Ford Focus clutch- uh oh, any advice?

Aargh, car may have died 🙁

It’s a mk 1.5, enduro-engined TDDI 1.8 Focus. Was running perfectly, clutch operating normally. Just pulling away and the car stalled with a thump as if it’d hit a wall. Clutch pedal feels completely disconnected, just flapping. Managed to limp it home by starting in 2nd…

Now I had something very similiar before- the clutch master cylinder has a little plastic pushrod in it, that snapped off. Common issue- not that this time, pedal and m/c seem to be working normally, I can see the top of the piston actuating etc.

There’s fluid in the reservoir, it’s between the min and max. Besides I would say it doesn’t feel like low fluid/needs bled/minor leak, it feels like something entirely broken or blown (and suddenly- not a slow leak). Pedal action is literally as though it’s not connected to anything.

No obvious leaking fluid- and again I’d expect the reservoir level to drop if it was losing fluid.

So… I’m thinking, slave cylinder has gone, or the cable between the slave and clutch mechanism. Both bad news as tbh the car isn’t worth repairing if it’s either of those I think. Well, marginally worthwhile financially but not worth the hassle as I was planning to sell anyway- will make more sense to scrap 🙁

So, does anyone fancy giving me a cheap/easy alternative? 😆 Quite bummed out, I just replaced the rear drums and bearings too, bloomin thing.

Time to go for automatic gear car … 😆

Also, anyone got a good idea of what a Focus estate is worth in scrap? Alloy wheels, nothing else of much interest.

Or alternatively, any STW nichemongers want to buy this fine singlespeed car?

Thrust bearing gone, mine went in the centre of chester at rush hour, a long tow home.

Offer it to the garage and say how much as he coukd fix it at cost then sellin.

IF HE OFFERS YOU 150 tell him to do one as thats taking advantage. Garage did this to me so I scrapped it for 180 collected

Surely if you’ve just put money into the car, and there is nothing else much wrong with it, fixing the clutch might be worthwhile, especially DIY.

Note: That’s most likely what I’d do.

Note 2: I’m 46 and skint with a shite car if that helps you judge the value of my help.

Doesn’t feel like thrust bearing to me- feels like actuation not function?

TuckerUK – Member

Surely if you’ve just put money into the car, and there is nothing else much wrong with it, fixing the clutch might be worthwhile, especially DIY.

Well… It’s a well used, 120000 mile, 6-owner focus diesel on the original clutch and dmf, so the resale value is sub-£1000 at best, realistically was expecting to get £700-£800 as tradein. Webuyanycar value it as a nonrunner at £150. So, optimistically just fixing the clutch slave (or whatever else it may be) is going to be £400-ish, but to keep it on the road that’d make no sense, it’d want the DMF and clutch done at the same time so £600-ish. For the sake of a couple of hundred quid I don’t think it’s going to be worth it.

Or this is how it pessimistically feels. Could be overreacting. It was on its way out the door regardless, this just changes the fate of the thing I reckon.

Just a hunch but aren’t focus clutches cable operated, in which case it probably just a snapped cable?

For the sake of argument let’s presume it’s the slave cylinder, £10 new off eBay, and not exactly rocket science to fit and bleed (and if you can’t do, I’ll wager there’s someone here who can for a beer). In any case, if you decide to get rid of the car, the difference between one working and not, will often be more than cost of a DIY fix.

what you say mk1.5, what do you mean?
if it is the slave cylinder there will be brake fluid (it uses the same reservoir) coming out in the bell housing, have a look underneath.

if it is the master cylinder secondary seal, it will be leaking into the passenger compartment, look in the pedal box area – also check to see if your plastic pushrod is snapped, or the white plastic clip has come away from the pedal blade. (i noticed you say this is ok)

if it is the MC primary seal in the master cylinder you wont see any leaks as the fluid will stay in the system.

if it is the slave cylinder, it is a gearbox off job because it is concentric to the input shaft.

so – is the clutch disengaging at all, or not?

TuckerUK – Member

For the sake of argument let’s presume it’s the slave cylinder, £10 new off eBay, and not exactly rocket science to fit and bleed (and if you can’t do, I’ll wager there’s someone here who can for a beer)

Engine-out job… Be one hell of a beer 😉

thisisnotaspoon – Member

Just a hunch but aren’t focus clutches cable operated, in which case it probably just a snapped cable?

Nah, hydraulic. But I know what you’re thinking, symptoms are exactly like that aren’t they!

OK ignore previous post, looks like more than just the simple slave cylinder operating arm that I’m used to.

Job described with photos here.

Ah, porter-jamie, you sound like just the man, I hope you don’t mind if I pick your brain?

If it’s losing fluid, it’s not losing much. No visible leaks and no drastic drop in levels. No smell of DOT either. Can’t 100% rule out leaks but I doubt them. I’ve tried pumping the lever to restore pressure/expel more fluid, nothing happening either way.

Clutch is not engaging at all, no resistance on the pedal. And went from normal feel and movement to total failure and loss of pressure instantly, like something snapping Feels exactly the same as when the pushrod snapped but it’s definately intact (fixed that before myself but I can see it moving normally)

Can the slave fail without dropping fluid? (if not the piston then some other part of the unit- this model has a cable from the slave to the clutch mechanism IIRC?)

If it’s the MC primary seal, would that manifest itself this way? Changing that’s straightforward enough and I’ve done it before but I have to admit I’d ruled it out, it just doesn’t feel like a hydraulic fail, but I could be jumping to conclusions. Master cylinder is I think just over a year old/10000 miles.

Can you suggest a good direction for diagnosis? I figure on starting out trying to bleed the system tomorrow and just seeing if anything interesting happens…

TuckerUk, cheers- big job for 2-3 people then… TBH it was an epic job to get the front hubs out last year for bearing swaps, everything impressively corroded together so I’d expect more trouble ahead that way too. Doable but I think too much to be worth it for me (don’t want to sound like a toff, but if we’re talking being without the car and giving up so much time, that’s not worth the cash saving for me at least)

But I do appreciate the help! Very good link.

send me the reg number and or vin to the email in the profile, and i shall look your car up tomorrow and see which engine/gearbox/pedalbox etc you have

Will do- thanks very much!

Looking to scrap my focus estate and being offered £175 with alloy wheels

Ah well… Tried to bleed it back up and the extra fluid and pressure has made it very obvious that it’s leaking from the bellhousing. Slave cylinder gone for sure… (weird that there was still fluid above the refilling hole in the reservoir… Must have been on a slope or something, ah well)

Thanks for the input folks, especially porter_jamie.