Transmission/Clutch issues

[fiestafoxx]

Hello, my name is foxx. I just purchased a 2015 FiST with 75k miles from the Ford dealership I work at as a diesel tech. Upon 8 days of purchase, I was driving to work down the interstate, at about 80 in 6th gear. I merged to my exit, depressed the clutch and it went straight to the floor. I pulled it up with my foot after engaging into neutral and rolling on the on ramp. I pulled over and inspected the clutch pedal assembly, under the vehicle around the bell housing, and the brake fluid reservoir. It looked okay, somewhat dark but not significant. I read a thread in this forum regarding the issue after researching it at work, no TSB's for this issue at work under PTS, but most people on here said it was super intermittent. I waited a week, and it still would have the same issue on the interstate and light traffic. Since the problem started it'll sometimes refuse to take a gear from neutral, and 2nd has grinded twice. I've lubricated the clutch pivot point, to no avail. My next step is flushing the fluid, which has gotten darker. I have suspicions that the clutch slave cylinder is going out and plan to replace it with a new clutch but I wanted a second opinion before dropping the trans. They did a transmission fluid change prior to me purchasing the vehicle so I'm somewhat concerned about that, I doubt that's the issue though. (Carfax indication). I'm new to the ford game (I'm a Subaru guy, I've owned 8 and have torn down countless EJ's and FA's and done all sorts of work on Subaru transmissions). Any advice would be appreciated! Thank you!

sorry i meant to put this in the transmissions thread!

 

[Capri to ST]

It certainly sounds like your clutch slave cylinder is going out. It sounds like you're aware that you have to drop the transmission to get to it.
Welcome to the Forum. It's unfortunate that you have to start out with an issue, but it's a great car, I think you will really enjoy it.

 

[SteveS]

This is a common problem for the Fiesta and Focus ST. The slave cylinder wears and allows the pedal pressure to leak past it. Unfortunately the plastic slave cylinder is inside the transmission so it's not an easy swap. However you can mitigate the problem and temporize it by flushing and refilling the hydraulic fluid (which will end up being both brake and clutch since they share the reservoir). Normally from the first time the problem appears until it gets as bad as you describe takes a long time. On our FiST it was more than a year from the first time the clutch pedal stuck down until it was bad enough that I had the fluid flushed and bled. It has now been another year and it is still operating normally without sticking. I would bet that your car was having this problem for quite some time when it was traded in.

Other good habits to practice to save the slave include shifting into neutral and taking your foot off the clutch as you come to a stop, and leaving the foot off the clutch while you sit.

 

[M-Sport fan]

Since it is more likely than not that your '15 model year car has NEVER had the brake and clutch fluid flushed out, and you work at a dealership so have full access to lifts, tools, facility (unlike a lot of us!), I would try the FULL brake/clutch fluid flush first.
(Ford quite foolishly labels these as 'lifetime' fills. LOFL! )

Mine was doing this every drive in the summers on the factory fluid until I found someone able to do this for me (I absolutely cannot have my car up on jack stands where I live, ever!), last October, and it has been perfect ever since.

Worth a try before you go through the bother/expense of a full clutch assembly change since you will not have to pay the $350+ all of the local dealers wanted to charge me just for the labor to do just the system flushes.

 

[fiestafoxx]

It certainly sounds like your clutch slave cylinder is going out. It sounds like you're aware that you have to drop the transmission to get to it.
Welcome to the Forum. It's unfortunate that you have to start out with an issue, but it's a great car, I think you will really enjoy it.[/QUOTE

yeah I’m a lil pissed about it. Now it’s leaking fluid thru the bell housing so it’s time to drop. Ford is covering the work under warranty and paying me to do the job myself so I’m not losing anything

 

[fiestafoxx]

Since it is more likely than not that your '15 model year car has NEVER had the brake and clutch fluid flushed out, and you work at a dealership so have full access to lifts, tools, facility (unlike a lot of us!), I would try the FULL brake/clutch fluid flush first.
(Ford quite foolishly labels these as 'lifetime' fills. LOFL! )

Mine was doing this every drive in the summers on the factory fluid until I found someone able to do this for me ( I absolutely cannot have my car up on jack stands where I live, ever!), last October, and it has been perfect ever since.

Worth a try before you go through the bother/expense of a full clutch assembly change since you will not have to pay the $350+ all of the local dealers wanted to charge me just for the labor to do this job.

well it’s now leaking brake fluid thru the bell housing. It needs a slave, luckily since I work at ford they’re paying me to do the warranty work as well as paying for parts. Transmission will be removed and I’ll gauge what else it needs

 

[fiestafoxx]

This is a common problem for the Fiesta and Focus ST. The slave cylinder wears and allows the pedal pressure to leak past it. Unfortunately the plastic slave cylinder is inside the transmission so it's not an easy swap. However you can mitigate the problem and temporize it by flushing and refilling the hydraulic fluid (which will end up being both brake and clutch since they share the reservoir). Normally from the first time the problem appears until it gets as bad as you describe takes a long time. On our FiST it was more than a year from the first time the clutch pedal stuck down until it was bad enough that I had the fluid flushed and bled. It has now been another year and it is still operating normally without sticking. I would bet that your car was having this problem for quite some time when it was traded in.

Other good habits to practice to save the slave include shifting into neutral and taking your foot off the clutch as you come to a stop, and leaving the foot off the clutch while you sit.

I neutral roll as sit in neutral at lights and stop signs. This is my 13th manual car so it wasn’t driver error that caused it. Fluid is leaking out of the slave thru the bell housing now so the transmission will be dropped. Since I just purchased it ford is going to warranty the work and pay me to do it. All good

 

[M-Sport fan]

If you would ever be considering a limited slip diff, NOW would be the time to install it!

But yeah, I know, they are from ~$700.00 up to ~$1200.00 just for the diff itself, before the requisite installation kit (bearings, spacers, ring bolts, etc.), so if not a 'must' for you, it is a big expense.

 

[scooter123]

I had the slave cylinder fail on my 2019 at 32,000 miles. Cause was pretty obvious. The chinesium throwout bearing had a defect that resulted in it generating heat and accelerating wear to that bearing, so more heat. That heat got to the point where the shaft seals for the slave cylinder melted and caused the slave cylinder to stick in the extended position. Cost for the R&R on the transmission was 1640 dollars which I had to agree to pay if the issue was due to wear to the friction surfaces of the clutch. After that the dealer kept trying to push me into replacing the clutch, pressure plate, flywheel, and all that in what I believe was an attempt to use that friction surface replacement in order to shift R&R cost for the transmission from the warranty coverage to my cost. Being old enough and with roughly 50 years of experience in Automotive I naturally refused any replacement of any friction surface. End result the cost for the new slave cylinder was 100% covered by the warranty. It also helped that when the service writer started talking about diagnostics I stated very clearly that it was a bad slave cylinder and I would NOT pay for any diagnostics on this warranty issue. Which led to more warnings about it costing me more if I was wrong. BTW, in talking to the tech I discovered this is fairly common with the FiST and with the manual transmission Mustangs with the turbo 4 cylinder. Since that time I have made it a habit to put the car into neutral when I stop at a traffic light to minimize the "dwell time" for the throughout bearing. Yeah it makes me a sitting duck for someone who didn't notice the stopped traffic but in the Metro Detroit area it's very common to not be the lead car at a light so there is no escape space if I had the car in gear. I'll also note that I also make it a habit to "time" the traffic lights because you not only save on clutch engagements you also save on gas. During the summer I can typically get 36-38 mpg with an average speed of only 28 or 29 mph and that ain't bad for City driving.