Is the clutch under warranty for the RX-8? I wore out my clutch a couple of time on my '97 Eclipse and it wasn't covered under warranty. I know my dad's 5 series BMW's clutch IS covered under warranty. Does anyone know what the story is with the *8* as far as that goes? New clutchs' cost a pretty penny.

 

No, clutches usually fall under wear & tear items.
I had an RX-3 when I was much younger, and I found the best way to blow away V8s was to rev it to seven thousand and feather the clutch in. Well after six months or so of this treatment the clutch went into retirement, and I found the downside to this driving technique.....$480 worth in 1976 $!
Definately treat your clutch like it was gold plated, any fast runs should be done from a rolling start, and avoid San Francisco!

 

Actually, it's my understanding that on most if not all cars, EVERYTHING is covered for the first year or 12,000 miles including clutches, tires, and wear and tear items. I think it has something to do with the lemon law or some other consumer law. Identifiable abuse of course may void the warranty during that time period, but I am not 100% sure. Again, I just remeber this being mentioned on a number of cars I've purchased.

 

(^_^) LOL!!!

 

It may have been those particular cars. Wear items are never covered unless you have a higher end vehicle with a special program (like the free maintenance programs that come with Audis and BMWs.)

Tires are almost never covered unless it's an obvious defect (sidewall bulge or such) and even then they're covered under the tire manufacturer's separate warranty (which usually means replacement with cost on a pro-rata basis.) Even with the free maintenance programs they usually will cover something like a clutch ONCE in 4 years/50K.

Otherwise, for something like a clutch, if you managed to fry one in less than a year it would likely be covered once under a "goodwill" policy, but there would certainly be no REQUIREMENT to do so...

 

I thought the clutch was part of the powertrain warranties?

 

No, the clutch is definitely a wear item, just like brake pads.

If there's a known problem like the clutch judder problem affecting a small percentage of 2001/2002 Miatas, then the clutch is replaced under warranty.

If you wear out a clutch through poor driving habits, the manufacturer is under no obligation to replace it for you. If a BMW clutch replacement was covered under warranty, then either it had a defect or the BMW warranty specifically covers wear items - maybe Audi does as well, but nobody else (certainly not Mazda) will.

Regards,
Gordon

 

FWIW, clutches that need replacement due to normal wear and tear are not covered under the Audi warranty per se, but ONE replacement is covered under the "Audi Advantage" program that provides for free maintenance during the warranty period; perhaps the same is true for BMW.