A little advice, grinding Ford Focus ?
 

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 ?

Google 'dual mass flywheel'.

I have to say, after 4 years driving a nissan leaf, I don't miss all this bollocks :lol:

Does it change/make noise when you press clutch, when stationary, do u get a loud heavy rattle on start up and idle

Being a 1.8d and worked for Ford for 25 plus years I'd say dmf as above.

Thanks Mark, when stationary I can hear nothing from the clutch updownupdownupdown, when reversing nothing, all normal, car backs down the road same as always.

Into first, depress clutch no noise, lift clutch and noticeable thump and feel it on the pedal then clunky grind as I drive forward that seem to feel everywhere.

I expect it's gears but keep seeing that ford focus never have gearbox problems, flywheel seem to be a suspect but why not reverse, had just the clutch changed 5 years ago. If as I expect clutch/flywheel/gearbox more than the car's worth, 12years old, couple of dents & scratches, brake disc's need doing, occasional pats problem etc.

And thanks for your input @cjm_2008 I know what you mean.

Engine mount failed?

a mates son is having a row with ford gearbox failure at 45k on his focus
ford wanting £3k to sort it

other issue we have is drive shafts (especially the intermediate shaft bearing on off side), but that would continue on clutch press. had a few clutches fail, but again both ways
if it goes when you press clutch, that could still be flywheel/clutch, as when you press the clutch you load the dual mass flywheel (pressing it together with clutch bearing)

the thing is if i drove it i could probably say what it is straight away. have you tried recording it? can it be detected sound wise?

we have very few issues with the mtx gear box

id trust marks expertise as a long time ford man
strangely i owned a citroen picasso with 2 litre hdi diesel and suddenly it sounded and drove like a bag of spanners i thought engine was going to drop out, On a bit of investigation it turned out on other end of crankshaft is a rubber bonded crankshaft pulley which had debonded from metal casing
i have no idea if Ford employ a similiar system but if so may be worth a peek
before major stripdowns take place

dave

Thanks all for you time and advice, I know Mark has the knowledge and thought it may have been a stock fault. 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, even simpler than your suggestion mattr, thank you.

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. :blush::blush:

Great news amazing how us experts had allsorts of possible causes and it turned out to be simple amazing how we read into a post and jump to wrong conclusion
Nothing wrong in anyones advice given always good to stand back and do the simple checks first

Good luck

Had a prototype home from work a few years ago with a new active engine mount system. You can guess what failed, and what it sounded like. ;)

The noise will either have been the joints on the half shafts being pulled out of alignment, but more likely that something that usually has clearance to the body structure suddenly not having it and making the body resonate.