DCT Complaints Thread

[Kabigon]

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r7521069-DCT-problems

Oh wait... nevermind.

[MyThIc3LiTe]

Originally Posted by Kaaru

That's a bit harsch indeed. In order to fully understand what I have paid for, it has to be fully understood by the sales people in order to them to explain it to me before I put my signature at the bottom on the sales act. Seriously, if my salesman would have told me all the quirks and behavior of the DCT, I would have purchased another car.

And oh, yeah, I did test drive twice. One time I test drove it by doing my comute back and forth. No problems. I test drove it another time on the highway, again no noticable weird behavior.

Back in october 2011 there wasnt as much information about the DCT floating around for the regular Joe that I am. The damm thing was sold to me as an automatic. I was expecting the car to behave like an automatic. Hell, the sales people were probably less informed than some of you guys.

I now understand that DCT's are becomming a new trend, so, my next car will probably be equiped by such a ''feature''. Hopefully, the next one will benefit from what Ford is going tru right now. My previous car had a CVT with a shifttronic feature. The thing was solid, smooth and deliverd as expercted. I'm NOT bashing Ford or ALL of the Focus's around. Mine isnt just going well and is a source of frustration and worryness. It's hard to swallow when you shed 29K for a car that doesnt deliver.

Oh and by the way, I did the air filter swap last weekend. Didnt see any change in the behavior of the car. Weather is slowly getting fresher and cooler, so the car boggs less and seems to better perform in cool weather. DCT affected by heat/cool...I think not. It must be sensor related or something else. My uneducated 2 cents about my issues: It looks like the trottle message from the gaz pedal doesnt go correclty to the engine.

We'll see. I'll be happy to report back when someone at Ford or my dealer finds whatever is wrong with Gertrude.

/end rant

I'd rather have my testicles chopped off if the choice was that or driving a CVT.

If a torque converter says you don't care about driving, a CVT says you've given up.

CVTs are hands down the worst things I've ever experience. Useless revving, fake ratios, constant drone, what's the point?

I'd rather have a well sorted ZF 8 speed over a CVT.

[jdetzel]

Originally Posted by oritpro

People should be complaining to their dealer where the problems are likely to get resolved. Complaining on a forum just gets you a lot of "yeah mine does that too" or "my DCT is perfect and I love it" responses.

I think what we really need here is a DCT FAQ and a list of known problems/work-arounds/TSB's etc... You know, useful stuff.

So how is one supposed to use the forum?

[jagreene]

Originally Posted by BetaDnB

Do it here. Stop flooding threads that have nothing to do with DCT or transmissions in general with the complaints. We all know a lot of you have problems without it being brought up everywhere, every second, of every day.

So you're complaining about people writing on unrelated threads.... I get that. But you took the time to write on my thread that has the word "problems" in the title about how I shouldn't share my story in a new thread of my own. I think it's safe to assume people who don't always use this forum would figure a new thread would be seen by people and an old thread wouldn't. Plus who wants to sift through 99 pages of all sorts of different conversations when they can start their own? I don't see you complaining about the people who write new "my Sync doesn't work" threads. There are plenty of those.

Almost everyone who has posted on this thread is LUCKY enough to have their BIGGEST problem be that it's annoying to hear about the DCT issues. Just be happy that you don't have any. I mean it's not easy for some of us to get help, and this forum has helped a lot of people get somewhere. So if you are so happy with your car and don't want to know anymore about the real transmission problems how about this? DON'T READ ANY threads that say anything about "problems" "transmissions" etc... and you won't have to be annoyed.

It's so disheartening that you take it to a nasty level. You can say what you want... but my car DOES have a problem and the clutch IS being replaced after one year of ownership and only 12k miles. So seriously, have respect for people and some compassion... jeez.

[cobie56]

Originally Posted by gambit293

I think that's being a bit harsh. Let's be honest here: to most people, there are automatics and there are manuals. Heck, I'd bet that many people don't even really understand what a transmission even does, let alone relatively new tech like a DCT. Does that mean that they shouldn't drive cars? It's not as if Ford draws particular attention to the different characteristics of a DCT when selling the car to you.

As for myself, I intentionally testdrove the DCT having read various consumer reviews complaining about the transmission. During the testdrive, I decided up front that I could live with the quirks. It's only been a few weeks, but so far I'm generally fine with its behavior.

I tend to notice the hesitation much more in reverse. That will take some getting used to. Also, the car seems to idle a bit roughly. Not sure if that is a tranny or just plain engine issue.

I would have to agree with both of you. Yes, one should research what they are going to purchase before buying it, and, as such, should know about the product and its pitfalls.
On the other hand, the focus is a mass market not-too-expensive car and ford DOES advertise it as an automatic. Folks who are not 'car people' will just assume it's a reg slush box.

Should they have researched it? yes. But then ford should not be touting this as an automatic. It should be advertised as a DCT and the word 'automatic' should be left out. That will eliminate much confusion.

[kam327]

Originally Posted by oritpro

People should be complaining to their dealer where the problems are likely to get resolved. Complaining on a forum just gets you a lot of "yeah mine does that too" or "my DCT is perfect and I love it" responses.

Not always true. I got some great advice on here when I first started having DCT shudder. Someone recommended the 5 full throttle starts and agessive shifting. It worked. Only to come back somewhat after 12B37, but it's finally smoothing out again.

I think many people do come to these forums to find answers, and sometimes they actually get them.

Originally Posted by MyThIc3LiTe

I'd rather have my testicles chopped off if the choice was that or driving a CVT.

So you're the type that has a couple of early bad experiences and then swears something off forever. CVTs seem to be steadily getting better. The new Altima's and Accord's CVTs are getting relatively well reviewed. And all while delivering the same mileage as our Focus despite them being larger, heavier, and more powerful. I still prefer a well-performing DCT or TQ tranny, but the days of widespread CVT bashing may be coming to a close....

Originally Posted by jagreene

Almost everyone who has posted on this thread is LUCKY enough to have their BIGGEST problem be that it's annoying to hear about the DCT issues. Just be happy that you don't have any. I mean it's not easy for some of us to get help, and this forum has helped a lot of people get somewhere. So if you are so happy with your car and don't want to know anymore about the real transmission problems how about this? DON'T READ ANY threads that say anything about "problems" "transmissions" etc... and you won't have to be annoyed.

+1,000% everything here. All stuff I've said over the past 6 months.

[suss6052]

Originally Posted by jagreene

So you're complaining about people writing on unrelated threads.... I get that. But you took the time to write on my thread that has the word "problems" in the title about how I shouldn't share my story in a new thread of my own. I think it's safe to assume people who don't always use this forum would figure a new thread would be seen by people and an old thread wouldn't. Plus who wants to sift through 99 pages of all sorts of different conversations when they can start their own? I don't see you complaining about the people who write new "my Sync doesn't work" threads. There are plenty of those.

Almost everyone who has posted on this thread is LUCKY enough to have their BIGGEST problem be that it's annoying to hear about the DCT issues. Just be happy that you don't have any. I mean it's not easy for some of us to get help, and this forum has helped a lot of people get somewhere. So if you are so happy with your car and don't want to know anymore about the real transmission problems how about this? DON'T READ ANY threads that say anything about "problems" "transmissions" etc... and you won't have to be annoyed.

It's so disheartening that you take it to a nasty level. You can say what you want... but my car DOES have a problem and the clutch IS being replaced after one year of ownership and only 12k miles. So seriously, have respect for people and some compassion... jeez.

I would have to wonder how its possible on a transmission with a 150k service interval that you managed to need a new twin disk clutch pack in less than 12k miles. That was a service life of 8% of the initial estimate provided. With my old car which was a normal manual transmission with 191k miles on it when I bought it and unknown wear on the clutch (it had grabbed good from day one until after I stopped driving it for my new Focus), I had put over 44000 miles on it under all sorts of driving conditions including heavy stop and go traffic and I never needed to replace the clutch. I was considering it as a precaution since the state was unknown, but I got rid of the car before it was necessary.

If a computer is shifting the gearbox and the programming was correct it would have a far smaller chance of constantly slipping the clutch or grinding gears than a human would. However that being said one can't discount the possibility of it being a badly built unit, or perhaps there was a leaky seal in the gearbox that finally destroyed the clutch pack. Oil will kill the clutch disks easily.

You say you were frightened by a "roll back" which is a characteristic of all manual transmissions when you don't give it enough throttle to over come gravity and it rolls backwards briefly before moving forward. That should not have been a surprise had the dealer informed you truthfully that the automatic in this car was different from the one in your last car, but alas most are just interested in the sale no matter what.

Do you have a tendency to either left foot brake or creep up hills at 1-2 mph a lot? Those may cause issues with the car.

Yes I understand that Ford sells the car as an automatic and its your assumption that you should just drive it like any other car and not have any issues. I understand that its likely due to faulty mechanical components rather than driver error in many cases. I would just like to know how it was possible for a computer to be wrong so many times in 12000 miles that it would do more damage than even a moderately skilled driver with a normal clutch pedal/ normal manual gearbox.

At the end of the day there are many factors which influence the service life of components, from build tolerances to how they are used.

It would be annoying if not frustrating however if your concerns were being ignored/ falling on deaf ears. Its a good thing they are going to repair it under warranty if it was due to the car itself, but if its environmental then it may re-appear within 12000 miles.

[gambit293]

For what it's worth, none of the four dealers I visited during my shopping said anything about the DCT, besides pointing out the manual shift feature.

Also, from my perspective, ALL of the DCT's goofiness will be forgiven if it continues to shift past 100,000 without any major problems. On the other hand, I will be spewing lightning and fireballs if it suffers a major failure prior to 50,000.

[kam327]

Originally Posted by suss6052

I would have to wonder how its possible on a transmission with a 150k service interval that you managed to need a new twin disk clutch pack in less than 12k miles. That was a service life of 8% of the initial estimate provided

Several others on the forum have had at least one clutch replaced at low mileage, like that "riderbike" guy that seems to be a "car guy."

And on a side note, manufacturer's recommended service intervals are often a joke. On Ford's 3V 4.6L V8 the spark plugs are supposed to be good for 100k miles, but if you don't change them by 50k they get carbon buildup on the threads and tend to break off in the head due to their poor design. The design was changed for '07 because of it.

Don't be surprised if the DCT clutches are changed in some way for '14.

[jagreene]

Originally Posted by suss6052

I would have to wonder how its possible on a transmission with a 150k service interval that you managed to need a new twin disk clutch pack in less than 12k miles. That was a service life of 8% of the initial estimate provided. With my old car which was a normal manual transmission with 191k miles on it when I bought it and unknown wear on the clutch (it had grabbed good from day one until after I stopped driving it for my new Focus), I had put over 44000 miles on it under all sorts of driving conditions including heavy stop and go traffic and I never needed to replace the clutch. I was considering it as a precaution since the state was unknown, but I got rid of the car before it was necessary.

If a computer is shifting the gearbox and the programming was correct it would have a far smaller chance of constantly slipping the clutch or grinding gears than a human would. However that being said one can't discount the possibility of it being a badly built unit, or perhaps there was a leaky seal in the gearbox that finally destroyed the clutch pack. Oil will kill the clutch disks easily.

You say you were frightened by a "roll back" which is a characteristic of all manual transmissions when you don't give it enough throttle to over come gravity and it rolls backwards briefly before moving forward. That should not have been a surprise had the dealer informed you truthfully that the automatic in this car was different from the one in your last car, but alas most are just interested in the sale no matter what.

Do you have a tendency to either left foot brake or creep up hills at 1-2 mph a lot? Those may cause issues with the car.

At the end of the day there are many factors which influence the service life of components, from build tolerances to how they are used.

It would be annoying if not frustrating however if your concerns were being ignored/ falling on deaf ears. Its a good thing they are going to repair it under warranty if it was due to the car itself, but if its environmental then it may re-appear within 12000 miles.

Well, I agree with you. I don't creep up hills at all I charge them! Again, I don't have all the information to understand how cars work as I have never tried before... but I am learning more and more as my problems go on with this car. What I can tell you is the transmission tech told me my car was shifting wrong all the time, as did my third party mechanic. I drove the car perfectly fine for almost a year... to be honest my problems didn't really start til right around or right after the first TSB was performed.

And yes, I was frightened on the roll back the first time, because I didn't know the car would do that. I was just told it was a fancy automatic that got me better gas mileage. I did read a little bit about it back then, but everyone just said it was cutting edge technology, praise this praise that. As for the rolling back after I realized it... it wasn't that big of a deal. I knew what to look out for and I could handle it. I never even really cared about that to be honest.

But... then the noise started. Then the loss in acceleration, the shaking (and I'm not talking about the normal shaking...), the jutting forward... It was all happening without me doing a damn thing! I tried driving it more aggressively... that did nothing. I even noticed my gas mileage while driving the same roads began to decline. (Coincidence? I don't know to be honest). So I began to tell the dealer. They ignored my complaints said it was all normal... and thus my story goes on. It got worse and worse and worse. Driver error? I thought so at first too... so i had my family mechanic drive it and even the tech guy at my dealer. They had the same problems I did and couldn't stop them.

So... I'm not sure what happened. But I agree with you. I don't think replacing the clutch will do a damn thing if the computer isn't shifting properly. They haven't updated me on this issue yet... The clutch pack is supposed to come in today. Time will tell.