time of discussions about the supply of the replacement kit, I was asked by the maker about any other vehicles I own which are manual, which I said Yes, the troopy.
I was told OK, we can give you a top of the line clutch kit which normally retails for about $900 delivered to my door for about $300 + to compensate you for your time.
At the time that seemed reasonable but as my hands were full trying to get the car on the road, I wasn’t ready to deal with that.
With the car on the road again, I made contact about the supply of the L/C clutch kit by email, and answer came with in minutes asking what model. I replied with the details, and then, nothing for many days. Replied again and still nothing.
Then sent a lengthy email about this to multiple email addresses in the same company.
Got a weird email saying:
Hi Dave,
Mate your last couple of emails I wasn’t totally understanding you requirements if you want a cost of the l/cruiser clutch just let me know and I will go further
Kind Regards,
Then a phone call followed which I got before seeing the email, having a go at me as the head office was all over him about this.
Good.
I said, I want some details of the offer again, as I don’t recall exactly what it was you offered.
A new bit of info was given over the phone, the trade price for the clutch kit is $600 +, but for you it will be $360.
I had already found more than 1 supplier of the exact same clutch kit, made by the same folk. Some of these suppliers are Evilbay, 1 had a 1800 phone number.
The price I found, delivered with full warranty to my door was $448.00.
Made by the same folk, same item.
I replied to this chap, giving details of a clutch kit being available for the price of $448.00 and your offer of a $90 saving dose not cover my approx $250 out of pocket expenses, not my time and hard ship I went thorough over this wrong flywheel caper.
This gent will not give details by email, and will only speak over the phone.
He has sent an email asking me to call.
I want him to give details by email.
I also, asked if he is not the man to deal with in such matters, to please put me onto someone else.
I have at all times been polite with these folk, even though they messed me around with the delivery dates etc etc.
Bit of an ordeal, but there you have it
I am only out of pocket about $250 at this time. Plus a huge amount of time. Plus inconvenience of the wife's car not working for 5 weeks.
