jesse013145

Hi All -

I bought my 2005 V6 about 4 weeks ago, and have absolutely loved the car.

However, last Friday I began hearing a high-pitched squealing sound coming from the area near the transmission, brought it to the dealer and learned that the clutch had worn out and the pressure plate fingers were rubbing up against the pilot bearing; causing the sound.

Long story short - got the dealer to foot half the bill on the replacement ($1,020, knocked down to $500), but I just picked up the car and the performance is nowhere near what it was before the work was done. The acceleration reminds me of driving an old Buick with an automatic transmission. Before the work was done I would feel an immediate response upon pressing down on the accelerator in any gear, now there is almost none.

I'm not sure if this has anything to do with it - but the clutch pedal itself is also much more soft than it was before the repairs were done.

I'm taking the car back to the dealership in the morning; but they have been feeding me a lot of B.S. throughout this whole process, so I was wondering what you guys might think the cause of the poor performance associated with this "new" clutch might be.

Thanks!

Jesse

jesse013145

I noticed that the dealer charged me $475.96 for a clutch kit.

I called around to 3 different dealers to ask about said clutch kits; each told me that there is only 1 clutch kit that Ford sells (part number 5R3Z7L596B) that sells for $830.97.

Looks like the dealer cut some corners here. Thoughts?

Thanks

2005Redfire6

As far as the cost of the clutch kit they may have gave you dealer price?

MadStang40

My thought is that there's no reason that your clutch should be soft if they "fixed" your transmission. The mustang clutch is a stiff clutch, that's just the way it's supposed to be.

Go to another shop and explain your problem. Or better yet, take this problem straight to the dealership management. Just because you take your car into the dealership doesn't mean that they've got technicians that know jack squat.

2005Redfire6

It shouldn't be soft but after repairs it can if the slave cylinder was swapped out or another hydraulic component, or air may be in the hydraulic system. When I had my clutch/slave cylinder replaced my clutch was really soft for a few days..

jesse013145

Hey guys - thanks for the responses.

I bought the car back into the dealer today. They had two of their techs drive the car and they could not identify any signs of the clutch slipping. Unfortunately, my telling them that the car wasn't performing the same wasn't enough.

Again - I told them that the car just doesn't have the get-up-and-go that it had before bringing it in for a replacement clutch last week. Strange, as one would think that performance would improve with a new clutch; however the old clutch performed just fine, it just made that noise. I am really regretting letting the dealer touch the car in the first place.

The lack of performance is most noticeable in higher gears at lower RPMs. For example, in 5th gear at 60 mph - I used to have no trouble accelerating up to 80mph in a hurry (for a V6) just by pushing down on the gas pedal, now hitting the gas at highway speed leads to slow, mph-by-mph acceleration; no where near the response I had before.

The dealer is going to submit an inquiry to Ford for input, and if all else fails they offered to drop another clutch in, but I don't have a lot of confidence in that remedy. I asked them to keep an eye out for another 2005 V6 5-spd for comparison - and told them that they could easily see the difference in performance if they compared the two.

One last thing - That I noticed about the car that I don't think I mentioned before - I can feel a slight vibration in the car when driving at highway speeds; 5th gear with the clutch let out. The vibration is very similar to what you might feel when you drive a truck with really knobby tires on blacktop. The vibration is very slight; and I'll admit it's possible that this one could be my imagination, but worth mentioning anyway.

Any more ideas on what could have caused the performance drop?

Thanks

jesse013145

I bought the car used, one prior owner. The car seems completely stock, other than that the guy had sequential flashing tail lights installed. But, do you think maybe he had had a performance clutch installed?

I bought the car with 67,000 miles, so I would doubt that he would have had to replace the clutch yet; and would really doubt the guy would have swapped out a good stock clutch for a performance clutch. Further, I'd doubt that a performance clutch would make such a big difference compared to a brand new OEM clutch on a V6.

Just thinking out loud here.