Hi,

Firstly, Happy new year all..

I was looking into buying a Ford Focus Mk2 1.8, when I came accross the below review on the whatcar website.

h*********************/car-reviews/used/ford/focus-hatchback/readers-reviews/25391-5?editionId=451

Copying the review below, if the above link does not work,

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Not bad to drive in terms of handling and it has a roomy boot.

However, this model also has a fundamental flaw - the gearbox has a weak or badly designed differential pin and, apparently, it's question of when rather than if it'll fail. This is something I found out to my cost 2 months after buying a secondhand example with 44k miles on the clock and in otherwise immaculate condition. While driving home one day, it suddenly refused to go into gear and, after pulling over to the side of the road, I could see oil pouring all over the place.

The diff pin had gone and taken with it both gearbox and clutch. I had it towed to a nearby garage and was later quoted about £2.5k to fix with new hardware. Trying to source a secondhand gearbox was very hard - the first few scrap dealers I called simply wouldn't sell a gearbox for the 1.8 petrol manual because it seems as though they knew it had this inherent fault. I eventually sourced one and had it fitted for a total bill of just under £2k.

I'd done my research before buying the car and nowhere had I seen mention of this fault, but it seems the parts dealers were all too aware and I heard many negative comments about the quality of Ford cars. Needless to say I won't be buying a Ford again - it's a shame because I liked the design of the car but driving this one feels like a ticking timebomb waiting to fail. From what I heard, the weak diff pin only applies to the Mk2 1.8 petrol manual - not sure if it applies to other models.

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I have not been able to find any other references to this problem on the Internet, though the reviewer above states that it is a common problem for this model.

Jut wanted to check whether any one on the Back Room is aware or has come accross this problem.