[mille162]

Anyone successfully had their clutch replaced under warranty?

21,000 miles. Everything working fine, no signs of hesitation or wear. Drop car from 5th to 4th to pass a car. No power, engine revs, HUGE cloud of smoke behind me, stinks like burnt clutch. Drift over to side of road, car stalls going into gear out of neutral. Suggested I let it cool down, couple of hours later same thing. Dealer gets the car towed in, PIS system out of parameters (checked out 1,000 miles before and fine), clutch at 52% wear.

22,000 miles. Shifting feel wierd, can feel some hesitation/slipping in low gear or at full throttle and low rpm/speed. Dealer says clutch is now at 74% wear.

Doesn't know what caused the first problem, thinks maybe the TO bearing or shaft had excess dirt on it and it caused it to bind and not fully engage. Doesn't explain why it's wearing quickly now though. It's going in next week for a new clutch and they'll re-evaluate the warranty issue, but right now they're saying there no indication it'll be covered under warranty. Assuming the rate of wear here, 80% clutch wear in less than 25k miles seems awfully extreme. Bought this from a dealer in San Antonio, but in Philadelphia now. San Antonio dealer says they'd replace under warranty no problem, Philly says no. It would actually be cheaper to ship the car back to them ($1400 each way enclosed) than pay to have it done here, I just don't want to take the time.

Please share any clutch warranty experiences you've had.

 

[BlondeSicilian]

I just bought an '04 coupe with 8800 miles on it. When I test drove, it seemed to slip a little going from 1st to 2nd gear. The salesperson spoke to the service guy about this (it supposedly only had 40% wear) and the service guy agreed and got Maserati to replace under warranty. This is Park Place Maserati in Dallas.

Understand, this is a car with only 8800 miles so YMMV, but I would definitely try to get it replaced under warranty if at all possible.

Good luck!

 

[Steeldream]

Use the search function and look for "clutch" or "F1 pump" and you'll find a lot of discussion. 20k seems about average for clutch life. I've seen some as low as 12k and I got 45k out of mine YMMV.

 

[mille162]

Use the search function and look for "clutch" or "F1 pump" and you'll find a lot of discussion. 20k seems about average for clutch life. I've seen some as low as 12k and I got 45k out of mine YMMV.

Thanks Steeldream, what I couldn't find any discussion on was the wear rate. 20% clutch life in 1000 miles seems unacceptable and I would think indicates a problem somewhere else.

 

[Steeldream]

The "clutch wear" readings are reallly suspect IMHO. First off they're +/- 10% so a reading of 70% might be as high as 80% or as low as 60%. That accounts for some strange tales of high wear.

Guy comes in to a Maserati Dealer says "what's my clutch wear?" Test reads 8% high. A week later he goes to another dealer. Test reads 9% low and suddenly 17% of his clutch has "worn" in just one week.

The best test still seems to be the Mark 1 right foot calibrator - give er the boot and see if there's slippage on the shift.

They also can read the numbers wrong. FMSV reversed them the first time they told me. Said I had 60% left when it really meant 60% worn, but then they're idiots.

 

[mille162]

The "clutch wear" readings are reallly suspect IMHO. First off they're +/- 10% so a reading of 70% might be as high as 80% or as low as 60%. That accounts for some strange tales of high wear.

Guy comes in to a Maserati Dealer says "what's my clutch wear?" Test reads 8% high. A week later he goes to another dealer. Test reads 9% low and suddenly 17% of his clutch has "worn" in just one week.

The best test still seems to be the Mark 1 right foot calibrator - give er the boot and see if there's slippage on the shift.

They also can read the numbers wrong. FMSV reversed them the first time they told me. Said I had 60% left when it really meant 60% worn, but then they're idiots.

unfortunately there is slippage, guess we'll see the details next week when the old one comes out.

Thanks for the responses

 

[Steeldream]

21,000 miles. Everything working fine, no signs of hesitation or wear. Drop car from 5th to 4th to pass a car. No power, engine revs, HUGE cloud of smoke behind me, stinks like burnt clutch. Drift over to side of road, car stalls going into gear out of neutral. Suggested I let it cool down, couple of hours later same thing. Dealer gets the car towed in, PIS system out of parameters (checked out 1,000 miles before and fine), clutch at 52% wear.

<snip>

Bought this from a dealer in San Antonio, but in Philadelphia now. San Antonio dealer says they'd replace under warranty no problem, Philly says no.

Given the description of the problem @ 21k I'd be pretty firm in letting the Philly dealer (Alger?) know I expect the repairs to be done under warranty.

Get the "we'd do it under warranty" in writing from the San Antonio guys. Show it to the Service Manager in Philly and escalate to Maserati North America if need be. Also let Philly and MNA know there are a thousand or so readers here wondering how this will turn out.

 

[F. Yu]

question about clutch slippage...

How much slippage can be considered normal? Mine occasionally slips a little, say, 0.2 seconds or maybe 200 rpm, usually when the clutch is cold. Doesn't always happen. Is this part of normal behavior, or is it a sign that the clutch is starting down the path of no return?

 

[Glenn Wallace]

Mine was replaced at 6,000 miles, due to it making a squawking noise when moving off, due to uneven plate wear, according to the dealer.

Even with the issue at 21,000, that could just be a symptom of a worn clutch. Unless the dealer can find a "defect" you should expect to be paying for it.

 

[bundas]

old clutch

would like to buy, obtain old clutch. want to sell rebuilt ones. i think there is a market for cheaper product, in future