16 replies to this topic

[Gogs67]

Hi to all

I have a '55' Focus Zetec 1.6 petrol, last week I found a small-ish broken spring lying in my driver's footwell. Took it to my local dealer, who confirmed it's the return spring for my clutch pedal, told me it was a fairly common problem. They charged me £3.89 for a new one, however having had a look in the footwell I can't figure out where the new spring goes. Also, access is tight to say the least

Has anyone replaced this spring? If so, is there an easy way to do it? Any advice will be gratefully received. Also, a diagram or photo would be great too.

Many thanks in advance

P.S. Dealer service department want £70 labour to fit the spring, told me that a 'special tool is required, sir'. Aye right, just like the buttons on the back of my head!!!!

[gaz6076]

Ford, special tool? Never heard of it

It sits at the top of the pedal towards the back. It's very tight to get in there and if you've not seen where it comes off it's tricky to locate the holes each end of the spring sits in.

The "special tools" used is a leaver, some screwdrivers and a set of small vice grips usually helps. It can be done in place but if ur a big guy then gettng in there can be quite fun. Lol

[Con Rod]

Hi,

The same happened to my Focus after about three years.
The dealer quoted £150 labour as they claimed that the peddle needed to be split from the master cylinder !!
My solution was to use an elastic band or several hooked onto the metal bar just under the plastic fascia around the peddle and back onto the bar.
If you lay on your back in the footwell you can see the silver bar just under the edge of the dash and stops about where your left knee would be. Hook the bands onto this, then around the peddle and then back onto the bar. Just watch for the bands rubbing on the flat plate approx half way up the peddle for wearing through the bands.
Works OK. Hope this helps.

[Con Rod]

Hi,

The same happened to my Focus after about three years.
The dealer quoted £150 labour as they claimed that the peddle needed to be split from the master cylinder !!
My solution was to use an elastic band or several hooked onto the metal bar just under the plastic fascia around the peddle and back onto the bar.
If you lay on your back in the footwell you can see the silver bar just under the edge of the dash and stops about where your left knee would be. Hook the bands onto this, then around the peddle and then back onto the bar. Just watch for the bands rubbing on the flat plate approx half way up the peddle for wearing through the bands.
Works OK. Hope this helps.

[Gogs67]

Cheers for the replies folks

Went to another dealer today and managed to get a print-out of the clutch pedal diagram from the dealer's EPC, which shows the location of the spring, however it doesn't look easy to get to

Also spoke to a technician, who tells me that Ford allow them 4 hours labour, as its a 'nightmare' of a job to do without splitting the pedal and master cylinder Phoned the original dealer back, only to be told that the quote of £70 labour was incorrect, and that it should be £240

Day off tomorrow, so going to give it a bash myself and see how I get on.

[Gogs67]

Absolute nightmare of a job

Spent 4 hours yesterday trying to get this bl##dy spring on, gave up in the end 'cos there's not much skin left on my wrist and knuckles now

If the steering column is adjusted so that its all the way up and out, the very top of the clutch pedal (where one end of the spring locates) can be viewed through the gap between the column and the bottom of the dash panel; however I couldn't figure out where the other end of the spring locates. Despite the aid of a decent torch and plenty of patience, I was unable to 'feel' for the correct location.

Any further tips or advice would be much appreciated

Anyone fancy a job????

[gaz6076]

55 plate? Would that make yours a mk2 then? Or a late mk1?

My m8 has a mk1 1.8. I can see if i can get a couple of pics of where his spring sits?

[stef123]

just done one of these springs this afternoon for someone, 2 hours and what a nightmare of a job. kit from ford was £4.89 but it had some other spring/mechanism with it too not that i used it.

if your gonna tackle this job be prepared for cut hands and a sore back. never again will i be doing this job unless its worth a good £100. i ended up fitting the spring to the backplate bit on the bulkhead and the using a screwdriver as a lever, brought the spring towards the pedal and used another screwdriver to locate the spring into the hole. not as easy as it sounds.

[Cornishozz]

Hi everyone,

Just to let you know, this can be done without removing anything. Just done mine, it's taken me about 3 hours of messing about but eventually figured out how to do it (hopefully after reading this it'll be a bit quicker for you)!

1) Buy the springkit from Ford (comes with spring and random plastic spring which I didn't use) - costs about £4.

2) Have a look at someone elses focus (if your not sure where the spring locates).

3) Insert 1p pieces between every coil of the spring, on both sides (probably around 30 in all), this will "temporarily" stretch the spring enough so that you can just insert it into the required position.

4) Have a feel around at the top of the pedal for a small hole (you'll put the longer hook of the spring through here first).

5) Have a look with a torch at the metal plate behind the clutch pedal on the chassis for a small hole (you'll put the shorter hook of the spring in here).

6) Depress clutch pedal to gain some tension on the spring (some coins may drop out at this stage, otherwise, push/pull then out by hand.

[w4rdy]

Just fitted a new spring to my dads Focus...took me a few hours lying on my back.
I fitted the short end to the pedal and had to 'adjust' the longer end to get it to fit into the hole which is very awkward to find and get into.
I fitted the spring so it hooked onto the pedal from the RHS and the other end then pointed to the front of the car..To extend the spring I stretched the spring and fitted 6 5p pieces in the gaps(pull them out when spring connected both ends)..difficult to do but it worked

[Mark focus]

Hi everyone,

Just to let you know, this can be done without removing anything. Just done mine, it's taken me about 3 hours of messing about but eventually figured out how to do it (hopefully after reading this it'll be a bit quicker for you)!

1) Buy the springkit from Ford (comes with spring and random plastic spring which I didn't use) - costs about £4.

2) Have a look at someone elses focus (if your not sure where the spring locates).

3) Insert 1p pieces between every coil of the spring, on both sides (probably around 30 in all), this will "temporarily" stretch the spring enough so that you can just insert it into the required position.

4) Have a feel around at the top of the pedal for a small hole (you'll put the longer hook of the spring through here first).

5) Have a look with a torch at the metal plate behind the clutch pedal on the chassis for a small hole (you'll put the shorter hook of the spring in here).

6) Depress clutch pedal to gain some tension on the spring (some coins may drop out at this stage, otherwise, push/pull then out by hand.

Thanks for this advice it worked a treat. Took me less than an hour and a half. Used 28 pennies, the only thing I did different was attach the spring to the chassis first.

[thfcmad]

Wow, this job truly is a b@stard to do!!!

Just spent about 4-5 hours doing this. Managed to find the hole in chassis and get the spring in there but getting the longer bit of the spring over the slot in the clutch pedal was more than a challenge. I tried the penny route but found i couldnt get the spring into the hole in the chassis, so i used 5p pieces instead as they are slightly smaller. Even with these in, the spring wasnt stretched enough and i just could not get the other end onto the clutch pedal.

My eventual solution - i found some old cable (think mine was off a lamp) and i fed this through under the steering wheel - i then tied this to the spring. I then pulled this to get the spring to stretch whilst my father in law positioned the spring into place on the clutch pedal. Job done.

On a separate note, does anyone know if i need to apply any grease or anything to this spring?

Thanks for the assistance of people who have posted before me as i wouldnt have even attempted this without finding this post.

I hope my way helps someone else who may be struggling with this. Just be warned, as Stef123 said, be prepared for a sore back and cut hands!!

[donkey]

Just wanted to say a big thanks to all you contributors - after some heated words managed to get the new spring fitted and would never have managed it without all your advice.

My learnings:

* get a couple of powerful torches

* adjust the steering wheel

* I used 15 5p pieces keeping the last couple of coils that fit into the bulkhead plate free. When inserting the 5p's do from both sides to make sure the spring is straight

* using the 5p's left me slightly short of the pedal - I then used the wire trick to ease the last bit onto the clutch pedal


Once again thanks team - cost me £5 instead of £240!

[Tbirdiv]

Hi all, I had to do this recently and after getting nowhere scrabbling around upside down under the pedals I decided to remove the lower steering column cowling to enable me to see the small hole on the chassis to hook the end of the spring into. I had already removed the lower panel to the right hand side of the dash.I think it was a total of four screws( two on each panel and a few clips). The radio controller stalk needs to be pulled out of the steering cover to enable it to drop down. This let me get my head just a little bit further to the left and low and behold- there it was... a small hole about 2mm dia. at the bottom of a V shaped panel above the master cylinder. You can just see it by looking through the gap below the steering column. By putting my arm through this gap I was able to hook the smaller hook in to the hole from the top (i.e. hook pointing downwards). Once this is done pull the long end of the spring (which I had packed with washers between the coils to pre-stretch it) over the hook on the top end of the pedal itself. I had to pull it the last few mm's with a piece of cord and hey presto! job done without having to hang upside down like a bat. Once it is hooked on depress the pedal to enable the washers to fall out. Some might need pulled out bout they come out fairly easily.

[ferretfloozy]

is this the offending item? best pic i could take without breaking my wrist

 

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