I read most of the posts on this thread
Hello Focus Folks. This thread is interesting.
My 2014 Ford Focus Ti with Ti handling pkg shifted weird from new, but I didn't realize it until I read about this problem on the internet in forums. It shuddered in first and second gear and was not a smooth shifter. After about 1200 miles, the tranny started making the well known grinding sound, especially at about 20mph, only noticeable with the stereo off, so it could have started a bit earlier.
I had the most recent TSB applied at about 1400 miles and they replaced the clutch seals (but the tranny guy told me my car "already had the newest clutch seals and that they were not leaking anyway".) So any improvement was from the reprogram only. [confused]
The car drove better, shifted better and the noise seemed to be gone for perhaps 600 miles, then I heard it again. A grind at 1-2 and 2-3 shifts. The Ford techs say it actually happens at each shift, but at higher speeds, it is covered up by road noise.
Anyway, the car shifts and drives fine at present and in cold weather, it doesn't seem to be making the noise. It has almost 4000 miles on it now. It took an additional 1000 miles for the car to fully smooth out to its present state after the TSB software fix, supposedly due to the fact that I drive a lot on the hwy and have fewer shifts as a result.
Somewhere here I read that the noise might be due to changes in viscosity at higher temps...but of course the car gets up to the mid range on the temp gauge whether it hot or cold out. Perhaps there is a real difference between the temp of the engine and the temp of this fluid, I don't know, but now that it averages 50 degrees here, the tranny works better and the noise is minimized, and at times seems gone. [:0]
All this aside, I would not buy another DCT equipped car. My wife's new Mazda CX-5 shifts "normally". I don't feel like driving a car that makes weird noises at low speeds while driving around a parking lot with onlookers wondering if I am grinding the gears, and me wondering if it will put me back in the shop during my 60,000 mile lease (even though the tranny/clutch are covered all the way to the end of my lease). Its just not the driving experience I was looking for. [mad]
The loaded Focus cost me $24000 or so. Less than many of the other cars I drove and $7000 less than my wife's loaded Mazda CX-5. The lease deal on a loaded Subaru Outback Limited would have set me back $495 a month to this Focus's $370 (both are about $100 high due to the 20,000 miles a year lease costing more). The AWD Outback would have cost an additional $250 a year in fuel costs. Add all that up and its a noticeable $2250 more for 36 months...but my time is worth quite a bit too.
At present, I plan to keep the Focus at least a year and then may dump it and take a loss to get out of the lease, not only due to the DCT, but the Ti handling package was a mistake for my lower back (my fault for picking it and not driving it for several hours, having test driven only a "regular handling Focus").
I also think...at age 50, do I really want to drive a noise maker for 36 months when I only have about 25-30 years of driving left? For those who think they will be driving at age 85-90...you might want to look around when you are out and about. While about one out of every four 65-year-olds today will live past age 90, and one out of 10 will live past age 95, they aren't driving the car next to you...they are eating tapioca at the extended care facility. [offtopic] Well, maybe in Florida, they are, but here in Michigan, there are fewer drivers over age 80 on the road...many are driving motorized wheel chairs.
For the curious, you can use the governments life expectancy calculator here:
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/population/longevity.html
Mine read out at 82 projected, but no male in my family has ever lived past age 80, unless I go back several generations. So, 10% of my residual life in the Focus? Yay or Nay...likely Nay. [werd]