I wonder if anyone can help,

I now know of 2 people with K13 latest shape but pre mid face-lift Micra 1.2's (13 plate and a 63 plate) who have suffered clutch failure.

The first person I put it down to the driver who I assumed being old would ride the clutch although he denied it.

Nissan refused to budge and he was charged a significant figure to put it right.

The 63 plate car has been diagnosed with clutch failure after the engine started revving higher than usual.

His local dealer tells him, depsite having it serviced as per schedule with themsleves, its not covered by the warranty and he 'must' have been ridding the clutch, and the best line of all 'they have never seen a clutch failure on a micra'.

The car has done 7,000 miles since being registered in November 2013.

A quick internet search suggests this is not the case, clutch failure is more common than Nissan would like to admit.

Is it worth paying for the work and re-claiming the costs from Nissan HQ or is there an alternative action available?

He is considering taking it to his independent mechanic who has promised he can do it for half the cost whatever the Nissan main dealer quotes.

IMO, Nissan is still on the decline and becoming as arrogant as sister company Renault and Dacia when it comes to common faults with their vehicles.

Interestingly, the Micra is built in the same junk factory as the early Dacia Dusters and Nissan/Renault have agreed to build the next generation car from its Clio factory in France.

Not all Japanense car manufacturers are the same when it comes to customer service and standing behind their products!

The face lift came out towards the end of the 63 plate.

The 2 cars in question where both pre facelift.

Talking to a Nissan tech, not alot changed mechanically with the facelift, it was purely cosmetics and trim levels.

Mods,

can we move this to the general disccusion thread to generate more interest?

Just thought I would add my tale of woe regarding the Nissan Micra K13 clutch. Mine is a 2012 1.2 that we bought new and was intended for my daughter when she turned 17 last year. So basically we had a low powered car that was not brand new but reliable for her.

Anyway surprise surprise she passed her test last year and used the Micra. Then after about 8 months I notice that the clutch is slipping. So I take it to Nissan where it is explained to me that even though I have an extended warranty the clutch is not covered. The car had done just 28k. I can understand this but having been driving for over 30yrs I had never known a clutch to fail so soon - or have I been very lucky with other cars?

So they quote me over £900 to replace the clutch and if I want to challenge the fact that it is down to a faulty part it will cost me £450 to remove the clutch and have it examined with no guarrantee to success. So after picking myself up off the floor at these quotes I advise them to have sex and travel in as polite a way as possible.

We were in a no win situation here, so I had the clutch, bearing, cover and slave cylinder replaced (the slave cylinder is apparently all part of the bearing assembly) by a quality independant for just over £500.

The mechanic showed me the clutch friction plate surface and I could see it was down to the rivits. A probable case of riding the clutch. Certainly there was excessive wear.

The only explanation I can put forward is that perhaps the composition of the friction material is slightly too soft. Or perhaps as this vehicle is very low powered and is used for town driving then changing gear is practically continual so excessive wear is a consequence of this. Who knows.

Its not just small engined small cars, this premature clutch wear can be seen increasingly on modern cars including some very expensive 4x4's.

The 4x4 i have in mind the engine was too small (bigger now) in swept volume for its very high first gear (powerful enough once the turbos are spinning merrily but lacking low down grunt as so many modern engines do), hence IMO the clutch is being slipped constantly but unconciously in use to get the vehicle moving from rest and at moving junctions.

I've been prattling on about this underpowered/overgeared in first and reverse problem with modern cars for years, i had to load the things in my previous work and it became apparent that as emissions became increasingly important that adequate low engine speed torque was vanishing in all but a few notable cases in many popular choice cars...oddly enough the little 3 pot Toyota engine in Aygo/107/C1 bucked this trend admirably for such a little engine, though not sadly in automated manual gearbox from hell form.

I'm going back over 5 years when i left that job, so my experience is fast going out of date, but from these threads it appears things are not getting any better.