[Megz]

I figured I would post this up as my car visited the service department this week due to reverse gear grinding most of the time I tried shifting.

Here is the TSB information from Ford:

21648 2011 Fiesta - Difficulty getitng into reverse gear or grinds into reverse
Some 2011 fiesta vehicles equipped with a manual transmission may exhibit difficult getting into gear -or- grinds into reverse complaints while the vehicle is moving. The difficulty getting into reverse is caused by a non-synchronous reverse engagement inside the transmission and is considered a normal characteristic. The difficulty has no effect on the performance or durability of the manual transmission or durability of the manual transmission or the vehicle. For best results car must be at complete stop before attempting to shift into reverse or engage a forward gear before reverse. Refer customers to the owner guide instructions to engage reverse.

Effective date: 12/15/2010

Just as a note, my car was NOT in motion when the grinding or difficulty happened to me. I was at a dead stop, usually pulling out of a parking spot. The reverse gear is in fact non-synchronous and it does help to shift to a forward gear before reverse. Just keep this in mind when you are shifting to reverse so that you can avoid the grinding/clunk in your tranny. Hope this helps some of you out.

 

[Tom]

Wow a TSB already? Thanks for sharing Megz.

 

[Megz]

Wow a TSB already? Thanks for sharing Megz.

Yeah I was surprised too. My coworker is taking his auto fiesta into the dealership soon to see if his had any recalls. He said his has been "acting up" but didn't really give any details.

 

[tukaniRAY]

Well I guess it's still fairly new. A few bugs. Good thing you caught it early.

-Ray-

 

[Megz]

Exactly ^
anyone have a 2000 focus right when it was released? I'm starting to see similarities. Lol

 

[Phiesta]

Sounds like my old SHO with non sync reverse

Says in the owners manual to do this to enter reverse.
Push clutch in for more than 3-5 seconds from neutral at a complete stop and then enter reverse.
^Paraphrased by me with my memory of it

Or in the SHO community we determined shifting into either 1st or 2nd for a second (or whatever gear you want but 1st and 2nd is easily accessible) then pop into reverse it should go in easily.

On some occasions it still is a bit hard to get it in I let off the clutch a TEEENY bit slowly while trying to enter reverse it will pop in also. It's like the thing needs to line up correctly.

It's still dumb that they don't sync reverse so people don't have to deal with the above ^

 

[viney266]

Thanks for the info...

mechanics corner ..MOST cars have non-synco reverse gears, it makes them harder to get into, but they are MUCH stronger that way...

 

[Drkknight614]

Exactly ^
anyone have a 2000 focus right when it was released? I'm starting to see similarities. Lol

Maybe, but Im gonna suspect Fords quality is a bit better in the fiesta then the 2000 focus lol.

 

[Megz]

Lol I sure hope you're right about that. I'd assume Ford has gotten a lot of things straightened out with QC on new vehicle releases since 2000, but you never know

 

[zetecDon]

This is one of the reasons I always wait 2 years after the introduction of the vehicle before purchasing one. Allows them to work out all the minor bugs with it. As the cars start to pile on the mileage problems start to occur and that usually happens within the first 40,000 miles of a vehicles life. Granted the Focus came out here in 2002 it was actually out 4 years at that point if you count the European introduction in 1998. So that means they had a lot of the annoying bugs worked out for the most part.

 

[Megz]

This is one of the reasons I always wait 2 years after the introduction of the vehicle before purchasing one. Allows them to work out all the minor bugs with it. As the cars start to pile on the mileage problems start to occur and that usually happens within the first 40,000 miles of a vehicles life. Granted the Focus came out here in 2002 it was actually out 4 years at that point if you count the European introduction in 1998. So that means they had a lot of the annoying bugs worked out for the most part.

I'm pretty sure the focus came out in the US in 2000..

Either way I guess the same idea goes with the Fiesta too, Europe has had it before the US. Only problem with saying this was that the euro/us fiestas and focuses have been pretty different.

 

[viney266]

^^ Yeah, I think that way,too. Some bikes and cars are just fine, and then a few have bugs to work out

 

[Megz]

All in all, the car has been great other than the minor adjustment to my driving habits (going to first and then reverse). If anything is going to start coming up, I'd imagine I'll start seeing it soon. I just hit 6,600 miles today eeeek..