Car will only run for five minutes when I first start, if it's cold. It will only run if I let it sit for like half hour, maybe for another 5 minutes, once the transmission starts overheating. Before this started about a month ago or two, it would only run and be all crazy sometimes, but then I would turn it off, turn it back on, and it would run perfect sometimes it was like a gambler playing the lottery. But I will say when it was running good it would shift perfectly like a beautiful car, so I always thought it was something simple until now. It just keeps overheating but that could also be something simple.

Transmission overheating happens every time am driving on heavy slow moving traffic, and going up a hill.

What I have done to prevent the transmission from overheating even more, and actually make the overheating sign go away, is to move the gear from drive to neutral each time had to stop. Only put it on Drive when the car ahead of me moves forward. In less then five minutes the overheating sign goes away.

Mechanically speaking, the problem remains, I just get around it when symptoms show up.

The overheating of the transmission came on on a dangerous hwy grade drive here in our area, known for serious deadly accidents. There was an accident that caused the traffic to be slowed down. The a warning light came on and my wife googled it and said we better pull over. I said "WHAT" pull over on this hwy, if traffic gets started up and we are parked here on this hwy, you better pray now. I was told this is normal with this type of transmission from Ford. duh, no help. of course why would they help we own the car.

Ford dealer says the Focus actually has a manual transmission with two electronic clutches making it seem like an automatic transmission. Stop and go traffic in downtown Birmingham during rush hour on I-65 after an accident closed most lanes resulted in clutches overheating. I thought I had bought an automatic transmission. According to Ford, there was no damage to the car and there is nothing to fix. The computer check found nothing. I guess I'll have to stay in the right lane if there is heavy traffic in the future, in case there is an accident ahead so I can pull off the road and turn off the car.

I was able to pull off on a bridge overpass apron in Birmingham - at night - turn off the engine and wait an hour for traffic to start flowing smoothly again. I don't like getting messages that the transmission oil is hot. Come to a safe stop and turn off engine. It wasn't a safe place. I'm a 73-year old woman. It was dark. I was alone and scared. Now that I've been told there is nothing wrong with the car, I'm afraid to drive where there might be heavy traffic again. Apparently, the clutches will overheat whenever there is a lot of stop and go traffic, like where I progressed about a mile during the first hour. Other than this grueling experience, I love the car.