Long story short, ran across a deal on a(nother) winter beater, 2010 Fusion with the 2.5 and 6MT, 164k miles. Everything's great with it except the clutch/transmission. It seems to want to slip at/over 3k RPM if you give it a decent amount of gas, e.g. if I go to pass a truck in 5th or 6th and get beyond about half-throttle it feels like I'm driving one of my automatics with a super delayed kick down or something.... slips and slips and slips and then finally grabs but not harshly, it's weird. Other than that, shifts in and out of gear fine, engagement/disengagement point is kinda high but not problematic. Don't know when the clutch was replaced previously, if it was. Clutch/brake fluid could be cleaner but it is kinda dirty. Clutches I've had go bad in the past made nice smells, this one doesn't make any smells at all at this point. Figured maybe I'd flush the fluids, but is that a waste of time? If it's not the clutch, I'd rather avoid having that done since it's kinda pricey. I think I was quoted like $600-700 but I don't know if that's cutting corners on parts etc...
It almost seems like either the clutch and flywheel can't mate properly enough to deal with rising RPMs quickly, not sure if that would be due to material issues between the flywheel and clutch (in which case it'd be new clutch time, right?), or if it's an issue of not enough pressure being put on the clutch when trying to mate.... in which case, I don't know, would that also be a clutch issue itself or would that be something like the slave cylinder or another component?
Took it to a Ford tech and he drove it off the clock and said it was fine and had at least a year left on it. I'm thinking he didn't really drive it in the conditions that cause the issue.
I know at least some of you are very familiar with these, but the amount of info I get searching isn't very much. I think this might be the same manual as the Focus...? Dunno. Was just wondering if I'm wasting my time doing the clutch fluid replacement and trans flush or if there's something else I should look at/for. I have worked on a lot of engines before but not transmission stuff. Half of me wants to err on the side of caution and just have the clutch replaced at a shop ASAP, half of me wants to believe I can somehow cheap out and find it doesn't actually need a clutch if that's possible.... or could it possibly be the trans itself?
Thanks in advance.
It almost seems like either the clutch and flywheel can't mate properly enough to deal with rising RPMs quickly, not sure if that would be due to material issues between the flywheel and clutch (in which case it'd be new clutch time, right?), or if it's an issue of not enough pressure being put on the clutch when trying to mate.... in which case, I don't know, would that also be a clutch issue itself or would that be something like the slave cylinder or another component?
Took it to a Ford tech and he drove it off the clock and said it was fine and had at least a year left on it. I'm thinking he didn't really drive it in the conditions that cause the issue.
I know at least some of you are very familiar with these, but the amount of info I get searching isn't very much. I think this might be the same manual as the Focus...? Dunno. Was just wondering if I'm wasting my time doing the clutch fluid replacement and trans flush or if there's something else I should look at/for. I have worked on a lot of engines before but not transmission stuff. Half of me wants to err on the side of caution and just have the clutch replaced at a shop ASAP, half of me wants to believe I can somehow cheap out and find it doesn't actually need a clutch if that's possible.... or could it possibly be the trans itself?
Thanks in advance.
