Non rotary help needed

nikp · May 18, 2009, 11:34:21 AM

Hope people are willing to offer suggestions on a non rotary car issue we are finding.

We have a 2004 Ford Fiesta (Mk6) and it\'s great. The problem is however, on a fast long run on the motorway seems to make gear selection tricky when slowing down. For 2 hours we were travelling round the M25 and M4 and went into a services. When getting there and slowing down, selecting 4th was tricky. Then when leaving I had to reverse and it too was tricky selecting reverse. This morning, all gears were 100% perfect. This has happened before so we thought it was the clutch, and got it checked out, only to be told that it was fine.

We\'re thinking it is heat related: something getting hot and making gear selection tricky. Could it be the gearbox oil? Would replacing that help?

David Nock (RIP) · May 18, 2009, 11:40:52 AM

Assuming the Focus has separate gearbox oil (they all do these days don\'t they?), then changing the g/box oil can\'t hurt. Check out the grade from the book and put in (or ask for) full synthetic gear oil.
You don\'t say what mileage or if the oil has been changed before?

nikp · May 18, 2009, 11:42:29 AM

Mileage is approx 70k, and we do not have a service history regarding the g\'oil, so it\'s possible it\'s not been done before.

David Nock (RIP) · May 18, 2009, 12:02:01 PM

Sounds like a good first step then.

Spartacus · May 18, 2009, 02:30:48 PM

Try change the clutch fluid as it might be over heating so when you try and depress the clutch it may not be disengaging all the way hence difficult to select gears.

David Nock (RIP) · May 18, 2009, 06:05:01 PM

Quote from: Spartacus;608652Try change the clutch fluid as it might be over heating so when you try and depress the clutch it may not be disengaging all the way hence difficult to select gears.

Yes, a good point - do they have hydraulic clutch mechanisms?

Spartacus · May 18, 2009, 06:38:00 PM

Quote from: David Nock;608726Yes, a good point - do they have hydraulic clutch mechanisms?

An even better point- No idea but it sounded about right.
I\'d pop that bonnet and have a look see:2Rolleyes

nikp · May 18, 2009, 06:44:23 PM

Yeah, they\'re like FDs: they\'re hydraulic clutches that run off the brake fluid/master cylinder.

adib · May 18, 2009, 09:10:22 PM

id go for gear box oil,sounds like the gears are getting warm, perhaps not got enough in it and did you get my last email about air sensor mate

slingo · May 18, 2009, 09:40:32 PM

its got a hydraulic clutch release bearing iirc ,this item somtimes gets stuck halfway down the 1st motion shaft, do you get a bad pedal or does the pedal feel ok ? also if it was a gearbox fault 9 times out of ten it would not be intermitent

nikp · May 18, 2009, 09:41:21 PM

I got the one about how you would like to pay - that\'s fine with me.

rx jamie · May 18, 2009, 10:51:16 PM

too rule out the clutch mechanism without working on it. rev the engine in neutral between changes when changing down next time your out on a run and its starts getting notchy. if it still doesnt go into gear easy when rev matching its the gearbox.

nikp · May 19, 2009, 11:53:12 AM

Quote from: slingo;608810its got a hydraulic clutch release bearing iirc ,this item somtimes gets stuck halfway down the 1st motion shaft, do you get a bad pedal or does the pedal feel ok ? also if it was a gearbox fault 9 times out of ten it would not be intermitent

How do you mean \'bad pedal\'? The pedal operation seemed ok, but I was concentrating more on trying to get it into gear!

David Nock (RIP) · May 19, 2009, 12:39:18 PM

Quote from: rx jamie;608846too rule out the clutch mechanism without working on it. rev the engine in neutral between changes when changing down next time your out on a run and its starts getting notchy. if it still doesnt go into gear easy when rev matching its the gearbox.

Yes good idea - it\'s a very easy check to do. It\'s called double declutching and eliminates the clutch from the problem list. Get the transmission hot again, then,as Jamie, when changing down, put the clutch in, the gear lever to neutral, lift the clutch and now rev the engine back up to where it should be for the next gear you\'re going down to. Then clutch in and down to the lower gear. Does it go in easily with this method of rev matching but not by just changing down without it? If \'yes it changes easily\' it\'s likely the clutch, if \'no it\'s still very hard to change down\', its likely the gearbox.
You need to practice these changes a bit but if you can do it fluently and smoothly it will pinpoint clutch or gearbox.

Incidentally, worth doing this on down changes all through your life, because clutch lining wear and synchro wear in the g/box are both virtually eliminated.

Don\'t mean to be patronising if you know all this, but might help someone else who doesn\'t know how old style crash gearboxes were driven.