[T Texas]

We do 98% freeway driving. Our clutch recently went out and the dealership is stating this is normal for a 2018 Renegade and it is an 11.5 hr job? Does that sound right or are we being taken advantage of?

 

[raz-0]

It really doesn't matter what percent of your driving is highway or not. The question is if you did anything that makes clutches unhappy, and how much of them you did. The clutch in the jeep is not a robust unit, and does not tolerate a lot of abuse.

11.5 hours seems a bit on the high side, but it's not a cheap job. Repair pal says $706 for parts and $900-1100 for labor. I know the people who have had it happen to them here and posted were getting bills of about $2k form the dealer, which jibes with repair pal as that usually shows book rate for an independent shop not quite as pricey as a dealer.

 

[T Texas]

It really doesn't matter what percent of your driving is highway or not. The question is if you did anything that makes clutches unhappy, and how much of them you did. The clutch in the jeep is not a robust unit, and does not tolerate a lot of abuse.

11.5 hours seems a bit on the high side, but it's not a cheap job. Repair pal says $706 for parts and $900-1100 for labor. I know the people who have had it happen to them here and posted were getting bills of about $2k form the dealer, which jibes with repair pal as that usually shows book rate for an independent shop not quite as pricey as a dealer.

My husband and I are both very experienced manual drivers. They are charging us upwards of $2400. The only reason we took it to the dealership is because my husband broke down on the side of the road and had no idea what happened. There hadn't been any grinding of softness in the clutch prior. It just quit moving. If there is a next time, we will take it to a reputable mechanic. We just found out our dealership has never replaced a clutch in a 2018 Renegade, and they are a Jeep dealership. Go figure!

 

[FiatPower]

Sounds more like a failed slave cylinder - failing clutches either won't release or slip. Failing slave cylinders are very common since they all went to designs that are internal and concentric with the input shaft. It's in there with the dust from the clutch plate which is very abrasive, and if it gets into the seals it can destroy them quickly. It is not just an FCA issue.

 

[T Texas]

Sounds more like a failed slave cylinder - failing clutches either won't release or slip. Failing slave cylinders are very common since they all went to designs that are internal and concentric with the input shaft. It's in there with the dust from the clutch plate which is very abrasive, and if it gets into the seals it can destroy them quickly. It is not just an FCA issue.

Thanks so much for all this information. He was on the expressway in traffic, at a near stop, smelled burning and when he went to go the Jeep wouldn't move. Unfortunately our dealership do not know what the are doing so they replaced the clutch, bearing, they broke the flywheel, then the broke the cable. It's been almost a month and they still have our Jeep

 

[FiatPower]

Thanks so much for all this information. He was on the expressway in traffic, at a near stop, smelled burning and when he went to go the Jeep wouldn't move. Unfortunately our dealership do not know what the are doing so they replaced the clutch, bearing, they broke the flywheel, then the broke the cable. It's been almost a month and they still have our Jeep

Well if he smelled burning it could well have been the clutch - it is hard to diagnose without being there. Perhaps the dual-mass flywheel failed first, causing the clutch to slip. Usually a clutch disk will not fail suddenly, it will begin to slip under load first.

Sounds like they are incompetent, a clutch should be routine for a dealer.

Hope you get it resolved quickly.

 

[puddlesplasher]

My husband and I are both very experienced manual drivers. We just found out our dealership has never replaced a clutch in a 2018 Renegade, and they are a Jeep dealership. Go figure!

I believed the first part.

 

[raz-0]

I believed the first part.

The second part is believable. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that my dealership never replaced a renegade clutch as they don't get manuals into inventory because most people don't want them, and they aren't really keen on doing factory orders for people. So if they are doing them, it's because someone shifted to them after purchasing someplace else.

To put things in perspective, although jeep sells roughly double the manual transmission vehicles of the industry average, for 2020 that average was 2.4% of vehicles sold. When the renegade was announced in 2014, that was nearly 6%.

Manual transmissions are dead. Automatics, CVTs and DCTs win. The industry is not spending a lot of engineering time worrying about how happy 2.4% of customers are, especially when they tend to be less profitable.

And as Fiat power said, yeah there have been a lot of slave cylinders going on MT renegades in addition to the clutch material failing.

 

[FiatPower]

And as Fiat power said, yeah there have been a lot of slave cylinders going on MT renegades in addition to the clutch material failing.

It's not just FCA, those slave cylinders are a terrible idea.

 

[Bee1971]

Normal is 280,000 miles on my wife’s 2001 Pontiac Sunfire Factory Clutch/Manual Transmission that I honestly never had to touch since we bought it new - Motor had its normal maintenance that I did before the body literally fell apart around the drivetrain before I had to buy this Jeep for her

Now she drives a 2017 1.4 Turbo and Six Speed Manual - Coming up on 50,000 miles

It’s pretty easy like mentioned to tell the difference between a failed slave cylinder and or a failed pressure plate/disc

Knock on wood but if I had a failed clutch at 30,000 miles , it wouldn’t be pretty at the dealership

Problem is , it clearly states under warranty , clutch not covered

 

[UGH]

Wow thats sad. I used to change clutches on transverse engine vehicles in my driveway with a regular car jack and some boards and it usually took 6 hours or so. Surprised they admitted to breaking parts, at least they are being honest even if they dont know what they are doing. Still kinda scary, Id have an independent shop check it out once you get it back.

 

[XFiber]

... Surprised they admitted to breaking parts, at least they are being honest even if they dont know what they are doing. ...

What are the odds they charge the customer for the parts they broke? I once had a Dodge dealer try to bill me for an intake manifold that their "mechanic" destroyed attempting to drill out a broken bolt!

 

[FiatPower]

Wow thats sad. I used to change clutches on transverse engine vehicles in my driveway with a regular car jack and some boards and it usually took 6 hours or so. Surprised they admitted to breaking parts, at least they are being honest even if they dont know what they are doing. Still kinda scary, Id have an independent shop check it out once you get it back.

I remember pulling the transaxle on my Fiat 128 - I rigged a couple of 2x4s and a pulley over the top, and hung the rope down below. I could lift the transaxle from below without much problem, but one of those alignment tubes had got deformed and I couldn't get it to fully mate - the rope was handy after the 6th try or so!

 

[JasoninDLH]

Interesting posts here. I’m completely unfamiliar with manual transmissions (except how to drive them), so I learned all about it here just now...

Definitely doesn’t look like an 11 hour job for a dealership that has all the right tools (car lifts, transmission jacks, etc). As mentioned above...it took UGH 6 hours in his driveway. I can’t believe they broke the flywheel. Im sure they’ve worked on lots of manual transmissions and have plenty of experience, so that is just ludicrous. And they’ve had your Jeep for a month now? Totally unacceptable. As you may tell...I’m very biased against “Stealerships.” Be wary when it comes time to pay.

 

[puddlesplasher]

I wouldn't be surprised to hear that my dealership never replaced a renegade clutch as they don't get manuals into inventory because most people don't want them, and they aren't really keen on doing factory orders for people. So if they are doing them, it's because someone shifted to them after purchasing someplace else.

Raz, the Jeep Renegade is proving to be a very popular purchase in the UK.

I have seen them in England and Scotland in ever increasing numbers. We have very large retail parks around the City dealing exclusively with particular brands of vehicles. Including one for Jeep that is only 10 minutes along the motorway. There is also an Arnold Clark Dealership, 2 minutes from my house though that is primarily Renault, yet the Jeeps are on the forecourts and gone within days.

Arnold Clark are buying in bulk and 5 years ago when I purchased mine each Dealership had been given 50 Jeeps to sell from something like 2500 Jeep Renegades of various types.

Fortunately for me Arnold Clark Dealerships in Scotland are increasing alarmingly and seeing Jeep Renegades on the road is now an every day occurence. I can barely drive 2 minutes to the shops without seeing another Jeep.

Imo I see this as being a good thing for Jeep owners. Knowing I can take my Jeep into any of the Dealerships, have them check the Jeep and transport it to a respective Dealerhip when they are unable to fix it is a winner.

With so many Jeeps on the roads within the West of Scotland is what I based my comment upon. I still maintain that Jeep Dealerships must have seen a clutch needing repaired, even more so when the guys on the forum are reporting faulty clutches and if they are reporting here then who else the country over is also reporting that doesn't use a forum?