Sundaram Motors Chennai's bad workmanship :

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superczar

superczar

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Folks, Please suggest what I should do after this:

A few months ago, there was am minor problem with the release bearing of my Corsa's clutch assembly...Whenevr I would depress the clutch, it would emit a mildly jarring noise....It was not a critical issue, more of a nuisance...

Anyway I took the car to the Sundaram GM authorized service center in Chennai who disassembled the clutch assembly and replaced it for a total of 6K/-

This Saturday night., I was driving down the ECR when all of a sudden, the gearshift refused to work....The gears would not budge at all when I tried to change them with the engin running...the gears would however engage when the engine was switched off.....

So I took the Car to Sundaram where they tell me that the Clutch Cover assembly (Also called the pressure plate ) has burnt out completely!!!!:S .....

A few quick googles revelaed that the only two causes for this could be wear (highly improbable for a 30K Km run car as the life for a Clutch cover assembly is ~1.5L kms) or incorrect assembly which would lead to this :

" When installing the clutch cover assembly, the cover assembly was not tightened in the proper sequence. When one retainer bolt is over tightened, the pressure applied bends the sheet metal of the cover hat assembly. When the hat is bent, the rings that the diaphragm rotate on are not parallel to the plane of rotation "

So in all likelihood, This is a case of sheer negligence by the Sundaram guys when they were reassembling my clutch assembly...........

Please suggest what should I do.....I am more than highly p&%$ed off at the Sundaram workshop.....

Anyway I can bring it to General Motor's notice? What should my recourse be?

Needless to say, they refuse to accept any responsibility for this.....
 
i used to give our fiat palio at sundaram . the branch at whites road. quite good service there (if a bit slow)

you should threaten legal action or something. cant let them get away with crap like this. having gears and stuff falling apart on you on ecr is no joke. and yes do contact GM if you can .

So I took the Car to Sundaram where they tell me that the Clutch Cover assembly (Also called the pressure plate ) has burnt out completely!!!! .....
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what did they do after this ?
 
Tell the company if you can get a number....

the car manufacturers usually take such cases seriously cause it really badly affects their sales.

Forget shahrukh khan ads. Sales are made by word of mouth.
 
threaten legal action , consumer courts are quick and mostly are in favour of the consumer , tell them that u will get them bad publicity thorugh media . Go to a lawyer and send them the first notice , they will get scared and comply after that . Dont worry , fight it out , its worth it .I have won a legal battle against a hoax sofa manufacturer who gave me a crappy 12 seater sofa with 5 years warranty on everything besides the upholstery , the sofa started giving way just after a month , the bastards kept giving me one date after another and never did anything . At the end of it i jus wanted revenge , i wanted to ****in blow that guys face with a shot gun . I hired a lawyer , and with the first notice , it scared the hell outta that b**ch . Got back a full refund , refund of the lawyer fees and 10k compensation .
 
let me give this another try tomorrow morning, and try to reason it out with them....with barely veiled threats....

will post back
 
superczar said:
they're saying that the whole assembly needs to be replaced at a cost of 10.75K
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ask them to shove the whole assembly up their ..... since you just got it replaced recently , dont let them charge you anything more.be firm on that and threaten legal action

hehe say you ll write to the paper as well :P
 
ask them to shove the whole assembly up their ..... since you just got it replaced recently
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@bottle.....there is aslight problem here.....they had not replaced the entire assembly last time....they had replaced the release bearing makes up a part of the full clutch aseembly....

Now the clutch pressre plate and the clutch disc form the other parts of this sealed system....The clutch plate is prone to failure esp. in city driving conditions or where ever lots of gear changes are involved...however, the pressure plate does not usually fail so soon...however, if the sealed system is not reassembled back properly and the torque distribution not balanced properly, that can result to premature failure of the pressure plated....now if clucth plate would have failed, i would not have raised an issue....however the burnt pressure plate is an almost sure sign that it was due to negligence on their part the last time around....

but since it was only a part, and not the full assembly they replaced, they have got an excuse ...

anyway, they are now willing to change th ewhole asembly at cost and w/o labour charges.....so it seems like a compromise that I think I will accept...

esp given the fact that It is difficult to manage without alternative means of transport so I need to get the car back up & running ASAP

Note to self: Never go to Sundaram, and also pass this piece of advice around
 
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i still think you shouldnt give in so easily.. at the very least they should have checked things out when you just gave it for servicing a day ago

also the fact that they are willing to waiver labour charges itself sounds kinda shady :P
 
^^ i know, and I hate to be a sitting duck....

but
esp given the fact that It is difficult to manage without alternative means of transport so I need to get the car back up & running ASAP
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so dunno really.....Also the clutch plate (not the pr. plate though)would have been due for a replacement after another 10k odd kms.....

since they are willing to change the whole set at reduced costs, so guess i'll take it....

not knowing the local language and a big paucity of time n weekdays do not make conumer court a very viable option for me.....

Ah well....You win some, you lose some....More of a loss in this case though :(
 
yahoo groups has quite a few auto user groups (indian based) see if you can find a corsa user group ;) and get some advice.. at least you ll be able to get e mail address and contact nos of someof the higher ups
 
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