Hello Scotty! I have a manual 2010 Ford Focus Mk2 facelift with 130k km (80,000 miles) that i bought second hand 6 months ago. I’m guessing the low milage was due to it all being city driving because the gearbox gives me all sorts of problems. 1st gear always grinds, even when car is at a standstill, unless i put it in 2nd and then change to first. Also sometimes the second gear jumps out to neutral. I was thinking maybe the synchros for 1st and 2nd are broken. What do you think is the problem with it and if so, how much would it cost to repair? (I live where labor is cheap, and parts are expensive) Thank you for your amazing contents! I am a big fan of yours
Well it would be a pretty expensive repair because you do have internal transmission failure anytime they pop out of gear. The gears are worn. Those things are so complex inside often. You're just better trying to find a low mileage not beat up. Used transmission to put in
I see, I wish i had done more test driving rather than trusting the car by milage alone. Other than that it’s a very good economy car. Drives and runs very smoothly, doesn’t burn or leak oil. So i might change the transmission once i save enough money. Thank you!
I highly doubt if that is the real mileage as that gearbox (as far as I remember it's the Ford-Mazda-Volvo IB5 or MTX75) is reasonably well built (although some complain that they can begin to crunch at just 90k miles)
I would not bother rebuilding, just replace with a used one.
Go to a junkyard, find a gearbox from a similar focus with the same engine (hopefully with low millage) - buy it (can't be too expensive, it's a manual out of a 13 year old economy car), buy a new clutch and consider also replacing other components, install it, and replace the transmission fluid (all and all, should be around $1,000)
