05/06 Models Clutch Pedal Assist Return Spring Info

[Zxdan]

The other day, had the clutch return assist spring on the clutch pedal snap while in traffic. Scared the living daylights out of me as the pedal suddenly slammed down as I was changing gear. Thought for a moment that something big had gone wrong. Pulled over & found the spring in the footwell. It had snapped just were the spring starts curling. The car was still drivable but with a very soft clutch. Anyway, off to the dealer & he tells me that there was a batch of faulty springs that affect some 05/06 Focus. Its being repaired under warranty & is a 5h job! Apparently they have to remove all the pedals. They are just going to source the spring locally.

[RJO89]

Yeah I've heard of this happening before. Some people that it happened too actually left the spring out because they preferred it that way! Don't see why they'd have to remove all the pedals though... At least you're not paying for it!!
Sorry to hear it happening though. Let's hope it doesn't happen again.

[Mullett]

If you leave the spring out you leave yourself open to many many destroyed thrust bearings...and sometimes the auto-adjust will slowly work the pedal down and down...

-RM.

[BlackLS]

Was told by Ford that this is a design fault, but its only there to make the pedal align with the brake. They said there wouldn't be any harm without it.

[Mullett]

The spring failure is certainly a manufacturing fault, but unless there's a secondary spring in the system somewhere, then the pedal is being held up by the hydraulic backpressure of the master/slave cylinder, which means there's always a small pressure in the system. This pressure will most likely hold the thrust bearing against the pressure plate, spinning it constantly and causing premature failure, much the same as riding your foot on the clutch pedal.

-RM.

[jack_frost1980]

I had the same problem in my 2006 LX about 6 months ago, scared me as well as I was pulling away from traffic lights in heavy traffic. Luckily the car was already booked in for a service the next day but they ended up having it for over 24 hours as when they went to bleed the clutch the bleed nipple had seized or something and had to be replaced.

[Bucknaked]

My SR Focus had the same issue. Spring snapped exactley as you have described it and I found the spring in the footwell. All while I was driving through traffic. Makes a hell of noise, and sounds far worse than it actually is.

I took it into ford and they just replaced the spring. Think its only a 5 minute job and its only a matter of hooking the spring ends through the holes at either end of the mounting points

[theBlake]

Would Ford still Fix this issue if its out of Warranty? Mywarranty finished 6 years ago!

and the same thing happened to me when it broke, frightened the living daylights out of me, I thought some shot my car. Also possibly dangerous if the spring ricoceted into the drivers face, its not a small light spring at all.