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2012 Ford Focus Automatic Transmission Routine Maintenance

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scott7278

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
I'm sitting at my local dealership enjoying "The Works" service, along with the 30,000 automatic transmission service, which consists of a drain-and-fill with a specialty fluid of nearly $30 a quart.

I've never been a fan of flushing a transmission, but it was confirmed to me that we are not supposed to flush our system - it is drain-and-fill only.

I'm posting this so no one takes their vehicle someplace that tries to sell them something that is not needed, and worse, could do harm. Add to that the special fluid and uniqueness of our system, and you can imagine the disaster that is possible.

Happy driving!
 
#2 ·
There is only 1.7-1.9 quarts of fluid in the transmission as it is essentially a manual transmission shifted by solenoids. Don't ever power flush the transmission.

Hell it's not even recommended to change the fluid for the life of the transmission, but if you were to change the fluid at some interval, say 50-75k miles you don't want to do more than drain it and re-fill if at all.
 
#4 ·
Probably too late, but you may want to refer the service department to the maintenance schedule...the DCT service they just performed isn't recommended untill 100,000 or 150,000 miles. Labor charges should be minimal as it only involves removing a drain plug and a fill plug - no filters, pans or gaskets.
 
Discussion starter · #5 ·
dan50 said:
Probably too late, but you may want to refer the service department to the maintenance schedule...the DCT service they just performed isn't recommended untill 100,000 or 150,000 miles. Labor charges should be minimal as it only involves removing a drain plug and a fill plug - no filters, pans or gaskets.
Click to expand...
I went ahead and had it done anyway...I'm kind of weird when it comes to factory fluids. Except for the $30/quart charge for the fluid, it wasn't all that expensive.

A coupon came through the mail that stated I was due for the 30,000 fluid change. I knew that it wasn't really due until later - they probably meant for regular automatic transmissions - but I figured what the heck.

I have what is probably the placebo effect of thinking the car drives more smoothly (it ran smooth to begin with).
 
#6 ·
You just got ripped off.

The DCT does not use ATF like a slushbox automatic would. It does not need to be changed every 30,000 mi.
It only needs to be changed in the intervals a manual transmission would require oil changes, which is a very long time.

I also seriously hope your garage did not put ATF in this transmission...
 
#10 ·
RTSinDallas said:
Many manual transmissions use ATF these days. My ZF specs it. I'm not sure about the DCT. It may use a synthetic ATF.
Click to expand...
Nope the DCT uses a special DCT fluid that's also been specified in the MT82 at one point to quell issues with it, so it's much more like normal manual transmission fluid.
 
#14 ·
XT-11-QDC is nothing more than a very light viscosity Synchromesh. It's not magical.

HBPhil said:
Just an FYI, I just received 2 quarts of XT-11-QDC from Amazon.com, paid $9.13 a quart.
[cheers]
Click to expand...
WIN!

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#16 ·
scott7278 said:
I'm sitting at my local dealership enjoying "The Works" service, along with the 30,000 automatic transmission service, which consists of a drain-and-fill with a specialty fluid of nearly $30 a quart.

I've never been a fan of flushing a transmission, but it was confirmed to me that we are not supposed to flush our system - it is drain-and-fill only.

I'm posting this so no one takes their vehicle someplace that tries to sell them something that is not needed, and worse, could do harm. Add to that the special fluid and uniqueness of our system, and you can imagine the disaster that is possible.

Happy driving!
Click to expand...
Driving 2580 miles in one trip, my focus titanium tranny fsile
scott7278 said:
I'm sitting at my local dealership enjoying "The Works" service, along with the 30,000 automatic transmission service, which consists of a drain-and-fill with a specialty fluid of nearly $30 a quart.

I've never been a fan of flushing a transmission, but it was confirmed to me that we are not supposed to flush our system - it is drain-and-fill only.

I'm posting this so no one takes their vehicle someplace that tries to sell them something that is not needed, and worse, could do harm. Add to that the special fluid and uniqueness of our system, and you can imagine the disaster that is possible.

Happy driving!
Click to expand...
Just drove 2580 miles in 1 trip. On the way home the "T failure" came on. "Service now!" I drove the rest of the 300 miles home, and had no reverse.
113360 miles on it, can the fluid actually fail? This morning the message is off and it went into reverse just fine. All things being seemingly back to normal. No failure message?
 
#17 ·
I'm using AmsOil DCT fluid... Real cheap and yes drain and fill. I didn't buy the Transmission flush from AmsOil because it requires for transmission to have a filter. Didn't understand it but it's been doing great
 
#18 ·
Question relating to this. New to the focus family. Recently purchased a 2012 se model. We recently drove to 5he shore and around. We get a bad shudder when pulling out. Sometimes actinglike its slipping while shifting. Also occasionally will lose high gear and shift real hard. Pops up on dash tyranny malfunction and sometimes transmission overheating and to stop. Can shut off a while and start and it can run fine. We did lose reverse once but haven't since. Still feel the shuddering while shifting. Is it fried or what can be done. I'm a knowledgeable mechanic so any work will be done by me but I don't wanna be playing a guessing game or Nickle and diming. So where to start and what to do. Thanks for all the advice in advance.
 
#19 ·
Darkhollow92 said:
Question relating to this. New to the focus family. Recently purchased a 2012 se model. We recently drove to 5he shore and around. We get a bad shudder when pulling out. Sometimes actinglike its slipping while shifting. Also occasionally will lose high gear and shift real hard. Pops up on dash tyranny malfunction and sometimes transmission overheating and to stop. Can shut off a while and start and it can run fine. We did lose reverse once but haven't since. Still feel the shuddering while shifting. Is it fried or what can be done. I'm a knowledgeable mechanic so any work will be done by me but I don't wanna be playing a guessing game or Nickle and diming. So where to start and what to do. Thanks for all the advice in advance.
Click to expand...
You almost certainly need a new clutch pack, which will fix the shuddering. However, it requires some special tools and reprogramming after reassembly. Ford extended the warranty on them for 7 years/100K, but unfortunately you are past the cutoff.
Not going into reverse and shift issues are symptoms of a bad transmission control module. The warranty on those has been extended to 10 years 150K, but given the other symptoms, if you take it in they will want to replace the clutches, which were about $1500 P&L at my dealer when I had it done several years ago (they reimbursed me when they extended the warranty). I just had my TCM replaced for free, but they are on backorder with a 7-8 week wait time due to the chip shortage.

Good Luck, Rod
 
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