A friend of mine has a 2007 Focus automatic with 85,000 miles on the clock. The gearbox is making funny noises and she thinks that it may need to be replaced. I said that it wouldn't be worth the cost, not that I know anything about these things. Better-informed comments, please.

She does have a "man" who does basic work on her car, though I don't know if he's able to change a gear box.

(Three years ago she had a problem with some sort of circuit board (??), got a quote of several hundred pounds for a replacement, tried one bodge that didn't work, the second one did. In the meantime she got a second-hand Ford but decided not to sell the 2007 car.)

If the car truly does need a replacement gearbox then it will be very borderline as to whether it is worth doing using a secondhand unit. It would certainly not be worth fitting a brand new gearbox which would cost as much as the car is worth.

I'd start by servicing the existing gearbox and using the software FORScan to check for any issues.

FORScan: https://forscan.org/download.html

vLinker FS cable: https://www.obd2shop.co.uk/wholesale/vgate-vlinker-fs-elm327-for-ford.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwmdGYBhDRARIsABmSEeMMl6PdKWDepTjbj3uApRmhR1eF2IIEMEt4X_1EVZ-2shxEedKyfucaAh7pEALw_wcB

 

Unofix: thanks for that. I've relayed your info to my friend, who emailed back to say that "I'm a gem".

Service of the gearbox at a Ford dealer is about £400. They are not that easy to service (no oil drain plug) and many independent garages either won't know how to service it, or will only do part of the job.

A curious tale from my friend with the Focus. She bought a Haynes manual to determine how to check the oil level in the automatic transmission. "Couldn't you find out how to by Googling?" I asked. She said no, but I found a YouTube tutorial within ten seconds. Then she discovered that it was dry (😧), so took her car to a garage who wanted £70 to put it on a hoist (perhaps to check  any consequential damage?), so she and her dad filled it with oil themselves. Perhaps encouraged by the manual, they replaced the spark plugs and she topped up the coolant - but too much so, she reckoned, because instead of the excess draining off the entire reservoir emptied, prompting a warning. She went to Halfords, who refilled the reservoir for free.

Lots of 🙄.

She drove from London  along the M4 to visit me today, but in her other oldish Ford. I know little about these things, but am minded to warn her to check the coolant level before driving and to carry top-up (or even fill-up) water with her.