DCT / PowerShift Transmission Update TSB Thread

[st falcon]

Originally Posted by cobie56

I see many of you, from reading this thread, have problems w/ ur dealerships. I have to give a plug here for Bailey ford in Malone NY, where i bought mine.. The sales dept and service dept have been great and very accomodating... giving me a loner when needed and making appts convienent to my schedule.

I just talked to a service advisor at Jack Demmer in Wayne, MI. (right across the street from Focus Final Assembly!) Houston (his name) was super helpful and had no idea why a dealer would not want to perform a 40-60 minute proceedure that Ford will pay them to do...Since our car is in the body shop there, he offered to do it right after it gets out of body work. If anyone is within 20-30 miles of Wayne, go to Demmer Ford for real care, from sales to service, and NO, I dont work there lol...

As for other, non-michigan Ford dealers, you'd think they would go the extra (or even the first) mile to win people over for good from the plethora of other brands they compete with. Ford's making the cars, the dealers have to seal the deal with service...sorry for a little sidetrack...

[danyall2010]

Originally Posted by st falcon

I just talked to a service advisor at Jack Demmer in Wayne, MI. (right across the street from Focus Final Assembly!) Houston (his name) was super helpful and had no idea why a dealer would not want to perform a 40-60 minute proceedure that Ford will pay them to do...Since our car is in the body shop there, he offered to do it right after it gets out of body work. If anyone is within 20-30 miles of Wayne, go to Demmer Ford for real care, from sales to service, and NO, I dont work there lol...

As for other, non-michigan Ford dealers, you'd think they would go the extra (or even the first) mile to win people over for good from the plethora of other brands they compete with. Ford's making the cars, the dealers have to seal the deal with service...sorry for a little sidetrack...

Both of you are lucky! I wish I coud bring the car to either dealer, but I am stuck here in South Florida and resistant dealers. I am going to try my luck again at 7,500 miles and I will look at more dealerships.

[cbsel]

I just bought my Focus less than two weeks ago. It has a build date of 9/12 so it's after they fixed the programing.

I've been experiencing the shudder, under light to normal acceleration it might hesitate before it actually starts moving, under light acceleration it will shift into 3rd followed by an immediate upshift to 3rd then wait for a second or two and shift back down into third. I tried dismissing these issues as just break in and the car going through a learning curve.

But yesterday I had to rapidly decelerate from 50mph to 20mph because some lady pulled out in front of me. I quickly changed lanes to the center lane and pushed on the accelerator and the car just revved for a few seconds and didn't go anywhere. It finally went into gear and took off. That I can't dismiss as just normal or being new.

When I bought my car from Earnhardt Ford in Chandler I left something in my old car so I went back today to get it and talked to a service advisor while I was there. I was describing the issues to her and she had a blank stare on her face like she didn't have a clue as to what I was talking about.

When I finished she said that the transmissions were slow but she didn't think they were that slow. When I mentioned the TSB she said there are always TSBs. Yes, I realize my car doesn't meet the build guidlines to have the TSB done.

She said I would have to take a service manager for a test drive to reproduce the symptoms but I didn't have time to do it just then and I had my daughter with me. From the impression I got from her they probably aren't going to do a thing about it.

[VOLDAR]

cbsel, there is a period of time/miles on car when the DCT should "break in" too. Usually after the 1000 miles you should no longer experience what you experience now (or a lot more less). It is not the fact that DCT "learns" your driving style during this period, but the DCT "learns" to shift. This is why I advise you to play with the it and not keep it at steady speeds. Change while driving from D to S and then back again after some miles, play even with the rocker-shifter. This way, the DCT will become smoother and more responsive. I did this with mine and almost all the time it is responsive and great (acting like a real manual tranny with an electronic clutch). I did experienced some "revs" when changing from driving at a steady speed for a while to pushing hard on the DCT, it takes a couple of seconds to respond, but the same is for an normal automatic tranny. So, this is my advice to you. If after the 1000 miles or so, you see no changes, go talk to your dealer !

[hand-filer]

Originally Posted by chum567

well mine is in for other problems plus the TSB update BUT....it brought in a sheet with the full TSB on it and he said he wouldnt look at it. He didnt achknowledge it when I tried to show him and point out how I had the same issues. He told me to jsut tell him my problems so I did in detail...and I mean detail. After that all he wrote down on the service sheet was rough idle/ vibration...I was like wtf. What about my hesitation and shuddering when acceleration and decelerating, RPM flares, and bad jerking at low speeds. I was very thrown off about how he said he wouldn't look at my sheet. I fear they will just say its normal.

I would have given him two options at that point:

A Drop the attitude and pay attention to what I'm telling you
B Let me speak to your supervisor.

I would consider looking for a dealership that is more attentive to their customers.

[flingwing1969]

Originally Posted by VOLDAR

cbsel, there is a period of time/miles on car when the DCT should "break in" too. Usually after the 1000 miles you should no longer experience what you experience now (or a lot more less). It is not the fact that DCT "learns" your driving style during this period, but the DCT "learns" to shift. This is why I advise you to play with the it and not keep it at steady speeds. Change while driving from D to S and then back again after some miles, play even with the rocker-shifter. This way, the DCT will become smoother and more responsive. I did this with mine and almost all the time it is responsive and great (acting like a real manual tranny with an electronic clutch). I did experienced some "revs" when changing from driving at a steady speed for a while to pushing hard on the DCT, it takes a couple of seconds to respond, but the same is for an normal automatic tranny. So, this is my advice to you. If after the 1000 miles or so, you see no changes, go talk to your dealer !

I pretty much followed all of that and it wasn't until AFTER 1k miles that the shudder appeared.

[VOLDAR]

Originally Posted by flingwing1969

I pretty much followed all of that and it wasn't until AFTER 1k miles that the shudder appeared.

Hmmm, strange. I did the same and I don't feel the shudder anymore. In fact, my car in trafic, now at 4500 km on board, when I depress the break, will slowly move forward without shuddering and without me pushing on the gas pedal. Like a manual tranny that is in the first gear, with the clutch pedal half pressed but without pushing on the gas pedal, if you know the feeling.

When I had the shudder (2 or 3 times) I pushed a bit harder on the gas. What I also did was another thing: never pushed on the gas pedal the second the green light is lit (at a redlight stop). I waited a half second and then push gradually on the pedal. It was working and it works now very well for me. I can't say it will work for everyone. But it does for me and my tranny is running smooth almost 99% of the time (nothing is perfect )

P.S. Is it possible the shudder appeared after 1k miles because you are trying to get great mpg and you use a feather-foot on the gas ? I'd say to you to not worry too much for the mpg at this stage, they will become more and more consistent as the car gets more mileage. Mine (if you look at my fuelly) is getting better and better mileage with the "miles on board" adding up. Last fillup was 31.5 mpg while my first (after the break in period) was 27 mpg even less. And I run the same "route" (to office and back + some week-end activities in the city) on winter tires, lower temperatures and 70mph on highway (mostly). Sometimes I go up to 75+ and still the mpg improves.

[flingwing1969]

Originally Posted by VOLDAR

Hmmm, strange. I did the same and I don't feel the shudder anymore. In fact, my car in trafic, now at 4500 km on board, when I depress the break, will slowly move forward without shuddering and without me pushing on the gas pedal. Like a manual tranny that is in the first gear, with the clutch pedal half pressed but without pushing on the gas pedal, if you know the feeling.

When I had the shudder (2 or 3 times) I pushed a bit harder on the gas. What I also did was another thing: never pushed on the gas pedal the second the green light is lit (at a redlight stop). I waited a half second and then push gradually on the pedal. It was working and it works now very well for me. I can't say it will work for everyone. But it does for me and my tranny is running smooth almost 99% of the time (nothing is perfect )

P.S. Is it possible the shudder appeared after 1k miles because you are trying to get great mpg and you use a feather-foot on the gas ? I'd say to you to not worry too much for the mpg at this stage, they will become more and more consistent as the car gets more mileage. Mine (if you look at my fuelly) is getting better and better mileage with the "miles on board" adding up. Last fillup was 31.5 mpg while my first (after the break in period) was 27 mpg even less. And I run the same "route" (to office and back + some week-end activities in the city) on winter tires, lower temperatures and 70mph on highway (mostly). Sometimes I go up to 75+ and still the mpg improves.

So there may be some hope, without paying for the high priced spread? I'll continue to use 89 octane for a few more tanks (if I continue to get smooth shifts) and continue my break-in efforts during that time - then I'll switch back to the economy stuff and run a few tanks through it to see how she goes. I only put about a hundred fifty miles a week on the car so it might take a while.

[dburrast]

Join Date: Oct 2011

Posts: 12







Re: Ford rushes to fix gearbox problems








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I got a call from ford on thursday. my new focus was labouring at low speeds because the transmission was in too high a gear. when the engine got hot there was a loud rattle(chatter) comming from the gearbox. i finally got the service manager to drive one for few days and he rang me agreeing that there was a problem and would take it up witht the ford reps. ford rang and said that the issues were a characteristic of the transmission when driven un der certain conditions and any part changes would have no effect. they are therefore not going to do anything about it. i told them to stick their cars up their buma nd everybody i speek to i will advise not to buy the heap of * focus or any other ford. this is the third time ford have done this to me over the years. i am going to contact as many car mags as i can and tell them about what has been going on with this car and fords arrogance in not doing anything fix it by saying it is a characteristic.
i am also going to see what trade in i can get on the new cruze hatch.
i also asked whether ford australia read the forums and was told no they do not. there is also no way to get to management at ford you can only go through the customer relations dept. the dealers also have no power whats so ever.
ford have lost me for ever
just a few more points . i use the high octane premium fuel fuel no change to gearing negligible extra fuel economy. do not let them con you they are really not bothering to do anything. this latest tsb was put through my car and no real improvement. i have now done 6500kilometers and the problem is getting worse.

[FF4]

what is the TSB number you had installed? You can find it on the paperwork.

if you didn't notice a change in the shift points, then it's not the same TSB as in the US. The TSB for the US cars is quite a noticeable improvement and noticeable change in shift points.

a Nov '11 review of the Focus by the New Zealand Herald said "The Sport comes only with the dual-clutch Powershift gearbox - it takes some getting used to, but it's smoother than the Volkswagen/Audi DSG system in urban running" "It's a brilliant new model, with a level of build quality and chassis sophistication that puts it absolutely at the top tier of small cars."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/motoring/n...ectid=10767725