2008 tc clutch problem

[davids6259]

My son has a brand new 2008 scion tc (less than 5000 miles) and is having clutch problems. They said he has burned the clutch out and it wont be covered under warranty. Has anyone else heard of this in such a new car?

[Graphite]

What's it doing? Is he mis-shifting? Is it slipping?

[Soulbane]

Burning out a toyota clutch in 5k miles is a record if I ever heard one!

I sincerely don't know how he can kill a clutch that fast unless he was constantly during burnouts and dump clutch launches.

[JRBRUIN7@aol.com]

They say it isn't covered but if in fact it is burned out regardless if its a Toyota clutch or not a clutch should not go in 5,000 miles, you could easily fight that one. I have the 2006 model and with 45,000 miles on mine my clutch still works like I just bought it.

[davids6259]

Thanks for your input. Burning out a clutch in 5000 miles sounded far-fetched to me also. There happens to be a engine and transmission specialist from Toyota going to the dealership today and is going to look at the clutch. I'll tell him to dispute their findings.... thanks again!

Graphite.... he says he has never ground the gears or "ride" the clutch. He puts the car in neutral at stoplights and releases the clutch. He has never said anything about it slipping either. He did say that a few times, he took off from a stop in second.... but rarely does that.

[navylife59]

What are the symptoms? You might be experiencing clutch disk contamination. Are there copious amounts of dark dust around the lower portion of the bell housing? Is there a fluid leak in the clutch master cylinder?

Note: The clutch slave shares it's fluid reservoir with the brake master cylinder, hence the master/slave relationship. One fact to note is that the reservoir is segregated in that the clutch slave can be drained of fluid without affecting the usable portion of fluid in the reservoir for the master cylinder operation. It is a fail-safe function. It is hard to see this, but if you look at the front left corner (your perspective) of the reservoir, you will see where it is divided off.

Without knowing exactly what is going on, we are just shooting in the dark. However, we all agree that this should not be happening. Just like my '07Tundra 12K miles should not be getting 12MPG on the highway and the motor rattling, my '07 Camry should not have bald tires on the front at 13K miles, and my TRD S/C on my tC should not have a cracked mounting bracket; we all bought Toyota quality and trusted that this would extend to service/warranty issues. Such is not the case anymore now that Toyota is the world's largest automotive manufacturer. Welcome to GM quality.

[davids6259]

I can't answer any of your questions because I didn't not see this. It is on my son's Scion. He took it to the dealer and was told it was his driving that shreaded the clutch. He is having to pay almost $1000 to get it repaired... $250 for the clutch and the rest for labor. He is in the airforce in Pensacola and they have him over the barrell. An "engine and transmission specialist" from Toyota happened to be in that area and also said it was my son's fault. Who knows the truth!?!

[Azn Chief]

That sucks!!!! i have on 08 and had to learn manual for the first time. lol went through h***. Man.....
But anyway i did some hard launches and stuff learning, have 13000 miles so far, and clutch still works perfectly.
P.S. took me like a week and a half to stop stalling, the other half to be smooth. lol

[navylife59]

Well, your Son sounds adept enough to Serve his Country. I am pretty sure that he can operate a clutch. I would ask to have the old clutch and throwout bearing. If they won't give it to you, something really is a miss.

Does your Son have any aspirations of increasing the performance on his tC, IE turbo or supercharging? Now would be a good time to add a performance clutch. The stock one is easily good for 250WHP (normally).

[davids6259]

He had the clutch replaced (it was his fault it burned out according to the dealer) and it cost him about $900. Hopefully, this one will last longer than the original. I don't believe they gave him the original parts back, even though he asked for them. The parts dept was closed when he got by to pick up the car..... oh well, he'll learn! Thanks for everyones help on this.

David

[2009tc]

Hello, I am having a very similar experience to what you described in your post. My son has a 2009 tC with 7400 miles on it and they are telling me he burned out the clutch. My son is not a bad driver and I find it hard to believe that they are telling me I need to put $1000 into this car with this low miles. What pointers do you have in dealing with the dealership/repair? I have seen at least a dozen others with factory clutches go out under 10K miles. What did you end up doing with your 2008 tC?

[navylife59]

There have definitely been a small run of tC's that managed to get substandard clutches installed. Back in 2008, there was a large earthquake that hit Northern Japan. This quake did major damage to the number parts supplier for Toyota Japan. The Scion brand is 100% Japanese so it is very likely that Toyota was forced to outsource OEM parts from another vendor. This may have been done in haste (poor contingency planning?) allowing substandard parts to be purchased. Other than that, Scion's are rock solid. There is definitely a trend so keep pressing the Dealership. You can also contact Toyota Customer Experience Center and request a case number be created.

Customer Experience Center
If you'd like to discuss your experience or share your comments, Toyota's Customer Experience Center representatives are happy to assist you. Phone: 800-331-4331
Fax: 310-468-7814
Mon - Fri, 5:00 am - 6:00 pm PST
Sat, 7:00 am - 4:00 pm PST Or send correspondence to:
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
19001 South Western Ave.
Dept. WC11
Torrance, CA 90501

[prophet gideon]

The clutch should be covered under warranty i can't believe that toyota wouldn't recognize that. my 2007 scion tc has a powertrain warranty for 60,000 or 7 years so yeah the whole thing about it not being covered underwarranty is a load of bull

[navylife59]

It is the Dealerships that are making these decisions. They are not owned by Toyota, just franchised. They are not required to work on your car, even under warranty, if you did not buy the car from them. Toyota Customer Experience is where you go when you get flak from the Dealership.

[prophet gideon]

ic i didn't realize that it was a franchised setup with the dealerships. The dealer over here in Grand Rapids seems pretty nice though i had to go there recently and they didn't have a problem looking at my car real quick

[navylife59]

The Dealer that I bought mine from in Grapevine, Texas has always treated my Son and I right. Only problem is, they damaged my car everytime that I brought it in to them.

You should post up a positive review of the Dealership here for others in your area to know about them.

http://www.club-tc.com/forums/scion-dealers/

[2009tc]

The relationship between dealership repair shops is complex. After initially refusing to warranty the clutch (burned out at 7400 miles) the dealership contacted a Toyota/Scion Field Rep. who came in and looked at it. The dealership said that Toyota would not reimburse them for warranty work if it deemed that the part was not defective.

The field rep only said what the dealership said. The clutch is burned up due to aggressive driving. I asserted that it was not driven aggressively and that it must be a part malfunction. I had had the same car to the same dealership's shop a week before. At that time they inspected the car and said that the tires were OK, they rotated them and only noted that the front tires had, "slight cupping" After one week, the Toyota Field Rep looked at the same tires, in the same shop and said that now the tires have "excessive shoulder and tread wear that would indicate aggressive driving" I think he was only trying to find some way to justify his accusation that the car was driven hard.

I called Scion Customer Experience to complain of the two differing statements on the tires and was again told that when a clutch is burned up there is no possible way it could be defective. They said that if a clutch is going to fail it would do so before 7400 miles and if it lasts that long and burns up it must be due to aggressive driving.

Of course I believe my son that he didn't abuse his car. He earned this car through safe driving in another car - not even a scratch on that car. Just to double check I called our local police department and had them run a check on his license plate -- no citations or stops. If he had been driving like the Toyota rep said, our town, which has many speed traps, would certainly have pulled him over. But nothing.

Nathan, how did you finally end up with Scion? Did they always say you drove your car too aggressively? Did they ever fix the clutch or pay you back? I can honestly say that I have loved Toyotas until two weeks ago. I am mystified as to my treatment and the quality of this car.

[navylife59]

Sorry that you are getting the "Toyota Customer Experience" It is very lacking. Suppose Toyo did not get any stimulus money. The issue is not quality of the car, but one of the clutch manufacture. It might be Futaba. I assure you, that this car is 100% Japanese made and very much in terms of quality up there with $40K+ cars unlike it's American made Toyota cousins.

A male driving a tC is going to be challenged to an impromptu street race atleast once a week. Everyone out seems to be gunning to prove themselves against this little 16K powerhouse. Even with a few burnouts or street drags, the stock clutch with less than 10K miles should not be worn-out, causing problems. I did a quick Gurgle search and found a link to SL on a similar discussion. A few people stated that their problem was blamed on the clutch/slave cylinder being defective. It is more likely to be excessively worn (round out of the cylinder) or a bad o-ring. The link below is for your reference.

Now, many times mechanics will get frustrated in finding the problem. In the mysterious premature clutch failure case mentioned above, they most likely have dealt with other cars with the same problem. In order to get reimbursed from Toyota as a warranty repair, something has to be defective. Blaming a connecting part that has a longer life expectancy is easier to pass as defective than a part that is considered a consumable (sacrificial) such as a clutch. The same goes with brakes. Unable to get Toyota to pay for an excessively worn clutch, they provided a part that would get reimbursed. Sometimes, mechanics just "throw" parts at it till the problem appears to go away never knowing what "resolved" the problem. This is considered as poor troubleshooting skills. Whether the mechanic/Service Manager decided to follow this route is uncertain.

Trend Analysis is pointing towards manufacturers defect which would be whomever the clutch supplier at the time was. 2005-2006 tC's have not demonstrated this trend. My 2005 tC has over 47K miles on the original clutch and master/slave cylinders. My car has been TRD Supercharged since 11K miles and is currently making over 230WHP. I drive it like a race car and have felt no clutch slippage, clutch engagement, or shifting problems.


clutch pedal keeps depressed!!! SOLVED! - ScionLife Home of the Scion xA, Scion xB and Scion tC owner and enthusiast

[davids6259]

We ended up paying for a new clutch since a person from the clutch manufacutrer "happened to be visiting" the dealership the next day and would look at it. He said my son obviously was driving it too hard to be shredded like that. So we ended up paying for it!

[Nathanr.6168]

Still call and raise hell to scion HQ in Cali. Eventually they will give you somthing if you do like I did and call them EVERY SINGLE DAY.