2012 focus

[r1ch999999]

So my Focus has 950 or so miles on it and the shifting is getting bad, I scheduled an appointment for it, hopefully they can take care of this.

[r1ch999999]

Well, I have 1100 miles on it now, I took it to the dealer but neither of us were able to reproduce it. I figure I have 98900 miles until my warranty runs out so I have plenty of time.

[Tamakh]

My 2012 Focus Titanium (built 04/26/2011) has 21,000 miles and I drive 100 miles a day. I did notice the occasional hesitation/shudder, but didnt know what was going on until I started reading the forums again. Then on Friday my tachometer started going nuts up and down. The car was having a hard time not stalling out. From a stop it would shudder then finally get up to speed. After about 10 min of this it just completely shutdown and a burning smell started. The transmission light flashed on then went away before I could send a vehicle report. I had it towed to the local dealership that evening and of course the next day they were unable to get it to do it again. Their transmission guy drove it for the weekend and said they couldnt get it to do it again, but after taking apart the transmission they found oil between the engine and trans. The rep said to come get the car because the parts were on back order with no shipping date. I told the rep I drive 100 miles a day and I need a car thats not going to burst into flames, so now they have me in a Nissan POS death trap until the day the parts get shipped. I have owned a lot of cars and have NEVER had this kind of problem before. Was not a good weekend.

[Flapster]

Originally Posted by mr_cassandra

http://news.yahoo.com/ford-tumbles-a...--finance.html

Do your own diligence on the hundreds of posts here about this problem but I would ask you to consider a few questions.

1. Ford says the hesitation/stumbling problem is normal, why then does Consumer reports include it as a bad thing in its reviews?
2. Many other brands have this transmission, do they all have a similar problem? (my VW GTI did not)
3. when cold weather hit new england, 2/3 of my problem went away. If it is normal, why did it go away ?

If you like everything else about the car, like I do, you need to be tactfully persistent about this issue. Don't just take the party line from the dealer and go home. be willing to contact the Ford home office customer service.

And do your homework, once you have read the hundreds of other posts and if you have ever owned another brand like the VW GTI-same type transmission, then you are better equipped to continue seeking a resolution.

-I have had issues with mine since soon after purchase (May 2011).
-I made several phone calls and approx 4 trips to three different dealerships about it. One told me it was normal and that's just the way it is. One told me that they have been told to not touch it, that there was a bulletin from Ford stating that the engineers where working on the problem. The third did an update on it in October and it seemed to help for about 2 weeks. After about two weeks, the shake came back worse than before.
-I took it back to the third dealer and told them to check it again. At that point I spoke directly to a mechanic who stated that I have a bad clutch and that the focus's and fiesta's are eating them up. He stated that he replaced one recently and it solved the problem. So at 30,000 miles I had a clutch replaced.
-After driving for approx a month and a half, I have noticed a dramatic improvement in the shaking. It still does it once in a while but it is slight enough that I can live with it. The only thing I am noticing lately is a drop in gas mileage after the update. Don't know if it is related or not....

[Flapster]

Originally Posted by mr_cassandra

http://news.yahoo.com/ford-tumbles-a...--finance.html

Do your own diligence on the hundreds of posts here about this problem but I would ask you to consider a few questions.

1. Ford says the hesitation/stumbling problem is normal, why then does Consumer reports include it as a bad thing in its reviews?
2. Many other brands have this transmission, do they all have a similar problem? (my VW GTI did not)
3. when cold weather hit new england, 2/3 of my problem went away. If it is normal, why did it go away ?

If you like everything else about the car, like I do, you need to be tactfully persistent about this issue. Don't just take the party line from the dealer and go home. be willing to contact the Ford home office customer service.

And do your homework, once you have read the hundreds of other posts and if you have ever owned another brand like the VW GTI-same type transmission, then you are better equipped to continue seeking a resolution.

-I have had issues with mine since soon after purchase (May 2011).
-I made several phone calls and approx 4 trips to three different dealerships about it. One told me it was normal and that's just the way it is. One told me that they have been told to not touch it, that there was a bulletin from Ford stating that the engineers where working on the problem. The third did an update on it in October and it seemed to help for about 2 weeks. After about two weeks, the shake came back worse than before.
-I took it back to the third dealer and told them to check it again. At that point I spoke directly to a mechanic who stated that I have a bad clutch and that the focus's and fiesta's are eating them up. He stated that he replaced one recently and it solved the problem. So at 30,000 miles I had a clutch replaced.
-After driving for approx a month and a half, I have noticed a dramatic improvement in the shaking. It still does it once in a while but it is slight enough that I can live with it. The only thing I am noticing lately is a drop in gas mileage after the update. Don't know if it is related or not....
-I would also agree that the cold weather seems to play a factor also, as it seems to run much much smoother when its cold that when its warm out...

[mk2dubvr]

Originally Posted by PratoN

This is probably where my future posts on this topic belong.

What is your build date? There is a TSB (11-12-13) published on December 23, 2011 that states some cars might have transmission fluid leaking where the bell housing meets the engine. If you have this, get it fixed.

Unfortunately, the literature states nothing about the symptoms other than the leak. But from what I've heard from others that have this issue, their car makes a "grinding" or "rattling" noise while shifting (almost always into 2nd, 4th, 6th, and reverse due to their design sharing the same clutch) as well as slipping while accelerating on level ground and/or keeping steady speeds uphill.

If you don't have the transmission fluid under your vehicle, I presume we're in the same boat. I dropped my car off at the dealership this morning because of the slipping and mentioned someone I knew had the same noise except their car was leaking transmission fluid and mine isn't. I hope that steered them in the right direction. I don't want to have to go in there and say "Here is TSB 11-12-13. This is the issue. Fix it." because I'm only 99% certain that it is and to go over their heads seems rude.

How exactly do you know bout the tsb's ? If you're a ford tech you should know that's not public information.

[r1ch999999]

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/tsbs/tsbsearch.cfm

[mr_cassandra]

mk2, TSB information is available on several websites across the internet plus quoted here by ford owners who have had a TSB applied. Rather than being a secret, we should welcome Fords follow thru on focus problems and pursue it vigorously.

[mk2dubvr]

Perhaps but any dealer I know doesn't give out copies of tsb's to customers. Put it this way when you log on to Inford the first thing it says is to not share or post any info. Which keeps guys like me employed so that not any run of the mill mechanic can diagnose and fix everything. On the other hand I am more than willing to provide insight and inform others if needed

[PratoN]

Originally Posted by mk2dubvr

Perhaps but any dealer I know doesn't give out copies of tsb's to customers. Put it this way when you log on to Inford the first thing it says is to not share or post any info. Which keeps guys like me employed so that not any run of the mill mechanic can diagnose and fix everything. On the other hand I am more than willing to provide insight and inform others if needed

Pretty much the same thing for other users. I have access to TSBs through work as well, but I don't go around passing out copies to everyone. It's a pretty ubiquitous problem, like the steering rack issue, so everyone already knows the TSB# and what it addresses.

The way I see it is that it is 2012 - with this much technology it's not fair for Joe Schmoe to be told his car is supposed to grind / zig-zag on the highway. They don't post them because then everyone wants a new clutch / steering rack - even if they don't need one. But I've been turned down for a BCM update for intermittent IA issues because the dealer said they couldn't replicate it. I haven't gone back yet, but if I do I'll have to claim it on my extended warranty because I'm at 40k miles.

This morning I pulled/swiped the handle 10 times before giving up and pulling the key out of my pocket.

If someone hadn't posted it on here, I might not know that there is a fix for it. Of course, now I do and have the dissatisfaction of being denied it.