I would like the 2013 owners to chip in and tell us your transmission experiences.
2013 Ford Focus Transmission
danyall2010
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2,211 Posts
Unless your 51k was a typo, your transmission is still under warranty as part of your powertrain coverage up to 5 years or 60,000 miles:
What is covered:
"Transmission: all internal parts, clutch cover, seals and gaskets, torque
converter, transfer case (including all internal parts), transmission case,
transmission mounts"
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...jQ8wS5oYDwBg&usg=AFQjCNF2T852WCKYC743R_NiPcxCiA-gfA&sig2=iavap21JOLGoMkU4zDoqVw
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This all sounds wayyy too familiar. We traded in my wife's 2004 ZTS Sedan for a '13 Ti Sedan. #oops.
Bought it Christmas Eve last year, and it has just over 10,000 miles on it now. No likey. Going to dealer next week to see if they can "fix" it, but from reading what I've read, it sounds like it's not a real fix.
It's a shame too. This was our fourth Focus. I had an '00 which I wrecked, an '02 that I had for 6 yrs and 140,000 miles, and my wife had an '04 that we had for 8 yrs and 130,000 miles.
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EDIT:
Forgot to mention... our build date according to our paperwork was 08/14/2012
Bought it Christmas Eve last year, and it has just over 10,000 miles on it now. No likey. Going to dealer next week to see if they can "fix" it, but from reading what I've read, it sounds like it's not a real fix.
It's a shame too. This was our fourth Focus. I had an '00 which I wrecked, an '02 that I had for 6 yrs and 140,000 miles, and my wife had an '04 that we had for 8 yrs and 130,000 miles.
[
][][][][][][][][][][][]*EDIT:
Forgot to mention... our build date according to our paperwork was 08/14/2012
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42 Posts
Dumping the lease
I checked with Ford Credit.
To dump the lease, I have to pay the whole thing...or the difference between the wholesale value (determined by my dealer) and the amount I owe, which is essentially the purchase price minus two payments or $23,800.
Well, my guess is the wholesale value is about $19,000 so I would have to pony up $4800.[bigcry] That on top of the $1300 I have in it to drive it 2700 miles.
Oh, woe is me. I am %¥$&@%! Done like toast it seems.
The car currently grinds at shift 1-2, and at 2-3 and has the trailer hitching issue as well as poor down shifting and only really works well if I am aggressive on the gas (getting fewer mpg).
I don't know how to IM Crystal, not that she can get me out of the car.
[:0][bigcry][whip][scream][smackbum]
I checked with Ford Credit.
To dump the lease, I have to pay the whole thing...or the difference between the wholesale value (determined by my dealer) and the amount I owe, which is essentially the purchase price minus two payments or $23,800.
Well, my guess is the wholesale value is about $19,000 so I would have to pony up $4800.[bigcry] That on top of the $1300 I have in it to drive it 2700 miles.
Oh, woe is me. I am %¥$&@%! Done like toast it seems.
The car currently grinds at shift 1-2, and at 2-3 and has the trailer hitching issue as well as poor down shifting and only really works well if I am aggressive on the gas (getting fewer mpg).
I don't know how to IM Crystal, not that she can get me out of the car.
[:0][bigcry][whip][scream][smackbum]
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386 Posts
No, I called you a malcontent for you stating that you were going to post on each and every post you can telling people that this car is crap (and not the trans - the entire car) and that you would continue to do this until Ford recalled all of the 2012 Focus for this problem.
If (and it is IF) I became one of these problem transmissions, I would talk to a very large law firm about gathering up all the customers and seek to pursue Ford into some type of settlement for repairs and mitigation of this issue.
There are far fewer customers of fake diet pills and hip replacement surgeries out there, and they found a firm to take on a bad product and spend the money to organize and force action.
Maybe you could start that ball rolling? If it's this bad, this should not be that hard.
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If by "IM" you meant "PM", instructions are in post #467. (That took me a while to figure out the first time, too.)
You might feel a little better if you ignore that last $1,300. That's just the cost of not having to ride the bus or take taxis. Owning any comparable car would cost you something close to that. Except, of course, the time you had to do without it because it was in the shop. (I don't recall if the dealer gave you a loaner.) That other $4,800 you can think of as being part of the rising cost of education so it doesn't feel like a total waste.
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The Consumer Reports reliability ratings in the April 2013 issue for the 2012 Focus are a little different than you recalled. Also, even though CR's ratings do come from people who actually own the cars being rated, it's still hard to tell how objective or accurate they are.
As with comments on this forum, if owners with complaints are more likely to speak up, then CR's data could make a problem appear worse than it actually is. First, the survey respondents have to be CR subscribers, and second, they have to choose to respond to the survey. Not a very random sampling. Someone who knows more about statistics than I do would have to say how much that can affect the results but it makes me as unsure about them as any other indications we have.
Reports from the owners of 2013s the OP asked about won't show up until next April. It will be interesting to see whether they show an improvement from the 2012s for the trans, and whether the rest of the car still does as good as the 2012s did.
For whatever they're worth, the CR reliability survey results for the 2012 Ford Focus had the worst rating, "much worse than average" (solid black dot) for the category "Trans minor". One other category, "Audio system", had the same worst rating. They really stood out because twelve of the other categories had the best possible rating of "Much better than average" (solid red dots). This included "Trans major". The remaining two, "Body integrity " and "Body hardware", were just one step down from the best at "Better than average" (half red dot).
I don't know how to interpret the "Much better than average" rating for "Trans major". It seems like taking a transmission out to replace clutches and seals would be "Major", not "Minor". The driveability problems caused by bad clutches (loss of acceleration, lunging) also seem to make the problem more "major" than "minor", but maybe their definitions are different. [scratch]
Major or minor, we still can't tell from CR's ratings what percentage of all Focuses really are affected -- just the ones reported by CR subscribers. From what I've read about MSN auto reliability data, it also measures something different than what we want to know. I agree with the very first part of your comment and this:
Thanks for correcting my memory about the "Trans Major" rating. While we don't know the problem rate, if it were anything close to some of the comments here (e.g. 4 out of 10 have issues), there would be "much worse than average" dots in both Trans major and minor. And I agree CR ratings probably make problems seem worse than they really are.
Separately, I don't understand either how CR overall ratings work. One would think a few exceptionally good marks would offset one or two bad ones... But apparently not.
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42 Posts
I messaged Crystal
Well,
I hear the grinding noise at 1-2, 2-3, and 3-4 shifts, especially at 20mph turning left (can't explain that one, but the tranny tech said it had been pinpointed to him by other owners too).
The car doesn't briskly downshift when pressed to accelerate, unless I really give it some throttle, then it downshifts. Otherwise it bogs down like when you have chosen too low a gear for your situation/speed with a manual. (in which case you would downshift). []
The idle remains rough at times also, which is weird and makes the car seem old, but tolerable by itself. The Focus never actually shifted right from the get go, but I thought I would get used to it. But with the grind, trailer hitching, weird shifts, lack of shifting right for acceleration to merge, shuddering in low gears, etc I can't get used to it. It's not me...It's the DCT.
I feel sort of foolish having picked the Focus after driving about eight other cars (Cruze, Cruze diesel, Outback (hated the CVT), Honda CRV, Ford Escape, Toyota RAV4, VW Jetta diesel, VW Passat). [scream]
Maybe Crystal can help. The trouble is that I bought it from a friend and taking it back just makes us both look and feel weird about the whole deal. I think he sort of thinks I'm just "picky". I just wanted a small car with decent pickup, nice stereo, and good mpg that would give me not trouble for 60,000 miles of mostly highway driving....[mecry]
I just don't have time for this malarkey and also don't want to be looked at as a disgruntled troublemaker. It's almost worth a few thousand to just dump it and get on with life...in another car.[!]
Well,
I hear the grinding noise at 1-2, 2-3, and 3-4 shifts, especially at 20mph turning left (can't explain that one, but the tranny tech said it had been pinpointed to him by other owners too).
The car doesn't briskly downshift when pressed to accelerate, unless I really give it some throttle, then it downshifts. Otherwise it bogs down like when you have chosen too low a gear for your situation/speed with a manual. (in which case you would downshift). [
]The idle remains rough at times also, which is weird and makes the car seem old, but tolerable by itself. The Focus never actually shifted right from the get go, but I thought I would get used to it. But with the grind, trailer hitching, weird shifts, lack of shifting right for acceleration to merge, shuddering in low gears, etc I can't get used to it. It's not me...It's the DCT.
I feel sort of foolish having picked the Focus after driving about eight other cars (Cruze, Cruze diesel, Outback (hated the CVT), Honda CRV, Ford Escape, Toyota RAV4, VW Jetta diesel, VW Passat). [scream]
Maybe Crystal can help. The trouble is that I bought it from a friend and taking it back just makes us both look and feel weird about the whole deal. I think he sort of thinks I'm just "picky". I just wanted a small car with decent pickup, nice stereo, and good mpg that would give me not trouble for 60,000 miles of mostly highway driving....[mecry]
I just don't have time for this malarkey and also don't want to be looked at as a disgruntled troublemaker. It's almost worth a few thousand to just dump it and get on with life...in another car.[
!]
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813 Posts
You can trade your lease in, but be prepared for a hefty upside down on the new lease. I financed mine and do not have any equity yet, so I'm stuck with it for a while. If I could do it over again, I would have returned the car in a few days and exchanged it, but it wasn't an issue till a few weeks after.
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... and flew with it. [thumb]
(No connection between you and the figures in the picture implied by that. Just a figure of speech that popped into my head.)
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Me, too. I think I read their explanation for how that works once, but don't recall it making any sense to me even then. Maybe it's weighted so that certain categories have more influence on the overall rating for the car? The bad part about that is that if someone has a Mk3 Focus with a manual transmission and no MFT their car's reputation gets smeared in the eyes of any buyers who don't know the background.
I'd hope that people with that combination don't want to sell, and anyone wanting to buy it would know. No such luck for anyone trying to sell one with a DCT, though, even if it's working perfectly. They just have to find a buyer who does not pay attention to CR, I guess.
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42 Posts
Could be worse....
How about this letter from a Mustang owner:
Dear Mr. Mulally,
Please let me introduce myself, my name is ...............(name: first last) from .........(city),...........(state). The reason I am writing you today is to express a concern that 10’s of 1,000’s of us GT500 owners have about our failing Tremec TR-6060 transmissions.
We know & understand that Ford, SVT & Roush Engineers have been working hard together over the past year trying to come up with a permanent fix for our allaying transmissions that continue to exhibit the following clutch/transmission symptoms: Hard to disengage or engage 1st and reverse, Hard to shift into any gear, Gears grinding during shifts any gear, Vehicle creeps with transmission in gear and clutch pedal fully depressed without brake pedal application, Clutch slippage in gear with clutch pedal released, Hissing noise with clutch pedal fully depressed.
Many of these symptoms are due to flywheel distortion caused by excessive heat build-up during normal & unique traffic conditions (example: stop/go driving). The distortion of the flywheel may prevent complete disengagement of the clutch which raises a safety concern for all of us who drive our GT500’s each day. The current Ford Technical Service Bulletin (TSB#08-16-4) has been installed on many of these failing transmissions, some with success & many others come out even worse then they were when they were in for repair (example: transmission locking up on the way home just after the dealer performed the TSB or excessive gear shifter vibration in a certain gears after the repair).
Mr. Mulally, many owners are very, very concerned about this transmission problem causing an accident from locking up or leaving them stranded in a parking lot or road even after a TSB repair has been performed. I know many owners that have taken their cars into dealers to have the TSB work done only to be told by the Service department that they will not perform the work until it breaks. To me & many other GT500 owners this is unacceptable customer service for a car that still has a 5yr/60k mile warranty & has to wait until something breaks before being repaired & possibly causing more internal damage, which then drives up the cost on the warranty claim.
One other area I would like to point out that might be contributing to the failures is the 3:31 to 1 rear gear ratio & the 2.97 1st gear transmission ratio making it harder to take off from a dead stop causing additional heat build up to the new clutch & flywheel causing the same distortion problem as seen on the 1st generation flywheels?
In closing we ask for you to look deeper into this transmission issue by making sure each & everyone of your Ford service technicians is highly qualified & properly trained to do this repair with the required tools needed to do the job successfully the first time or consider extending our drive train warrantees for a few more years & miles to make sure it has been properly fixed to withstand the spirited & performance driving this car was intended for.
Respectfully,
Insert name here
Sounds familiar.....
How about this letter from a Mustang owner:
Dear Mr. Mulally,
Please let me introduce myself, my name is ...............(name: first last) from .........(city),...........(state). The reason I am writing you today is to express a concern that 10’s of 1,000’s of us GT500 owners have about our failing Tremec TR-6060 transmissions.
We know & understand that Ford, SVT & Roush Engineers have been working hard together over the past year trying to come up with a permanent fix for our allaying transmissions that continue to exhibit the following clutch/transmission symptoms: Hard to disengage or engage 1st and reverse, Hard to shift into any gear, Gears grinding during shifts any gear, Vehicle creeps with transmission in gear and clutch pedal fully depressed without brake pedal application, Clutch slippage in gear with clutch pedal released, Hissing noise with clutch pedal fully depressed.
Many of these symptoms are due to flywheel distortion caused by excessive heat build-up during normal & unique traffic conditions (example: stop/go driving). The distortion of the flywheel may prevent complete disengagement of the clutch which raises a safety concern for all of us who drive our GT500’s each day. The current Ford Technical Service Bulletin (TSB#08-16-4) has been installed on many of these failing transmissions, some with success & many others come out even worse then they were when they were in for repair (example: transmission locking up on the way home just after the dealer performed the TSB or excessive gear shifter vibration in a certain gears after the repair).
Mr. Mulally, many owners are very, very concerned about this transmission problem causing an accident from locking up or leaving them stranded in a parking lot or road even after a TSB repair has been performed. I know many owners that have taken their cars into dealers to have the TSB work done only to be told by the Service department that they will not perform the work until it breaks. To me & many other GT500 owners this is unacceptable customer service for a car that still has a 5yr/60k mile warranty & has to wait until something breaks before being repaired & possibly causing more internal damage, which then drives up the cost on the warranty claim.
One other area I would like to point out that might be contributing to the failures is the 3:31 to 1 rear gear ratio & the 2.97 1st gear transmission ratio making it harder to take off from a dead stop causing additional heat build up to the new clutch & flywheel causing the same distortion problem as seen on the 1st generation flywheels?
In closing we ask for you to look deeper into this transmission issue by making sure each & everyone of your Ford service technicians is highly qualified & properly trained to do this repair with the required tools needed to do the job successfully the first time or consider extending our drive train warrantees for a few more years & miles to make sure it has been properly fixed to withstand the spirited & performance driving this car was intended for.
Respectfully,
Insert name here
Sounds familiar.....
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42 Posts
My wife weighs in
I told my wife my issues with the car (her brand new Mazda CX-5 is flawless and may be "her favorite car ever"). She told me her opinion: "Just drive it. We've had other cars on lease we didn't like and just kept them and didn't get another like it at the end." (referring to our twin 1998 Nissan Altimas)[slap]
On the issue of paying a substantial sum to get out of the lease because of the service calls, worry, degradation of the driving experience: Rolling eyes and looking disgusted, "That's just stupid. Are you kidding? Just drive it and move on." I counter, "What if it was only say $2000 after a year of driving it?" Her answer, "Still ludicrous. Please." [smackbum]
Her opinion is quite clear. I know...her CX-5 is perfect. I know, she is not driving the Focus. I know, she doesn't care about cars the way I do and thinks of them as "just transportation", and I know I spend ten hours a week in my car to her four hours a week. I also know that I am probably stuck with it. Even I can't muster the gumption to burn over $4000 to terminate the lease, $1000, yes, but $4000, no way. So, I'll be moaning to you guys here and not to her...[eek]
I told my wife my issues with the car (her brand new Mazda CX-5 is flawless and may be "her favorite car ever"). She told me her opinion: "Just drive it. We've had other cars on lease we didn't like and just kept them and didn't get another like it at the end." (referring to our twin 1998 Nissan Altimas)[slap]
On the issue of paying a substantial sum to get out of the lease because of the service calls, worry, degradation of the driving experience: Rolling eyes and looking disgusted, "That's just stupid. Are you kidding? Just drive it and move on." I counter, "What if it was only say $2000 after a year of driving it?" Her answer, "Still ludicrous. Please." [smackbum]
Her opinion is quite clear. I know...her CX-5 is perfect. I know, she is not driving the Focus. I know, she doesn't care about cars the way I do and thinks of them as "just transportation", and I know I spend ten hours a week in my car to her four hours a week. I also know that I am probably stuck with it. Even I can't muster the gumption to burn over $4000 to terminate the lease, $1000, yes, but $4000, no way. So, I'll be moaning to you guys here and not to her...[eek]
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87 Posts
It seems to me that getting a lower mpg is a better option if it allows the transmission to shift properly? Or maybe I misread something?
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42 Posts
Poor mpg is OK?
Well Et Cetera,
I AM driving the car differently to try to minimize the shifting/grinding issues and have accepted the 1-3 mpg reduction from this...despite the fact that mpg is half the reason I bought the car as I commute 20,000 miles a year...[wiggle]
I am also looking forward to winter as it seems to happen less when the car is cold. I have also turned up the stereo to drown out the shift noises as suggested by the service department and begun whistling in the car also suggested by my salesman (they were joking around with me). [rofl]
I also try to be very careful not to drive on bumpy roads so I don't hear any front suspension noises and I tell people the rough idle is the sign of the well tuned turbo engine ready to roar into action...[facepalm]
So, I have completely changed my driving habits to work around the foibles of my new car as this is what I expected for a price of about $26,000. Oh drivability, thy name IS Ford Focus! (thick sarcasm) [facepalm]
drivability
Use Drivability in a sentence
driv·a·bil·i·ty
[drahy-vuh-bil-i-tee] Show IPA
noun, Automotive.
the degree of smoothness and steadiness of acceleration of an automotive vehicle: The automatic transmission has been improved to give the new model better drivability. [hihi]
Well Et Cetera,
I AM driving the car differently to try to minimize the shifting/grinding issues and have accepted the 1-3 mpg reduction from this...despite the fact that mpg is half the reason I bought the car as I commute 20,000 miles a year...[wiggle]
I am also looking forward to winter as it seems to happen less when the car is cold. I have also turned up the stereo to drown out the shift noises as suggested by the service department and begun whistling in the car also suggested by my salesman (they were joking around with me). [rofl]
I also try to be very careful not to drive on bumpy roads so I don't hear any front suspension noises and I tell people the rough idle is the sign of the well tuned turbo engine ready to roar into action...[facepalm]
So, I have completely changed my driving habits to work around the foibles of my new car as this is what I expected for a price of about $26,000. Oh drivability, thy name IS Ford Focus! (thick sarcasm) [facepalm]
drivability
Use Drivability in a sentence
driv·a·bil·i·ty
[drahy-vuh-bil-i-tee] Show IPA
noun, Automotive.
the degree of smoothness and steadiness of acceleration of an automotive vehicle: The automatic transmission has been improved to give the new model better drivability. [hihi]
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5,898 Posts
Hi everyone,
As a reminder, I'm here to do what I can to help. Thank you to those of you who have already contacted me; if you need additional assistance, feel free to reach out to me via PM. If we haven't been in touch, please send me your information (name, daytime phone number, VIN, mileage, dealership name/state) in a PM so I can research some options to help.
Crystal
As a reminder, I'm here to do what I can to help. Thank you to those of you who have already contacted me; if you need additional assistance, feel free to reach out to me via PM. If we haven't been in touch, please send me your information (name, daytime phone number, VIN, mileage, dealership name/state) in a PM so I can research some options to help.
Crystal
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