Hi everyone!

Last summer I switched from a Golf MK8 2,0TDI DSG to an used 2018 early MK4 1,5TDCI 120KS station wagon manual transmision with some 55k miles.

It seems that I forgot after 2yrs driving an DSG how to manual change gears 🙂 Even after 7 Mo and 6000 miles I can' get used to the, what I would call, strange behavior of the ford manual gearbox.

The gear shifting dosent go smoothly. I have to put extra hand power to get from 2nd into the 3th gear or from the 5th into the 6th

I fully press the clutch pedal and the lever comes smoothly out the 2nd gear into neutral, but it stacks a little bit when shifting from neutral into the 3nd, I have to push it a little harder. This slows me down when driving, as you cannot shift the gears quickly and its going on my nervs. Same happening when shifting from the 5th into the 6th gear. I can't get used to it. Earlier I had an Peugeot 308 HDI manual; and I could shift the gears with 2 fingers. On the focus I need extra power - the full hand, maybe soon also both hands

I went to the Ford dealer where I bought the car. They check it by driving arroud and said that there is nothing to adjust, and that everyting is normal. They took out the lever cover and put a little Wd40 on the mechanisam. After it seems a little bit better for few days, but now its the same.

For me it isn't normal. Can somebody tell if the problem is in me (is it my imagination) or in the gearbox. Does anyone else experience this issue and is there any advise?

If this behavior is normal, I dont accept it. I'm ready to consider to sell the car. That makes me sad as I have no other issue with car and I'm really happy with the focus but this gearbox is killing my nervs.

My friend has an 2011 MK3 1,6TDCI and he said he had the same issue. He changed both clutch cylinders passing 200.000 miles and now its fine. I mentioned it in the ford garage, and they said its a comon issue on the MK3, but not on the MK4. as it has a complete different gearbox. I really dont think that I would now with 60000 miles have to change th clutch cylinders. The car is imported from Germany, with a clean srvice history, but no transmision oil was changed.

Sorry for my bad english, I'm from Croatia.

Wife has Mk4 and when the car is cold I would say the gear selection is poor, particularly from 1->2 and 2->3. Once warm it's fine, could it be gearbox oil related?

Yes, when the car is cold, its even worse. Is it oil related, I dont know. I will let the gearbox oil changed on the next service in a couple of Months. Then we will see...

It can be a bit notchy when the car is cold and sometimes get a squeak when changing from 3rd to 4th and back but once it warms up it goes away but never had the issues of struggling to put in gear.

When researching the mk4s before going for an automatic 1.5L I saw on reviews that there’s 2 different manual gearboxes for the mk4 . The one in the 1L being inferior to the other that’s in the ones with bigger engine/ higher spec. 

12 hours ago, Wino said:

It can be a bit notchy when the car is cold and sometimes get a squeak when changing from 3rd to 4th and back but once it warms up it goes away but never had the issues of struggling to put in gear.

Would agree that's a great description, notchy is probably the right technical term 😂

Did you ever figure this out? My MY2020 1.5L Focus is doing similar things with no codes showing in Forscan and no change after fluid change from ford dealership