Hey everyone, first post after lurking for months! Sorry if i seem like a broken record; just wanted to share my experience with my 2012 focus that I bought in September of 2012. It's an SFE package and after a couple of days I noticed the infamous grinding noise. My dealership was concerned and replaced the clutches/clutch assembly. It still made the noise after this. The dealership got a ford engineer to come in and he deemed it as normal behavior. So from then on my original dealer would not touch my focus. I got a second opinion from another ford dealer early this year. They didn't know how to fix it so they brought in another engineer who again said it was normal. So after months of living with the grind I took my car in last week for a crunching noise i sometimes heard. I asked the service depot to check out why my car was vibrating and shuddering at take off. Got a call today saying my entire clutch assembly needed to be replaced AGAIN. so in the past year I have gotten my clutches replaced TWICE! I really love my car and its gas mileage but am questioning if I have to replace clutches every year. I have also had 2 work cases with a Ford CSM.
My DCT Experience
JAKERR
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Hey everyone, first post after lurking for months! Sorry if i seem like a broken record; just wanted to share my experience with my 2012 focus that I bought in September of 2012. It's an SFE package and after a couple of days I noticed the infamous grinding noise. My dealership was concerned and replaced the clutches/clutch assembly. It still made the noise after this. The dealership got a ford engineer to come in and he deemed it as normal behavior. So from then on my original dealer would not touch my focus. I got a second opinion from another ford dealer early this year. They didn't know how to fix it so they brought in another engineer who again said it was normal. So after months of living with the grind I took my car in last week for a crunching noise i sometimes heard. I asked the service depot to check out why my car was vibrating and shuddering at take off. Got a call today saying my entire clutch assembly needed to be replaced AGAIN. so in the past year I have gotten my clutches replaced TWICE! I really love my car and its gas mileage but am questioning if I have to replace clutches every year. I have also had 2 work cases with a Ford CSM.
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It might be a minor inconvenience right now, but after the warranty is over that's going to be a *huge* cost problem if they don't figure it out. Imagine having to replace the clutches once every year or two for the life of the car.
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You should not have to pay anything until you hit 36,000.
Do you know if the seals were leaking (and were replaced) in the second repair?
One possibility:
The "grinding" noise (I call it rattling) seems to be harmless so the first clutch didn't need to be replaced (the noise was still present with the new clutch).
The second clutch was replaced because of oil contamination caused by a bad seal. That is why I asked if any seals were replaced.
No seals have gone bad in my focus. I'm not saying the grinding/rattling noise is bad; I've seen the video from Ford saying why it makes a noise and that it's normal behavior and have heard from numerous Ford techs saying it's normal. I'm more concerned because my car has essentially destroyed two sets of clutches already in only 13,000 miles of driving. Like I said, there's no bad seals which makes me even more concerned.
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I think it is time to trade your focus in while it still has some trade in value.
Unfortunately, I think that is what will end up happening. After two repairs on the clutches, I don't know if I want to wait to see if there will be a third time.
Thanks for your reply.
From what you can determine, was the first clutch really bad?
How bad was the shuddering before the second clutch was replaced?
My first clutch was absolutely horrible. Jerked me around and shuddered real bad. Service tech said it was burnt to a crisp. This second time I was surprised it was because of a bad clutch. The shuddering really wasn't nearly as bad as the first time.
Either your service tech is not be forthwith in sharing what really happened to your clutches, or your car is an anomoly, in that, the programming is truly allowing the clutch to destroy itself (barring the leaking seal that was not replaced, as per TSB 11-12-13). But, from what you're saying, no seal replacement since you say "no seals have gone bad in my Focus", so, your car is definately not "normal" and certainly unusual. Most cars that have had slipping or "shuddering' clutches, was due to transmission oil contamination from the bad input shaft seals, which is well documented, and once fixed, no more issues.
Ugh. The bad DCT news just keeps rolling in. I'm sorry you're having so much trouble.
Stuff like this makes me want to ditch the Ti before I have to start making repeated visits to the dealer. Perfect excuse for me to go see if I can wrangle a deal on an ST1 I found this weekend. No MFT, no DCT. Sounds perfect to me. I just wish the ST was available in Blue Candy.
Stuff like this makes me want to ditch the Ti before I have to start making repeated visits to the dealer. Perfect excuse for me to go see if I can wrangle a deal on an ST1 I found this weekend. No MFT, no DCT. Sounds perfect to me. I just wish the ST was available in Blue Candy.
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3,947 Posts
Isn't it powertrain which makes it 60k?
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Technically, yes - for repair.
Although, I paid ~$110 for diagnostics, but the transmission tech told me the grinding was "normal", so the diagnostic was not covered under warranty as I was past 36k miles.
My guess is with pozi, they probably didn't replace his leaky seals.
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470 Posts
In 2014 I hope they will put a NORMAL automatic transmission with 5 speeds.
I think, in 3 or 4 years, it will be a desaster when the warranty will end for the older 3rd gens. That's pathetic, come on Ford...
I think, in 3 or 4 years, it will be a desaster when the warranty will end for the older 3rd gens. That's pathetic, come on Ford...
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14,892 Posts
I would hope they would not put a lousy torque converter automatic with 5 speeds, or even 6 speeds (like the 6F35).
They are jumpy, can't make up their minds, are inefficient due to all the fluid they have to pump around, and burn themselves up (brake bands/ clutches self destructing).
Even a smoother shifting 6 speed slush box is not something I'd look forward to.
Give me a 6MT and then you could have your lousy slush box, otherwise I'd rather have the DCT over a 5MT.
And I was this close to ordeing a 5MT because I do like shifting manually, but it just didn't have the legs to bring the engine speed down enough at freeway speeds, hence why I'd prefer a 6MT with a similarly tall 6th gear as the DCT.
Its been my experience that the DCT is much better than the majority of slush boxes in the sector. The Cruze is awful, the Corolla is still groaning on with an old 4 speed, the previous focus four speed auto was especially jumpy with a slight change in throttle position. It drove me up the wall so I found my self hammering on it and getting even worse mileage than I would normally as it kept unlocking the torque converter and shifting gears even at freeway speeds.
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1,626 Posts
Every time I read one of these threads I am thankful I bought the 3 pedal version I hope Ford figures out the problem soon or just replace the transmission all together. It's going to be a crazy expensive problem once warranties start to expire.
Sent from your mom's house.
Sent from your mom's house.
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3,947 Posts
It is not that bad!
I have a DCT and it works fine. Drives just like a manual car except someone is shifting for me
There's probably a handful out of every 1000 they make that do this and it's not as widespread as it seems here
Just because we all gather here with problems doesn't mean every car has the problem
I have a DCT and it works fine. Drives just like a manual car except someone is shifting for me
There's probably a handful out of every 1000 they make that do this and it's not as widespread as it seems here
Just because we all gather here with problems doesn't mean every car has the problem
Powertrain is 60,000 but I've heard clutches are not covered because Ford can say they are wearable parts. I am not 100% sure of this so if someone knew more about it it'd help clear things up. Again, my car has not had leaking seals which would make me think the problem is the computer shifting gears. Like I said, my car was not even badly shifting lately, just a little vibration when I first accelerate.
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