53 Focus, gear problems?

barbiedoll

We have a 53 plate 1.6 Focus, bought recently from a dealer with a 3 month warranty. The car drives well generally, we have had it serviced and a new cambelt fitted. During the service, the garage mentioned that the clutch was on its way out so we went back to the dealer who apparently fitted a new one. (We were not given any paperwork or receipts for this work)

After a few days, my husband began to have trouble getting the car into gear when first starting up, especially first and reverse. First gear was difficult to engage and after a few days, he couldn't get the car into reverse gear at all, the gearbox would make a loud "grinding" noise.

We returned the car to the dealer who agreed that there was a problem (we left it there overnight so that they had to start it from cold in the morning) Their mechanics bled the clutch system, which appeared to fix the fault, the car was driving fine when we picked it up.

Now, 3 weeks later the problem has started to reappear. My husband drove it to work yesterday and noticed that once again, it was difficult to engage first gear when the car is cold. The gear lever has to be pushed really hard to engage and when he tries to reverse, the gearbox is again grinding. Third gear is also quite "stiff", again, when the car has warmed up, this eases off.

We are still within the warranty period so we will go back to the dealer again. Does anyone have any ideas what this problem could be? We'd like to be a little informed when we go back, we want this problem to be fixed properly!
Thanks.

forgotmyname

Does it ease if you pump the pedal? Possible they only changed the clutch plate but the slave cylinder is leaking.

Checked the clutch fluid?

motorguy

forgotmyname wrote: »

Does it ease if you pump the pedal? Possible they only changed the clutch plate but the slave cylinder is leaking.

Checked the clutch fluid?

+1

Sounds like the slave cylinder is leaking.