Clutch pedal sticking down, still engaging

[KenST]

I’m going to take mine in sometime soon and see if Ford warranty’s it. Doubt they will since I’m modded [emoji2375]


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[RubberDucky_82]

I'm modded too. We have a mod-friendly dealer here in the Twin Cities.

 

[Troph]

I have a 2018 with just 22,500 miles and I'm having the same issue. The clutch pedal returns to about a halfway point and then just gets "stuck", like there isn't enough backpressure to get it past the friction at that spot. If I pull the pedal up just a little bit to get it past that middle position, then it will return to its full upright position by itself. I am extremely easy on my clutch (no racing, no launches), so I just don't buy the explanation that the clutch is worn and needs replacement. But the problem has gotten increasingly bad to the point where it seems to happen at least once each time I just drive the vehicle to the store. Plenty of fluid in the reservoir; but while it doesn't look dirty, it also hasn't been changed in at least 3 years, so perhaps some moisture accumulation could be the culprit?

I'm planning to flush/bleed the system myself with a pressure bleeder, and I sure hope that will resolve it because it sounds like whatever else might be wrong won't be good...

 

[TDavis]

Actually had my first go around with this last week and was dreading having to pull my damn trans out for this sht. It's not a difficult job, just annoying lol. Started happening on a very hot and humid day when I have the a/c on.


Would only happen if I had the clutch pressed down for a good amount of time. I always knew when it wasn't going to fully come up because the bite point of the clutch got VERY low and eventually when I fully let off the clutch it wasn't coming fully up. Was intermittent though and not every single time.

Went with the most easy solution to try first and bled my brakes and slave with a mityvac. Probably should've done this a long time ago, only time I bled my brakes was when I put the BBK on. Never bled them after the numerous track days I did lmao.

Fluid came out dirty, couldn't necessarily tell if there was air in the system because my clear vinyl tubing from my mityvac was slightly too big on the bleeder nipple so it pulled air into the clear tubing from the atmosphere while I was pumping the mityvac. So there were many small bubbles from that but was still tight enough to not leak fluid out while pumping.

So far it been flawless. Its been much cooler outside though so idk if temp affected it or not. But after doing that its been fine. If that didn't fix it I was going to replace my master cylinder first since people have had that fix it too with my symptoms, plus I don't have fluid leaking onto the ground from the slave.

Time will tell. Maybe I'm too hard on myself but situations like this I'm not satisfied immediately until I put it through its paces.

Here was my fluid:

 

[M-Sport fan]

I have yet to find a dealer or shop capable of doing this service in my area, since I CANNOT do it myself where I am living currently.

My pedal is now doing this at least twice per even very short trip, even when it is not blazing hot outside, but it always comes back up if I lift it with my shoe, and NOTHING is leaking anywhere (reservoir stays FULL).

The shops (most of which actually have sold this car when it was still available!) tell me that they do NOT have the fitting for our brake fluid reservoir, so therefore cannot/will not even attempt this service at all.

This is ASININE!
Does Ford really consider our brake and clutch fluid systems 'fills for LIFE' ?!?!?

 

[scooter123]

When Mine did this the problem was the slave cylinder, which is mostly plastic. A lot of dealers will dodge diagnosing this issue as long as possible because it's rather expensive to remove and replace the transaxle. As for the cause, it's very simple, the Slave Cylinder assembly is made in China. And I expect that the manufacturer will not reimburse Ford for the costs associated with a defective slave cylinder. Note, back when parts like this were made in the USA the purchase agreements typically had a clause within it that the manufacturer of a defective part would be responsible for all of the warranty costs related to that part.

It's just a theory but when my slave cylinder was replaced under warranty the tech told me that the seals were damaged enough that they produced a lot of drag on the cylinder shaft, he could barely get it to move with all of his weight on the cylinder. He felt this damage was due to heat. So why would a slave cylinder be exposed to enough heat to melt the seals. As this is pretty deep into the transaxle case it's pretty well protected from heat from the exhaust or engine. That leaves the bearing in the "throwout" assembly. When a bearing has a minor defect in it's roundness or surface finish two things will happen. That bearing will get worse at a higher than normal wear rate and it will generate more heat. When roller bearing gets bad enough it can actually develop enough heat to melt some of the balls at which point the bearing will normally seize. Been there done that with a front wheel bearing on a 1976 Olds Cutlass Supreme. In the case of my slave cylinder the action sticking happened well before the point where the bearing would have seized. As a result of this I now pull the transmission into neutral at a traffic light in an effort to extend the lifespan for the Slave Cylinder Assembly. Yeah, I know that can be a bad idea if someone's not stopping behind me but I only had that happen one single time back in 1979 when I was riding a Honda CB450T. BTW, that Honda taught me the habit of watching the rear view mirrors and over the years I've seen a lot of goings on that were a bit racy while waiting for a light to change.

So what is the charge for an R&R on the transaxle. At the dealership where I had my slave cylinder replaced under warranty they had me sign a commitment to a charge of 1546.00 prior to their starting the repair. That charge would apply if there was nothing wrong with the slave cylinder and was instead caused by a "wear item" such as the clutch. I've been wrenching on cars since 1966 and have NEVER EVER had a clutch cause a sticky clutch pedal. With a mechanical clutch that was a linkage issue or the pressure plate lever was rusted up pretty bad. With a hydraulic clutch it's always been the slave cylinder. So I didn't worry about having to pay that charge for a warranty repair. At present I have 44k on the car so I'm now doing all I can to avoid replacing the slave cylinder before the point where my clutch is due to be replaced.

 

[our guile]

I have a 2018 with just 22,500 miles and I'm having the same issue. The clutch pedal returns to about a halfway point and then just gets "stuck", like there isn't enough backpressure to get it past the friction at that spot. If I pull the pedal up just a little bit to get it past that middle position, then it will return to its full upright position by itself. I am extremely easy on my clutch (no racing, no launches), so I just don't buy the explanation that the clutch is worn and needs replacement. But the problem has gotten increasingly bad to the point where it seems to happen at least once each time I just drive the vehicle to the store. Plenty of fluid in the reservoir; but while it doesn't look dirty, it also hasn't been changed in at least 3 years, so perhaps some moisture accumulation could be the culprit?

I'm planning to flush/bleed the system myself with a pressure bleeder, and I sure hope that will resolve it because it sounds like whatever else might be wrong won't be good...

Mine (2016, 67k miles) started doing this several weeks ago too, and I don't race or launch my car either. It's either the clutch master or clutch slave cylinders or both. The clutch master cylinder is the easier of the two to replace so you should start there. The clutch slave cylinder is in the transmission bell housing however so the transmission will need to be dropped to replace it.

 

[Troph]

OK, today I used a Motive power/pressure bleeder to bleed the brakes and the clutch with ATE 200 fluid. I don't think it had been done, and the old fluid was pretty amber. I seemed to have some trouble getting the rear brakes to bleed and had to increase the pressure on the bleeder pump to get the fluid flowing, but the fronts and the clutch were much more straightforward. Well, mostly straightforward, except for the fact that someone (the factory?) had overtightened the bleed nut on the front calipers, and I didn't have an 11mm wrench and had to use an adjustable, which slipped and caused me to cut open my fingers. Always something! The only trick to the clutch is accessing the bleed nipple, and rather than crawling under the car, I just removed the air box to get to it from above, which was fiddly but relatively easy.

So, did it work? I took the car for a drive this evening and the clutch never acted up and the brakes still worked, but I'm not fully convinced the clutch problem is totally fixed yet. I'll report back after a few more driving days.

 

[Intuit]

Have you all been using the OEM spec low viscosity brake fluid or just the standard stuff? If you took it to a garage, you can bet they used the standard stuff.

 

[Troph]

Have you all been using the OEM spec low viscosity brake fluid or just the standard stuff? If you took it to a garage, you can bet they used the standard stuff.

I had the OEM fluid in previously. But after some research, I switched to ATE 200 (normal viscosity) for the robust high temperature properties, as I live in a very warm and humid climate where I honestly don't care about the viscosity of brake fluid at -40F, which is where the LV spec differs (700 cSt at -40F for LV, rather than 1400 cST for the regular DOT4 standard). The LV stuff typically has additives which sacrifice some longevity to achieve better cold-weather performance; ATE's low-viscosity fluid for example has a 33% shorter recommended service interval. I'd personally rather have the extra longevity and target better high-temperature performance than try to optimize the responsiveness of the ABS system in sub-freezing temperatures. But it all depends on where you drive I guess, and what you want to optimize.

 

[Intuit]

This isn't "frigid temperature" fluid, it is "low viscosity". The two fluids you're referring to undoubtedly have an overlap in temperature range. It is designed to be thinner within that range of overlap. Yes, it is designed to reduce the cavitation that occurs when the ABS pump activates, but are simply pointing out that there might be some potential for the OEM spec thinner fluid to impact seals within the (clutch) hydraulic system.

 

[flbchbm]

Mine (2016, 67k miles) started doing this several weeks ago too, and I don't race or launch my car either. It's either the clutch master or clutch slave cylinders or both. The clutch master cylinder is the easier of the two to replace so you should start there. The clutch slave cylinder is in the transmission bell housing however so the transmission will need to be dropped to replace it.

My slave cylinder splooged all over the disk and pressure plate at 11k miles! The delaer replaced the line to the bell housing also. I posted it here, but OP must not have found it. I'm at 22k now and no issues. YET.

 

[M-Sport fan]

Have you all been using the OEM spec low viscosity brake fluid or just the standard stuff? If you took it to a garage, you can bet they used the standard stuff.

I have the Bosch ESI6-32N fluid ready to go in whenever I can find someone to do this service reliably.

It is the highest wet and dry boiling point LV fluid I could find even though it is not labeled as such (but the specs show it to be, FULLY )

If I were to ever use a regular viscosity DOT 4 it would be the Ate TYP 200 which Troph used.

Since as he says, has about the very best longevity/moisture uptake resistance of any brake fluid out there, probably even more so than even the big buck Castrol React SRF which has that highest of all time WET boiling point, and also a quite respectable (some even use it as track fluid, with full system flushes every weekend's worth of sessions) wet/dry boiling point.

 

[TyphoonFiST]

I have yet to find a dealer or shop capable of doing this service in my area, since I CANNOT do it myself where I am living currently.

My pedal is now doing this at least twice per even very short trip, even when it is not blazing hot outside, but it always comes back up if I lift it with my shoe, and NOTHING is leaking anywhere (reservoir stays FULL).

The shops (most of which actually have sold this car when it was still available!) tell me that they do NOT have the fitting for our brake fluid reservoir, so therefore cannot/will not even attempt this service at all.

This is ASININE!
Does Ford really consider our brake and clutch fluid systems 'fills for LIFE' ?!?!?

Ive bled my system multiple times now with a Power bleeder from Motive* Easy as pie too

Motive Products - 0108 Brake... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TK9FE8?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Motive Products - 1820 Brake... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00942XQ06?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

 

[Sam4]

I have yet to find a dealer or shop capable of doing this service in my area, since I CANNOT do it myself where I am living currently.

My pedal is now doing this at least twice per even very short trip, even when it is not blazing hot outside, but it always comes back up if I lift it with my shoe, and NOTHING is leaking anywhere (reservoir stays FULL).

The shops (most of which actually have sold this car when it was still available!) tell me that they do NOT have the fitting for our brake fluid reservoir, so therefore cannot/will not even attempt this service at all.

This is ASININE!
Does Ford really consider our brake and clutch fluid systems 'fills for LIFE' ?!?!?

I'm having moderate success with Fred Beans in West Chester. I know you're even a bit farther now, but Doylestown/Fred Beans?....they just R&R'd my trans and a full brake job for tomorrow (HOA and meka-nickle limitations )

 

[M-Sport fan]

Fred Beans in Doylestown basically told me that it is a 'lifetime fill', and even when pressed, also refused to even attempt the job with anything but their supplied Motorcraft LV DOT 4.

Even Ciocca Ford in Flemington (formerly Ditschman Ford), which I thought was a fairly competent dealer basically refused to do the job (with ANY brand fluid) since their 'techs' did not know this car, and they do not have the fittings to do it properly.

Kind of ridiculous that they all sell a car which they cannot service at all.

 

[Intuit]

I'd prefer that response versus experiment on it, screw it up then refuse responsibility on any anomalous issues as "coincidental" and "unrelated"; and worse, get it, keep it for two weeks, say it's fixed but get it back with the same issues plus new ones.

 

[Sam4]

Fred Beans in Doylestown basically told me that it is a 'lifetime fill', and even when pressed, also refused to even attempt the job with anything but their supplied Motorcraft LV DOT 4.

Even Ciocca Ford in Flemington (formerly Ditschman Ford), which I thought was a fairly competent dealer basically refused to do the job (with ANY brand fluid) since their 'techs' did not know this car, and they do not have the fittings to do it properly.

Kind of ridiculous that they all sell a car which they cannot service at all.

My last shot - Boyertown Ford, prolly Fred Beans, was known as a performance center ( my description) at one point. I will also let you know how I am making out in WC.

 

[Sam4]

I'd prefer that response versus experiment on it, screw it up then refuse responsibility on any anomalous issues as "coincidental" and "unrelated"; and worse, get it, keep it for two weeks, say it's fixed but get it back with the same issues plus new ones.

I spent many years bad-mouthing dealers. They were my competition when I had a parts store. I can't argue with what I am getting currently, both no BYO at local garages, and Yeah! BYO! at Ford. Flip Flop world!!

 

[M-Sport fan]

I'd prefer that response versus experiment on it, screw it up then refuse responsibility on any anomalous issues as "coincidental" and "unrelated"; and worse, get it, keep it for two weeks, say it's fixed but get it back with the same issues plus new ones.

Actually, that Ciocca Ford did initially take me in with me thinking that someone was FINALLY going to actually DO the job correctly.

But even when they realized they could not, STILL opened my $25.00 can of Bosch fluid (thereby ruining it!) just to drain out what they could of the 6 year old factory fluid from the reservoir, and just refilling it with the new stuff from my can, which I could have done myself (and does NOTHING AT ALL for the problem, of course!).

Does the Focus NOT use the same exact shared reservoir, requiring the very same 'fittings' for the vacuum/systems as our setup?