Hi All!

Hoping to get some advice regarding the clutch on my 2017 plate Ford Focus, 1.5l Ecoboost.

A few weeks ago while driving the clutch was getting stuck to the floor or having trouble fully raising back up. This was not happening each time, but every so often over a few days. Initially thought it may be a fluid leak of some sort, and took it to a garage to be assessed. The garage came back and found no signs of leaks, fluid levels looked good, and mechanically there did not seem to be any issues. A few weeks then passed with no issues at all, clutch working perfectly fine!

However in the last couple of days the problem has returned. Again it is not every time the clutch is used but every so often, maybe a couple of times within a 20 minute journey, and it will be stuck to the floor and I have to get my foot under the pedal to pop it back up.

I don't believe it to be a hydraulic issue as the problem should be gradually getting worse, and not occurring randomly. 

Has anyone had this issue before or able to offer some advice? 

Look forward to getting some clarity as completely stumped!

mileage and amount of wear you think its had?

today's driving conditions with fake red lights and quadruple the congestion, thanks to google mapping informing the government how to make conditions worse, together with turbo engines gives LOTS of opportunity to abuse the clutch...

where once it would reach 80k miles before playing up (when abused) today's chocolate clutches can fail in as little as 10 K miles - or if granddad drives properly in areas without congestion he'll get 120 K miles easily...

the type of spring clutches use, is a dished disc diaphragm spring - with heavy clutch wear "you can make them go over centre" and the pedal will stick down, of course other stuff can do it but this one is the irritating event you didn't want

 

 

23 hours ago, SGorman said:

Has anyone had this issue before

There have been a number of reports of this problem on this forum so it doesn't seem to be uncommon.

If it were the diaphrahm spring going over-centre the clutch would be stuck disengaged and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think pulling the pedal up would reset it. As far as I know the release bearing just presses on the fingers of the spring and is not connected to them.

A Mk4 in the fleet where my daughter works has been exhibiting the exact same symptoms as described. In that case the clutch sticks in the engaged state and the driver can't change gear. Pulling the pedal up resets it. The garage that services the fleet hasn't been able to pinpoint the cause but it seems to me that if the pedal is going down and not disengaging the clutch - and there's no evidence of a fluid leak - then the fluid must be getting past the master cylinder piston and back into the reservoir. I think this could happen if the seals 'flip' and then 'unflip' when the pedal is pulled up.

42 minutes ago, mjt said:

There have been a number of reports of this problem on this forum so it doesn't seem to be uncommon.

If it were the diaphrahm spring going over-centre the clutch would be stuck disengaged and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think pulling the pedal up would reset it. As far as I know the release bearing just presses on the fingers of the spring and is not connected to them.

 

not tried this on a focus mk4 - but its very normal for worn manual clutch cars to exhibit this - pulling the pedal up allows the over centre spring to get over itself (as the force pushing over centre has been removed), and it pops back to normal

I see what you mean. I believe there is a pedal force reduction spring so perhaps that's providing enough downward force to keep the diaphragm spring over-centred. However it would be stuck disengaged and I, perhaps erroneously, got the impression from @SGorman's initial post that it was happening during a drive and not disengaging. Hopefully he'll be back soon to clarify.

It would be handy to have some input from the likes of @unofix, @TomsFocus and @DaveT70.

Just to clarify this problem.

When the clutch pedal is 'stuck' to the floor, is the clutch fully disengaged or is there still drive from the engine to the wheels ?

Sounds like a weak master cylinder seal to me.

 

You must to change breaking oil separately in clutch’s system, because the slave cylinder is in the dead-end.

Changing oil in breaks doesn’t change it in the clutch’s system.

Fortunately it isn’t very tricky and you can do it even in backyard.

I did it on my 2015 focus and clutch works like new.

 

22 hours ago, JvFord said:

 

You must to change breaking fluid separately in clutch’s system, because the slave cylinder is in the dead-end.

Changing fluid in breaks doesn’t change it in the clutch’s system.

Fortunately it isn’t very tricky and you can do it even in backyard.

I did it on my 2015 focus and clutch works like new.