This is all started when I informed my father that his shift linkages seemed like they had a large amount of play in them. After I was told they were fine, I thought nothing of it. Two days later, I get a call from him when he get's to work saying he has no other gears but 1st, 3rd, and 5th. (Keep in mind this is the MTX75 manual transmission). I take the other vehicle from the house and drive the 30 miles to his work and drop it off.

This is where the fun really starts. I can hardly find 1st, 3rd, or 5th; it required random flailing in that direction to attempt it to get into gear, and there was no such thing as neutral anymore. To get into 1st, it was as far down as the shifter could go into where second could be, up to where first should be, back to second, then back to first and usually this would click in. It was the same way for 3rd and 5th gears. I limped the car about 15-20 miles until I got totally stranded, stuck in 5th gear on state-line of Indiana and Illinois. Wonderful

Now that I'm stuck in 5th gear, and have absolutely no idea what the issue could be, I said "Oh well, let's see what 5th gear get's us" So I started in 5th gear, and drove as far as I could. Eventually the clutch started slipping so badly I couldn't get up a hill and happened to be right in front of my friends house and pulled into the driveway.

Called my local mechanic buddy and had him come pick me up, all for the friendly charge of a case of beer. Good enough for me. We get it towed over there, and I started the research and found out the issue could be a tiny little pin inside the shift tower, that loves to break on Focus's. Awesome, so we pulled the trans, and removed the shift tower. Surprise, surprise, there roll pin indeed decided to shear into three pieces.

Because of all this, I guess I could say I fried the clutch, but I'll still blame it on the car because of the idea of "why would a trans go out at 117k?"

My main point here, this car has given us nothing but issues since we purchased it brand new from the Ford dealer. Had I not known this friend who had a garage I could pull my trans in, I would easily have been paying a shop several hundred dollars to be replacing these parts of my transmission. We spent $200 on a clutch kit from AutoZone, which turned out to have a faulty slave cylinder in it, so now it's leaking brake fluid out of the bell housing.

DON'T BUY A FOCUS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!!!

This was the fourth time I had transmission problems with my Ford Focus ZX4. First time it wouldn't shift above 2nd gear and Tuttle Click Ford here in Orange County said they had to repair parts. Covered under warranty. Then the trans started leaking a couple of months later. Took it to the same place--covered under warranty. Then the transmission started leaking again a month and a half later. Took it to Tuttle Click again and they gave a different reason but I had it repaired cuz of the warranty. Now in April, 3 and 1/2 months later and 2500 miles the car wouldn't go above 2nd gear again and they said since it wasn't due to the parts they installed in October I'd have to pay to fix it and of course with the warranty now done they say I need to completely replace the transmission to the tune of $3200. I will never buy a Ford again nor any other car from the Tuttle Click group of car dealers!!!!!