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I'm just glad I spotted it now, rather than later down the line, this is my first VW as I used to own a Ford Fiesta, and didn't know much about motors then to spot a slipping clutch. Left it too late and it conked out down the motorway. I did get it replaced in the end but wish I knew the signs. I've known people to "nurse" slipping clutches for 2 years!!

Car is now with the autocentre. Someone pray with me the gearbox isn't fooked lol.

It drove ok again, even up a bridge, never got into 4th gear though. Does this funny thing if you slow down but stay in a higher gear it shudders then sort of revs on its own, that's a good thing though isn't it? E.g if doing 15mph in 3rd/4th.

Thatll be the clutch going

I would be shocked if the gearbox has issues.

Is it? I bought this in February and it did this so I'd be amazed if its been on its death bed since then!

I would literally cry if they were to find something with it, or would that be their ploy to try and get more money off me cos they're assuming I'm a noob with cars and wouldn't know better. After all they wouldn't have fitted the tyres if they knew its not worth doing and also wouldn't have offered me to book it in if they knew something was wrong.

Clutches slipping can take months to actually die.

It could be - whatever they come back with, post it up on here before agreeing to any additional work.

A garage will do whatever makes them more money sometimes...deceitful trading practice really.

But its a good thing I spotted it whilst its still in a drivable condition now rather than the frequent constand high revs every time? I think I've only experienced two occasions with the accelerator pedal going to the floor and no change in speed. Before in my old car it'd happen more often and by then it was too late. When I changed that clutch nothing was wrong with the gearbox.

Yeah I'm getting more experienced with them, they make out more work needs doing than there actually is.

The diesels are fairly forgiving due to low revs so the clutches can take longer to wear out

Yup - very common practice. Damned cheeky if you know no better.

Its been on the motorway weekly for pretty much 6 months, so I would have noticed something then I reckon.

I had it serviced a couple of months ago at a Bosch place and they made out it needed £1600 worth of repairs! I almost laughed in their face when they told me. Cos they saw it was an old motor and ageing they thought they'd try and be smart to try and make up work, took it to a mobile mechanic who came from a recommendation from my neighbour and not only did he change the cambelt for a good price, he also said all the other stuff didn't need doing!

Motorways are fairly forgiving given its a fairly constant speed and load on the engine. Town driving is the killer with lots of stop start.

Yeah pretty much all the driving I've done in it has been in 5th gear for about 45 minutes in a straight line. Town driving is something I try to avoid, as I hate all the stop starting at lights and traffic.

Ok, just spoken to the auto centre, they need to source a clutch cable which apparently is a discontinued part, and haven't been able to get hold of a supplier. So they are now keeping my car in overnight. Good news is that there's nothing wrong with the gearbox, but I would have expected them to know that this model needs a cable clutch?

It wont be discontinued - they just arent looking hard enough

Whats your reg number?

Maybe I should have told them before I booked it in that it needs one, cos another mechanic I know said it needs a cable.

Its an X reg, will send it in a PM

Euro car parts stock them:

http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/c/Volks ... 35a&000063

GSF will stock them too

Yeah I just did a search, if they try and charge me over £30-40 for it I'm not having that, cos that's the RRP of the part. Maybe they're covering up for the fact they haven't started the work cos of other cars there, hence the delay. These places make up stuff to sell the story they didn't get a chance to work on your car.