Lots of woe on the web about DMFs failing and manufacturers squirming out o f their "obligations" to recall/admit&repair etc etc
So Q - are automatic/DSG/etc versions of afflicted manual models any safer from suffering the £££ DMF/clutch failure problems?
TIA
Jim K
Automatic & DSG versions don't have DMFs.
TBH, unless the DMF is a *much* noted failure of a given model they're perfectly reliable. More expensive to replace, but not inherently problemful. My car is still on its original clutch and DMF at 186,000 miles.
Wrong, I'm afraid. DSG has a DMF, but a conventional auto doesn't.
It depends on mileage and usage. A colleague's Renault is showing signs of a noisy DMF at 104K, my DSG Seat's DMF is doing the same at 90K, but if you abuse them (slogging the engine at very, very low revs, for example) they'll fail at half that. Conversely, if you do lots of cruising and not much start-stop or crawling, it could last a very long time. For a manual car, a lot depends on driving technique.
I suspect basic design too. R53 BMW Minis (2001-06) were bad.
Certainly some are better than others. The standard clutch and DMF fitted to the Fabia vRS was considered by many to be only just enough for the standard tune, and a remap would generally need sympathetic driving to not break it.
Ta. I did pause and think about caveats but I must admit I just couldn't see why they'd put one in a DSG so didn't bother looking it up.
That can be said about clutches in general. I must admit I feel I ought to campaign /for/ them as they seem in a similar vein to the old "oooh, you don't want electric windows, more to go wrong" arguments. And I can still remember proponents of that one well into the 2000s on uk.r.c.*, long after general reliability was proven.
So Q - are automatic/DSG/etc versions of afflicted manual models any safer from suffering the DMF/clutch failure problems?
TIA
Jim K
A bit here on the topic.
I'd imagine for the same reason as a manual, to try and absorb some of the vibration and noise. Without wanting to start the old "a DSG is/isn't an automatic" argument, in structure it's like 2 manual gearboxes with seperate clutches integrated in one housing. I'd imagine a traditional auto's torque converter would absorb most of it, so no need.
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