Focus MK1 1.6 Auto-driving impressions?

[Dino D]

Anyone had/have one of these?

Was wondering how good/bad the auto box is. I have had the displeasure of drivinga few Jap autos in my time and I know that the more ordinary cars tend to have ancient 4sp auto boxs that are slow to shift, leave you in the wring gear when you need it most and generally best left to people who want to pootle around at glaciers pace. Hence the car will be for the wife....

[Jon GT2]

I cant remember any particular problems with them,they are sluggish and a bit thirsty but pretty reliable if i remember correctly.

[dickkark]

3 or 5 speed box? but both go wrong though, the difference being the cost to repair when and not if it happens!

[mondayo]

I drove one of these when they first came out, and it seemed very sluggish.

Although those gearboxes (4 speed) can be fairly unreliable, I managed to do over 100,000 in a mondeo with one, and it was fine.

[dickkark]

mondeo and focus auto`s are different boxes

[Damian S]

The new focus is quite a heavy chunk of metal for a 1.6 to pull around. My mate has one as a company car and he has to thrash it to get it to go, and as said above it doesnt do great on fuel either. the suspension doesnt really feel up to the job either. car seems to wander around on the road as a result.

probably better of with a 2 litre, or a diesel

[Dino D]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Looking at used MK1's. Diesel and the new MK11 not an option for me.

Did someone say 3speed!!!!! I thought those went out in the 80's!

Can anyone elaborate on the reliability issues of the auto box?

[mondayo]

Not sure which gearbox the focus has in it then. From visiting my local auto gearbox specialist, Ford's of old, didnt have the best reliability. The one that was in my mondeo, and the old CVT's were known to be awful and you were lucky if you got 60,000 miles out of them.

[Jon GT2]

The Escort and Fiesta had the CVT box thankfully the Focus doesnt, as i said i havent seen any particular issues with them.Quite a number of my Motability customers have had them and were happy with them it is also not the same box as the Fiesta semi-automatic of the similar period.

I dont agree with Damians post and neither does the majority of the motoring press as far as the handling of the Focus goes(Apologies Damian if i have misunderstood your point),i had a 1.6VCT Focus for a long time and have driven numerous standard 1.6 Focuses and have never noticed any handling issues caused by the weight of the engine etc, i do agree that the 2.0 TDCI is a good choice.At the end of the day its all about personal taste but i happily tracked my standard Focus a number of times when my normal track car was off the road and had no problems.

Edited by Jon GT2 on Wednesday 5th December 11:38

[Damian S]

it was just based on my observations. my 2.0 TDCI felt a lot more solid and stable than my mates 1.6

[Jon GT2]

The underpinnings are almost identical but the characteristics of the engine could make the car feel different i guess,at the end of the day we will all have different feelings for cars,it could be that he was running high tyre pressures or something else was wrong in the basic setup.

[Dino D]

Cheers for the comments guys. The car will really be a town run about with occasional motorway trips so the lack of grunt is not the end of the world.
In addition, being an auto with a teeny engine, handling is not high up on the agenda!

So what auto boxes did the MK1 come with then:
CVT
4sp
3sp
or all at different times in the life cycle?

I've done some digging on the net and nothing came up for reliability issues regarding the auto. Info in general about the auto model is acutely lacking in fact, as appears to be with all the rest of the small auto cars.

I looked at a Citreon Sensodrive, even went for a drive and loved the way it blipped the throttle and generally felt like a BMW SMG box (read a bit clunky and obviously a manual being controlled by a robot). I got excited at the prospect of having an auto for the missus that also would provide some amnual control and a touch of fun when I used it. Alas my hopes were shattered when I went onto a Citreon forum and discoverd at least 20 different ppl with major gearbox issues!

So far nothing as bad as that for the Focus so heres hoping.

[Jon GT2]

I'm pretty sure its 4 speed,i will try and put some tech specs up if i can find them.

It is a fully automatic, electronically controlled four-speed transmission designed for front wheel drive vehicles.

Its abbreviated designation 4F27E means:

4 - 4-four-speed transmission
F - front wheel drive
27 - originally designed for maximum input torque after torque converter: 365 Nm (270 lb-ft)
E - fully electronic control



The individual ratios are achieved through two planetary gear sets connected one behind the other.

The individual components of the planetary gear sets are driven or held by means of three multiplate clutches, a multiplate brake, a brake band and a roller one-way clutch.

The torque is transmitted to the final drive assembly through an intermediate gear stage.


The electrical and hydraulic functions are carried out by a 104-pin EEC V powertrain control module.

The manual selector lever gives the driver a choice of "P", "R", "N", "1", "2" and "D".

In drive range "D" it is also possible to operate an O/D switch on the manual selector lever to prevent the transmission shifting into 4th gear or to shift down to 3rd gear.

To minimize fuel consumption, the torque converter lock-up clutch is closed by the PCM in 3rd and 4th gears depending on the throttle position and vehicle speed.

The transmission has electronic synchronous shift control (ESSC) which guarantees extremely smooth gear shifting over the entire life of the transmission.

Edited by Jon GT2 on Wednesday 5th December 17:51

[Damian S]

Jon GT2 said:

The underpinnings are almost identical but the characteristics of the engine could make the car feel different i guess,at the end of the day we will all have different feelings for cars,it could be that he was running high tyre pressures or something else was wrong in the basic setup.

I wondered this, it felt SO much different, to the point of being unstable. he also said he had a lot of trouble getting it to drive in a straight line, the slightest movement of the steering wheel had a dramatic effect (this could well have been what made it feel unstable). tracking is miles out perhaps? seemed odd on a car thats only done 16,000 miles :-/

I guess there is the possiblity its been in a smash and hasnt been repaired very well.

[Dino D]

Jon GT2 said:

Lots of technica\l and useful stuff.

Cheers for that mate.
From all of that sounds like a decent enough box. I'm glad it has the overdrive feature to allow it to be held in 3rd as this can be very handy downhills or to prevent it from hunting between 3 and 4.