My brother recently bought a 13 Focus and not even two weeks after getting it, the trans locked up on it this weekend. He bought it pre owned at a Kia dealer but it got towed right to the local Ford dealer to get worked on. Anybody else here issues with the transmissions in these? Any recalls out on it? I know a lot of people on here have a Focus from those years.
I assume it's the dual clutch automated manual. Ford has warrantied those to 7 years, 100,000 miles. There are TSB's out for that. It should be fixed by Ford.
I've got a manual 2013 Focus SE. No issues so far. Bought it October 2015 with 23k. Close to 30k now.
Semi relevant question, has anybody put out a tune for these that makes it behave like the manual it is(e.g. rolls in neutral), rather than act like a fluid coupled auto (which to my understanding is the cause of most of the problems)?
Lock up of the transmission Is no one of the usual problem.
FYI: The extender warranty covers the clutches and related seals only. The rest is 5 yrs 60000 miles.
Owner of two Fiesta. In order, not at the same time
DCT issues are fairly known, and common as well? Some have had sw updates and have been fine for miles, other have had clutch packs replaced once or twice, and on occasion they've outright failed.
I have a '12 5-speed and it's been bullet proof, about 70k miles.
trucke wrote: I assume it's the dual clutch automated manual. Ford has warrantied those to 7 years, 100,000 miles. There are TSB's out for that. It should be fixed by Ford. I've got a manual 2013 Focus SE. No issues so far. Bought it October 2015 with 23k. Close to 30k now.
Me too! But I bought mine April of 2015. What are you getting for avg mpg? I can't seem to break 32, while people on the focus boards claim 38 is possible.
The "lock up" of the trans is most likely due to an overheat of the trans and that's another known fault of that transmission. I have a 14' Focus with the auto since it's the wife's car, we've had ongoing issues with the trans slipping and shuddering badly. The Ford dealer has had so many in their shop that everytime I took it in, they would have it for a week and then "failed to recreate" I know that there is something to be said about it being a dual clutch and driveability, but it's honestly down right dangerous to drive in some cases. But it's a damn good chassis and the wife loves it, though with little danimal coming soon, it may prove to be to small for us.
BrokenYugo wrote: Semi relevant question, has anybody put out a tune for these that makes it behave like the manual it is(e.g. rolls in neutral), rather than act like a fluid coupled auto (which to my understanding is the cause of most of the problems)?
I know they roll backwards on a small hill, my wife rolled backwards into a guy and thought he rearended her. Haha she didn't know it could roll backwards and took her foot off the brake.
Ours seems to have an auto brake feature on hills that holds it for a few seconds, but will roll back if you ease into the gas on a steep hill.
The lock up isn't one of the common issues, so that's an entirely different issue from the common clutch shuddering problem.
nepa03focus wrote:BrokenYugo wrote: Semi relevant question, has anybody put out a tune for these that makes it behave like the manual it is(e.g. rolls in neutral), rather than act like a fluid coupled auto (which to my understanding is the cause of most of the problems)?I know they roll backwards on a small hill, my wife rolled backwards into a guy and thought he rearended her. Haha she didn't know it could roll backwards and took her foot off the brake.
I understand that they have "Hill Start Assist" as standard. It does have to be engaged though.
You can't hold the car like a TC transmission. Clutches don't take to slipping very well.
iceracer wrote:nepa03focus wrote:I understand that they have "Hill Start Assist" as standard. It does have to be engaged though.BrokenYugo wrote: Semi relevant question, has anybody put out a tune for these that makes it behave like the manual it is(e.g. rolls in neutral), rather than act like a fluid coupled auto (which to my understanding is the cause of most of the problems)?I know they roll backwards on a small hill, my wife rolled backwards into a guy and thought he rearended her. Haha she didn't know it could roll backwards and took her foot off the brake.
Exactly, there was a button that said hill assist.of somthing like that, but my wife doesn't read no owners manuals.
My wife has an early production '12 with the auto and it's had 3 recalls related to the transmission/clutch pack. The first reprogrammed the transmission's computer to alter shifting. The second reprogrammed the transmission's computer to light up the "check engine" light if the transmission needs fixed/looked at.
The third recall was to replace the transmission's input shaft seal because it would leak transmission fluid onto the clutch packs causing it to slip or judder at moderate load/low throttle input. We got that recall notice just after her car started exhibiting those symptoms at 43,000 miles. Called the dealer, dropped the car off in the morning, they duplicated the problem, and had the car fixed by end of business the next day. Required new input shaft seal, clutch pack, and reprogramming the transmission computer. I was very happy with how Ford handled it.
Now, 44,000 miles and ~2 years later it has started juddering again at low loads. I figure we're fine, we're still under the 7 year/100,000 mile extended warranty. I drop it off at the dealer in the morning, they duplicate the problem, it's all covered under the warranty, they just have to order the parts. Wait, what? This is a known issue and you don't have parts on hand? Turns out, not only do they not have parts on hand, the parts are on a 6-12 week NATION-WIDE BACK-ORDER! (can you sense my frustration?). I'm not looking forward to how much this will cost when it fails again, this time out of warranty.
To the OP's problem, no, we haven't had any issues with the transmission outright locking up and refusing to move the car. But we have had the above issues with the clutch pack failing every 43k miles. I wish your brother the best of luck with his car. The MK3 Focus is a great little car.
BrokenYugo wrote: Semi relevant question, has anybody put out a tune for these that makes it behave like the manual it is(e.g. rolls in neutral), rather than act like a fluid coupled auto (which to my understanding is the cause of most of the problems)?
The ones I've driven didn't start to engage the clutch until after the brake pedal was released.
Maybe this is the original tune that hasn't had one of the fifteen dozen reflash updates?
Enyar wrote: What are you getting for avg mpg? I can't seem to break 32, while people on the focus boards claim 38 is possible.
I have averaged 34.5 over the 7k mile I've driven it. My commute is mostly straight roads (boring) @55 mph with a few traffic lights through a town. When it gets below freezing outside it has dropped into the 33's. The average computer mpg sits in the 35-37 range.
When my wife drove it the other day, she was getting 27.5 mpg and I was getting a little car sick!
trucke wrote:Enyar wrote: What are you getting for avg mpg? I can't seem to break 32, while people on the focus boards claim 38 is possible.I have averaged 34.5 over the 7k mile I've driven it. My commute is mostly straight roads (boring) @55 mph with a few traffic lights through a town. When it gets below freezing outside it has dropped into the 33's. The average computer mpg sits in the 35-37 range. When my wife drove it the other day, she was getting 27.5 mpg and I was getting a little car sick!
Why can't I do this! It seems like you results are much more in line with what everyone else gets. My computer mpg is always around 32-33. Do you shift when the car tells you to?
Enyar wrote:trucke wrote:Why can't I do this! It seems like you results are much more in line with what everyone else gets. My computer mpg is always around 32-33. Do you shift when the car tells you to?Enyar wrote: What are you getting for avg mpg? I can't seem to break 32, while people on the focus boards claim 38 is possible.I have averaged 34.5 over the 7k mile I've driven it. My commute is mostly straight roads (boring) @55 mph with a few traffic lights through a town. When it gets below freezing outside it has dropped into the 33's. The average computer mpg sits in the 35-37 range. When my wife drove it the other day, she was getting 27.5 mpg and I was getting a little car sick!
I'm not sure where you guys live, but when winter fuel came out last October, I lost 4mpg on the average. It just started coming back up in the last week. I was averaging around 34.5 and when the winter fuel came I was averaging around 29-30. I drove it the other day and was getting 34 again. I have the DCT trans though.
Enyar wrote: Do you shift when the car tells you to?
Not really! I live in the mountains, so it is not appropriate when going up hill. Although it does help fuel economy. But, you know, it's a GDI engine so you have to punch once in a while in an attempt to keep the intake valves from gumming up.....that's my story and I'm sticking to it! 
SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: I'm not sure where you guys live, but when winter fuel came out last October, I lost 4mpg on the average. It just started coming back up in the last week. I was averaging around 34.5 and when the winter fuel came I was averaging around 29-30. I drove it the other day and was getting 34 again. I have the DCT trans though.
I'm in Florida so that's a non issue. It does seem the Focus does better with that 6th gear. Wish I had a 6 speed manual!
If you drive in traffic a lot, that could do it. If I was in more stop-and-go stuff, my mileage would drop to what you are getting.
Hearing all these nightmares, should my brother see if he can return the vehicle? He hasn't even had it three weeks?
In reply to 92dxman:
He should try. Like I said, that's not a common issue and depending on how many miles the car has, it could still be covered under the original warranty.
It has about 55k on it so it should be covered by the original warranty (hopefully)..
Usually if it refuses to move and says "transmission fault" in the message center it's the TCM (transmission control module) which is also under an extended warranty.
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