Ford Focus 2007 MK2 Estate 1.8 diesel

Just popping round the corner and felt as if I had picked up an empty box under the car, grinding noise etc, stopped and nothing.  Turned round and drove home slowly – 1st and 2nd noise continued, not tried other gears.

Have jacked up each wheel, all spin by hand no noticeable problems.  Finding when in reverse there are no problems and all normal, no grinding, clutch and brakes all as normal. 

Shift to 1st or 2nd gear pull away and clutch feel strange and a small thump as it comes in, as the car moves the crunching grinding starts, depress clutch and the car will roll with no noise.

I am thinking if it’s clutch/flywheel and/or gearbox related then not worth the expense. I am thinking perhaps I am missing something, bearing/driveshaft’s.

I would like to know exactly what the problem is without spending to much, good chance the car is scrap but…………

Is this a familiar scenario,  should I be looking or trying something ? 

I'm no macanic, but if the wheels are spinning with no drive and no noise I would say it's gearbox.

1.8 diesel has dual mass flywheel i think. i know they can be problematic but I am not sure quite what noise would be expected from it.  But i would have thought that reverse would be affected also . 

when the dual mass flywheel is going I believe it creates a lot of iron filings which will be visible if you remove the starter motor and look in the hole. I believe the iron filings can jam up the starter motor as they are attracted to the motor by the magnets in the starter motor. 

but as above it does sound likely to be gearbox

Thanks wilto and isetta,  it's an old car and clutch/flywheel/gearbox repairs ain't worth it.

 I was wishing for that reply   'I had that, just tap the front brake with a hammer fix'

I am a bit embarrassed having just left the car to stand outside for a couple of weeks unable to think about it,  I took it to a local fixer just to be sure,  he rang me back after replacing the bolt in one of the engine mountings.

I cannot describe how much noise was generated, just like having a box stuck between the car and the road in forward gears, worse on full lock.

Thanks to all again.