Broken Plastic Clip = £220+ Repair Bill?

[dpg50000]

Hi, I have a late 2010 Ford Focus 2.0 TDCi, with a 6 speed box. It has a lift-up collar for selecting reverse. The other day, it would go into reverse, but wouldn't come out. I lifted the gaiter up, and found the round black plastic clip (plus a small piece of silver plastic inside it) that attaches the gear knob to the reverse selector had broken off.

​It is only a minor inconvenience, as I can just manually reach below the gear knob and pull the selector up when I want reverse, and it correctly disengages from reverse when I move the stick back to the right. However, whilst my car was in today for a different fault, I asked the garage to take a look. They are telling me you can't buy the clip separately, and have to buy the whole selector unit from Ford, at a cost of £220!

Can anyone verify if this is true? I can't post a picture of the broken clip at present, as it's still in the car at the garage, but if you've ever had to lift the gaiter up it will be obvious which it is. The garage has always seemed to be honest with me in the past, but I find it hard to believe in this instance. If it is true, then shame on Ford for such blatant profiteering.

[alexp999]

This is just how it works sometimes with car manufacturers

It is not so much profiteering, but how many components they have to stock. There are thousands of parts to a car, so sometimes they only stock complete assemblies.

It is probably better to try and get one from a car breaker.

[dpg50000]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I agree there are many thousands of parts they need to stock, but honestly, if you could see this particular part - it's a round plastic clip that looks like it would cost all of £1 to manufacture. It's not even that it's integrated into the selector, so you couldn't provide it separately.

[alexp999]

The other option is to complain to Ford customer relations.

See if they could sort out the individual part for you...

[dpg50000]

Good point. I'll investigate the options - breakers first, complaints second :)

[dpg50000]

Spoke to the garage and they showed me the Ford schematic. The only separately available parts are basically the gear knob and spring. The plastic collar / clip is only available with the full gear selector assembly. Hard to believe such a minor thing is going to cost £220 (plus approx. 2 hours fitting).

[Stoney871]

It's most likely moulded straight onto the stick.

[dpg50000]

It did look that way on the schematic, tbh. Looks like another example of penny pinching - using cheap plastic for the part, when a metal ring would probably have lasted a lifetime. :(

[alexp999]

I'm sure cost is the primary factor.

But they also have to think about any sound implications, metal things sometimes need lubricating, etc.

Also weight.

The next generation of all new cars, in particular are all about weight saving, to improve efficiency and allow even smaller engines to propel the car with the same performance.

[troy45]

Bear in mind for sourcing a new component part of the shifter assembly that it won't be manufactured by Ford but one of their suppliers.

If issues were cropping up while cars were still in warranty there's always a possibility that Ford would cut their warranty bill by releasing the part as an individual component but not much likelyhood otherwise sadly.

The original assembly will have gone through in-depth durability testing but this is only carried out at the very start of the life of the design and not on a rolling basis as the tooling and assemblies wear and mature over time or get built away from correct spec!

[TomsFocus]

Could you not glue the clip back on? There's usually a way of bodging expensive broken parts