Ford Focus MK3 manual gear change issue

[mikeyr]

Any thoughts on a probable cause?

6 speed manual, 1.0 ecoboost car, 2014, 90k, recent service and wetbelt change.

I've only owned for couple of weeks. And until today it's been spot on and gear change nice and positive. But suddenly today, on a twenty minute drive, the gear changing is intermittent, it can be buttery smooth or can feel like the gearlever is out of alignment, banging into resistance when changing gear. Any gear can become completely blocked out and take a couple of seconds to happily slot back into place. Or, fifty percent of the time, the gear change is totally fine, very smooth.

The clutch seems okay to me, at least my foot isn't detecting any discernible difference, unless this is symptomatic of a clutch cable issue that I wouldn't be able to detect?

Thoughts on likely culprits?

[mikeyr]

Ps no obvious noises whilst driving and gear lever stays in place, no wobbling etc, it's only intermittently on an actual gear change where I might end up hunting around for a gear!

[mikeyr]

Oh, and parked up at home with engine off and clutch not depressed I can generally move through the gears smoothly and quickly

[finlo]

Its most likely hydraulic not cable so could be a failing master/slave cylinder.

[mikeyr]

I should add that the last bit of travel when releasing the clutch feels a little bit slow, like it's a different speed the pedal is coming up at.

[mikeyr]

Car is in today to be looked at, drive there was 95% fine, a couple of tricky changes. I'll report back on cause when known in case helps others.

[rOB.bOb]

It could be clutch drag from eg.failing release bearing, clutch fingers etc. Hopefully it's just the hydraulics and you can access the components without removing the gearbox.

[finlo]

rOB.bOb said:

It could be clutch drag from eg.failing release bearing, clutch fingers etc. Hopefully it's just the hydraulics and you can access the components without removing the gearbox.

I'm afraid it's a concentric ( ie inside the bell housing).

[mikeyr]

New clutch fitted, plus it revealed a fairly sizeable oil leak within the gearbox which had covered the clutch and DMF too. Had a couple of seals replaced at same time. Probably caught it before things got much worse. Phew.

[mikeyr]

Exciting development yesterday when the car decided to cut out whilst in traffic on the motorway. Apparently when it was in for the clutch they noticed the downstream O2 sensor was unplugged. So they kindly plugged it back in afterwards but it appears that this dodgy sensor was the cause of the breakdown. They've tested it unplugged and plugged back in and when unplugged car runs fine, no EML.

Online looks like these sensors are a bit of a nightmare on this car, talk of needing new ECUs etc for some. As the car ran fine before does anyone have thoughts on whether the car will just run on default values if sensor not plugged in?

[vw_99]

I have seen spacers fitted to the exhaust to move sensor out a bit. Also garage recommended running a tank v-power etc every 4 tanks.

[E-bmw]

mikeyr said:

They've tested it unplugged and plugged back in and when unplugged car runs fine, no EML.

I am not sure if the same applies to your car but on many cars the downstream sensor is just a "sense-check" of whether the cat is doing something helpful or not.

The upstream sensor is the one that dictates fuel delivery etc, many cars run just fine without a working downstream senso at all.

In the (bmw) mini fraternity it is a well known work-round that if the upstream sensor fails, to just swap them round as they share the same plug & lead length.

[mikeyr]

thanks, i'm keeping an eye on it and seeing if it triggers another code