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gulfstreamgv -> RE: Clutch judder (10/29/2008 7:19:50 AM)
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Hi -
I, too, have experienced this clutch judder (shudder or stuttering) on my 2004 Mazda Tribute DX 4 cyl / 5-speed manual. It happened when going from 0-10 mph and was worse on slight inclines. Surprisingly, it only seemed to occur on 50% of the starts from stop. This began occurring (to the best of my wife and my recollection) sometime in the 20-30,000 mile area. We thought it was just an oddity with the clutch/gas give-and-take, but after a while, no matter how much gas we gave it, we would experience the judder. We finally took it in at ~38,000 miles and the local dealership did some work down in the clutch area (I had to lift my foot much higher in the vehicle to press the clutch ) that they classified as warranty, but the problem returned within a few days.
After bringing it in again, they replaced the clutch assembly (cost was $1,000: ~$300 for parts and ~$700 labor) and saved the part for me. The problem turned out to be two broken damper springs on the clutch plate(?). I think it''s important to note that each damper spring appears to actually be two springs, with one small spring on the interior of a larger one. The large springs were fine. The interior springs were the ones that were broken. There was no evidence of abnormal clutch plate friction material wear and tear (and hence no evidence of aggressive driving or riding the clutch). The was some evidence of higher than normal heat on the (forgive me because I don''t know the name of it) metal piece of the clutch plate immediately behind the friction lining.
Of course, since clutch assemblies are warranted only to 12,000 miles, the dealership that did the work refused to even argue that this should be covered under warranty. After conferring with the Mazda Customer phone representative, I took it to a completely different Mazda dealer for their (hopefully) independent opinion. This second dealer took a look at the damper springs and immediately said "defective part...those springs should never break without additional evidence of serious abuse on the friction lining or assembly, in general...the overheating is likely a result of you driving the vehicle with the judder for so long".
I was then able to meet with the district customer support manager. Basically, he took one look at the back of the vehicle, saw that I had a trailer hitch and decided that this was a result of "heavy loading". Despite talking with him for another 10 minutes about this, he just wasn''t going to budge. I talked with my wife later that night about how much we had used the Tribute to tow anything. We came up with 4 times all of them involving either putting in (2 times) or taking out (2 times) her father''s 15-foot ski boat and pulling it for less than two miles each way to their winter storage location.
So, I have to say that I''m extremely disappointed that Mazda is taking this stance. It appears (from various forums) that there is a small section of Escape/Tribute 5-speed vehicle owners that have experienced similar issues with juddering (although I haven''t seen anyone else that has traced it to those interior damper springs) which leads me to believe that there is either something wrong with the way this small group of people are using their vehicles, or else there is something wrong with the assembly. I suppose that only Mazda / Ford knows the true number of clutch assemblies that have had to be replaced and at what mileage, but I suspect that only a handful of us are irritated by it enough to ask additional questions. So, I''d speculate that if someone at Mazda / Ford looked at those numbers, they just might see a pattern.
(Just to get this off my chest...) I do have to do say though that I''m not exactly thrilled that the final decision on this came from a customer support manager rather than an expert in the area of clutch assemblies. In fact, my first question to the customer support manager was "how many of these clutch assemblies for my particular vehicle type have you seen before?" His response was "...none for a DX 4 cyl/5 speed, but I''ve looked at similar ones...". I''d have hoped his answer to be, "I''ve seen a few" or even better "I brought a new one with me to compare for you..."
Anyhow, my question to the forum is:
1) Is it possible that Mazda / Ford have used a clutch assembly that is insufficient for what most people would consider normal usage of the vehicle?
2) Are there more people who have had this issue that are not talking about it?
3) Has anyone else had success in pursuing issues beyond the district manager? And how did you do it?
Thanks in advance for any comments/answers!
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