Ford Focus clutch and brake gone soft

skerry

Hi all, was driving to work this morning and coming up to some lights about 30km into the journey I noticed that the clutch pedal went really soft. It's normally very responsive but now it feels like the pedal is doing nothing until it's pressed about half way down. As far as I can tell the brake pedal is gone a similar way. Car is really sluggish to take off now and I am not feeling overly confident when taking off on a hill. Any ideas on what the issue might be, it's a 2006 Focus, checked brake fluid reservoir there and it is just below the max line. Any advice appreciated.

alias no.9

Could be a leak or an airlock in the system. Get it checked ASAP, if you have AA or breakdown assist on your insurance, get them to tow the car to a garage.

skerry

alias no.9 wrote: »

Could be a leak or an airlock in the system. Get it checked ASAP, if you have AA or breakdown assist on your insurance, get them to tow the car to a garage.

The car is still going, just more sluggish than before when taking off. Would the fluid not be low/ gone if there was a leak. Going to check it again at lunch. Would it have anything to do with the cold, something like -5 this morning. Was OK on the drive in, only noticed it when I stopped at lights and tried to take off again that it was labouring.

Anyone have any ideas of cost to get it bled if there was an airlock, only forked out for a service before Christmas.

shooter88

Seems strange to get 3problems like that..you should definitely get it looked at ASAP,if your brakes go at 50mph its lights out

skerry

shooter88 wrote: »

Seems strange to get 3problems like that..you should definitely get it looked at ASAP,if your brakes go at 50mph its lights out

I think the fact that the car is sluggish is that the clutch isn't operating as it used and I'm probably having to get used to the difference in pressure of the pedal when I'm taking off. I'm in work at the moment and have to drive it home from Limerick to Ennis before I can get it to my mechanic.

Capri86

shooter88 wrote: »

Seems strange to get 3problems like that..you should definitely get it looked at ASAP,if your brakes go at 50mph its lights out

The problems are all connected. Iirc the focus shares a brake servo hydraulic pressure with the clutch in some way. If one leaks the other fails also

skerry

Capri86 wrote: »

The problems are all connected. Iirc the focus shares a brake servo hydraulic pressure with the clutch in some way. If one leaks the other fails also

So I'm guessing it's not something that will work itself out and will need looking at. Gave it a quick drive there and it seems to have improved some bit but still doesn't feel 100%

skerry

Rang garage there and they said it could be a bust seal on the slave/ master cylinder that's causing it to lose pressure. If so apparently there's a good bit of ripping to be done to get at it and they said if the clutch is due to be replaced it would make sense to do that while they're in there. Gave me a ball park figure of around 600 :eek: Really hoping that's not he case and it's something simpler. Not in a position to be taking a surprise E600 hit right now. Going to drop it in to them in the morning, fingers crossed

Capri86

skerry wrote: »

Rang garage there and they said it could be a bust seal on the slave/ master cylinder that's causing it to lose pressure. If so apparently there's a good bit of ripping to be done to get at it and they said if the clutch is due to be replaced it would make sense to do that while they're in there. Gave me a ball park figure of around 600 :eek: Really hoping that's not he case and it's something simpler. Not in a position to be taking a surprise E600 hit right now. Going to drop it in to them in the morning, fingers crossed

Yup that would explain my theory.
I have had the engine of a focus out before and seen these parts fail. But if it's just the master cylinder it might not be too bad? Hope it's good news tomorrow

Also, try not to drive it. If the fluid leaks at all your clutch could go to the floor and not come back up or worse, your brakes could fail.

martinr5232

skerry wrote: »

Hi all, was driving to work this morning and coming up to some lights about 30km into the journey I noticed that the clutch pedal went really soft. It's normally very responsive but now it feels like the pedal is doing nothing until it's pressed about half way down. As far as I can tell the brake pedal is gone a similar way. Car is really sluggish to take off now and I am not feeling overly confident when taking off on a hill. Any ideas on what the issue might be, it's a 2006 Focus, checked brake fluid reservoir there and it is just below the max line. Any advice appreciated.

Would it be possibe that you have a missfire in the engine and you have to work the clutch more when taking off.

If your resevoir is just below the max line you dont have a leak and the brake and clutch systems only share the resevoir nothing else so they cant be connected if its full.

shooter88

Capri86 wrote: »

The problems are all connected. Iirc the focus shares a brake servo hydraulic pressure with the clutch in some way. If one leaks the other fails also

A bad clutch peddle wont or at least shouldn't hamper engine performance unless something is sticking

skerry

martinr5232 wrote: »

Would it be possibe that you have a missfire in the engine and you have to work the clutch more when taking off.

If your resevoir is just below the max line you dont have a leak and the brake and clutch systems only share the resevoir nothing else so they cant be connected if its full.

Car has only recently been serviced so plugs have been changed. TBH I'm not the most knowledgeable when it comes to my car. It's my first car, and one thing I have learned is that if you want a sure way of stripping your bank account of any unwanted cash, then buy yourself a car and watch it disappear.

skerry

Just following up on this incase any one is has similar problem in future and comes across this thread. Brought it to the garage and ended up having to get the clutch replaced as it was gone. Release bearing replaced also, apparently its best to replace the lot while its being done as its a labour intensive job. Damn those random car expenses. Back on the road now though and going well so not so bad.