Hi,

Looking for some insight, help, experiences in dealing with Ford around the clutch issue that resulted in Campaign 19N08 under the Customer Satisfaction Program, specifically issues with the clutch in the automatic transmission.

I bought a 2014 Ford Focus for my mom (now 85 years old and a loyal Ford driver). There were issues with the transmission that resulted in the extended warranty I mentioned above. She had the clutch replaced in 2017 under this program. The replacement is acting up again just like the original, however the extended warranty for the clutch expired in Dec 2021.

I've contacted Ford and haven't gotten much of a response.

The local dealer did a diagnostic and told my mom it would be $2700.00 to replace the clutch. I did some searches online for the 'average' cost to do that job and let's just say that $2700.00 is close to 3 times the amount estimated for this repair.

Any suggestions on how to proceed? Thank you in advance.

Remo.

 

Hi again.

Thanks for being patient with me here. My mom lives in another state so I'm doing whatever I can to help determine the right thing to do. And am a bit frustrated.

I was pleasantly surprised that when calling the dealer they agreed to send me the diagnostic sheet with the part numbers. But there is no line item for labor, just a hand written total for parts and labor combined.

Here are the parts:

DESCRIPTION SOURCE PRICE
F1FZ 7B546 B: CLUTCH ASY 0041F0 455.34
EV6Z 7052 C: SEAL ASY - OIL 0036A0 48.13
CA6Z 7515 J: LEVER ASY - CLUTCH 0040B0 218.46
CA6Z 7515 K: LEVER ASY - CLUTCH 0040B0 226.00
XT AA QDC : FLUID - TRANSMISSION STAIRS 37.49

985.42 parts total

estimate including parts and labor is $2700.00

I did call around and the parts seem to be priced in the right ballpark overall (maybe $20-25 difference but no huge difference)

I'm particularly frustrated in that her clutch was replaced in 2017 because of the CSP Campaign I mentioned in the first post and now apparently has to be replaced again. This doesn't sound right to me for a 2014 vehicle with 10,000.00 miles (yes, that's right, 10k) to have to have the clutch replaced twice.

Anyone else out there dealing with this absurd defect??? All hints, tips and suggestions welcome.

Thanks in advance.
Remo.

 

Hi. Well no one has responded to my post about the crappy transmission in the 2014 Ford Focus I got for my mom. (I didn't want to get her a Focus, but she insisted on having a Ford and specifically wanted the Focus).

But if anyone is interested, I ended up contacting Ford via chat and while they should recall all of these junky transmissions (IMHO obviously), they did offer a 3 year extended warranty. that's for the whole car, not just the transmission. Exceptions are normal stuff that wear out (brake pads, etc.). The price may vary by how much milesage you have on the car (my mom has less than 10k on it; and no that's not a typo) and was able to get a warranty with a $250.00 deductible for a little over $30 a month. So over 3 years, that's a tad over $1000.00, which is just over 1/3 of the estimated repair I cited above.

While I hate paying $1000.00 to insure this "thing", It's far better than any other extended warranties in terms of price. There were $100 and $500 deductible plans, but the $250.00 deductible made the most sense after calculating the difference in price vs. how often may have to use it. It's worth the price alone just for any transmission repairs.

 

Hi! Reading your post and it sounds EXACTLY like what I'm experiencing. I have a 2015 Focus - same issues as described below. The 7 year warranty ended a few months ago - I thought I was okay as the clutch had already been replaced and the car only has about 37,000 miles. What extended Warranty did you buy? Was it from Ford directly - and did they fix the issue and replace the clutch? Thank you!

 

Hi,

Sorry for the delay in responding. The warranty is directly from Ford. I will find out soon if they will fix the transmission. The rep assured me that it would be covered. My mom is in WV so she hasn't been driving hardly at all due to the weather, and it hadn't done it for a while. But the last 2 times she drove it, it happened again so she's going to take it into the dealer when it gets a little warmer.

I was off a bit in my #'s above. The $250.00 deductible plan I got for 3 years was a total of $1245.00. So with the deductible that is about 1/2 what the cost of fixing this on-going transmission is. But it is not just a warranty on the transmission. It covers a lot more.

I think this is the # to call Ford to get the warranty.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

833-781-7354

 

I have the exact with my 2015 Ford Focus Hatchback ..new clutch put in @ 2019 at 28,432 km and i took it back twice after it was done in 2020 and again in 2021 and was told "it has to re-learn to your driving...that seems like a long time for it to keep "relearning". Its never been right, slipping gears, intermittent times it won't reverse, bucks and jerks. I started a case with Ford Canada in May 2023 as I was going in circles with Ford. Even doing a case is useless as the agent said "All the dealerships are independent so Ford Canada cannot "tell" them to do things due to being "independently owned". I just took it in for a diagnostic and obviously had to pay for the diagnostic testing...so the TCM needs replaced and that is under warranty but they said it needs another clutch. I can't understand that if it was replaced at 28,432 km in 2019 and I now in 2023 in total only have 56,656 km. That is the total km's on my car since I bought it new in 2015. I hardly drive it...so it seems very "bizarre" to me that it needs a 2nd clutch which would be on my dime...out of my pocket. I have no faith in these "stealerships". I don't trust them, they see a women coming and I swear they are just ready to soak ya. If the TCM (which of course is on back order and told it could be 2 to 4 months...they can't give an exact answer due to the back order. I'm just going to have them do the TCM and either figure out doing the clutch elsewhere as they wanted to do the clutch right away to be done then await the TCM to do at a later time. I refused. I just want to off load this God damn car cause it seems like all the sites I go too about this ..its an ongoing theme and the date is up now for that clutch to be covered. Its closed...so I just want to off load this car and I have been a religious Ford owner. This is my 4th car and I have bought new each time. I'm done with this bull****...they aren't going to do anything now with the clutch...I can't understand how when it was replaced that they're wasn't a warranty on the new clutch...but doesn't seem to be the case. I'm beyond frustrated

 

To all, I just recently got a letter in the mail from Ford (since the car is actually in my name) that Ford has extended the warranty on the TCM out to a total 10 years or 150k miles (whichever comes first).

My mom still hasn't taken the car in for the "recommended" transmission repair which I cited earlier. When she does that I will report the results of using the extended warranty plan that Ford offered. Supposedly she will only be responsible for the $250.00 deductible and the Ford warranty would covver the rest. Maybe she'll do that in the next couple of weeks.

One thing I forgot to mention, is in addition to the "hesitation" in shifting, another issue she's had is sometimes a warning light (and alarm) will come on saying somthing to the effect of "Transmission Hot Wait 5 Minutes"

That's been intermittent. I was wondering if anyone else is having that issue. When it happens to her, it seems to always be when she's been stuck idling at a traffic light for multiple cycles.

Unfortunately she's not been good about writing down the date and cirumstances each time it happens and now it has been "a couple of months, maybe more" since she's had that come on. But after pressing her she says that she does still notice shifting issues (it doesn't seem to shifting smoothly). She does have an automatic transmission. I've told her to make sure that she focuses on the shifting issue. I imagine they'll drive it around for a couple of minutes and come back and say they don't see an issue with it but then "recommend" this expensive repair I cited above. Unfortunately I can't go with her because I live several hundred miles away. I guess the best I can do is talk with her before she goes to the shope, and right after it, and then call the dealer afterwards to make sure that if they are doing anything they have coordinated with the warranty company and also call the warranty company to fact check whatever the dealer tells me.

 

Hi all,

So my mom took her 2014 focus into the dealership. The did a diagnostic and then looked on their computer and said the transmission issue didn't fall under the extended warranty we purchased directly from Ford. This apparently is not the TCM which Ford extended (yet again) for 10 years.

I called Ford and they told me that this happens all the time, that the dealer looks it up on the computer, but that with the Ford Motor CSP extended warranty program, the dealer has to call Ford directly on the phone to get it sorted out. I'm assuming that under a warranty repair the Dealer is compensated for their out of pocket costs for hourly repair but not at the $175-300 rate they charge customers (which is absurd).

I'm now waiting to hear back from someone that this POS transmission that Ford put in millioins of cars is going to be dealt with properly under the extended warranty we purchased directly from FORD.

I will post updates as I get them.

 

Hi all,

Well it's taken a week but we finally got confirmation that the extended warranty program that we purchased directly from Ford is going to fix the transmission in my mom's 2014 Ford Focus. She has to pay a $250.00 deductible, but that's fine when looking at essentially a $3000.00 repair.

Can't gurantee that this will work for everyone else, but I am glad of this outcome and wanted to share it. There were some hiccups and delays along the way and my mom's car has been sitting over at the dealership for a week while this got sorted out, but just a fews minutes ago the dealer called and confirmed that the warranty will cover this particular repair.

Here are some of the hiccups that unnecessarily delayed the whole process:

1. I already mentioned this is an earlier post, but the dealership "looked it up on their computer" and said the issue wasn't covered on the extended warranty. I had to call the Ford warranty people who told me the dealer has to call them directly on the phone to go over the potential claim. So that took most of a day to get the process started (this was late Tuesday afternoon)
2. Once the claim has been started, an "inspector" is assigned and goes to the dealership to review the case with the mechanic, do a test drive, etc. and submit a report. This process can take 24-48 hours. After 48 hours had passed, and I learned from the dealership that the inspector had not shown up yet or called them, I had to call Ford Warranty for them to start calling the inspector to find out why he / she hasn't been there yet. The Ford Warranty people can't do that until 48 hours has passed from when the Dealership calls the Ford Warranty office (step 1 above). So this was late Thursday afternoon when Ford Warranty started tracking down the Inspector.
3. The Inspector finally showed up on Friday around noon. I was going to wait a couple of hours and then call Ford but then I got stuck on a work call and it 4:30 p.m. before I could call Ford Warranty back to find out the results of the "inspection". Apparently the INspector just uploaded the report and that didn't automatically pop up on someone's screen at Ford Warranty. (this was late Friday afternoon).
4. Even then the claim had to be approved by a supervisor at which point, Ford Warranty calls the dealership and confirmed the warranty is covering the repair (that happened around 12:30 today, Monday).

It is a tedious process, obviously. So while I learned a few things about how to expedite this process, it is still a multi-day process, at least for this particular case. Perhaps with a less expensive repair (this one is estimated to take 9 hours of labor) maybe sending out an inspector isn't necessary. Don't know.

Also, The price I posted earlier per month for the warranty was a little off. It's $35.00 a month, not $30.00. But even so for the 3 years of the warranty, that's only $1260.00, which is less than 1/2 of this 1 repair. (if you factor in the $250.00 dedutible, the cost is exactly 1/2 of the $3000.00 repair).

I don't know how big a factor the extremely low mileage was for the cost we are paying for this warranty. But in the end, I'm glad I took this policy out and we have 2 more years on it and it's already more than paid for itself).

Hope this helps someone out there.

 

Hi, Just a quick follow up. The repair was completed under the warranty. I guess the hours of labor was over-estimated as the final cost was a little over $2500.00, then take off the $250.00 deductible my mom had to pay.

But still very satisfied with the outcome, despite how slowly it all went. I realize not everyone could go that long waiting for this to be sorted out, but once the repair is approved, my understanding of the warranty is they will cover the cost of a rental car up a certain amount per day. Since my mom doesn't drive all that much, it wasn't an issue. But as we now hear about a possible shortage of parts (again), it's another benefit of the warranty program from Ford.

So glad to have this particular monkey off of my back.
Richard.