Article by Andrew Kelly Owner of Drighlington MOT and service station.

Not all jobs go to plan. After completing the LUK DSG clutch course we were pleased when a 2011 VW Golf 1.6 Bluemotion with the 7 speed DSG gearbox fitted and a clutch fault. After a discussion with the customer some element of doubt was creeping in. Something just didn’t quite add up.

After he tried haggling the price and getting nowhere, it was explained to the customer that these boxes cannot be removed without the special tool and if we suspected anyone had tried to remove the box we would not proceed with the job. He assured us he had owned the car for quite a while and nothing had been done in regards to the gearbox.

The clutch and special tool were duly ordered and when they arrived the car was brought in the work commenced. It was apparent from the beginning that things weren’t as they should be. Clips were missing from induction pipes, The battery wasn’t secured and alarm bells were starting to ring. Further investigation found the Multiplug for the Metatronics box siliconed to the gearbox casing and the alloy gearbox mounting was smashed across two bolt holes..

One of the main criteria for removing these boxes is to not lose any oil. Sending the car up in the air soon showed that whoever had been here before had really screwed this up. The drain plug for the box was beyond mangled! At that point the customer was telephoned and promptly told to come and take his car away. He arrived with two brothers and seemed to accept our findings although one of the brothers refused to take on board what we were saying. We stood our ground and the car left.

Obviously we were disappointed not to complete the job after taking the course. We are the only accredited garage in the area for these clutches and it is annoying when customers try to shortcut or don’t appreciate the time and effort that goes into training and the expense of buying specialist equipment.

Not every job we undertake is a success but you have to stand your ground and not be bullied into doing work for less than it’s worth or to lower standards and take on work that will come back and haunt you!