Clutch Recall Expanded to Prevent Fires in Ford Focus

Ford announced they’ll soon be recalling more Focus cars to prevent clutch fractures that can lead to fires. They say the cars can experience clutch slips that cause elevated temperatures that damage the clutch plates. This may cause the transmission housings and clutch covers to leak transmission fluid.

Ford knew about the clutch plate fractures and the threat of fires as evidenced by a previous recall. But it wasn’t until European models with the same B6 transmission started to go up in smoke that Ford decided to expand its previous recall … I guess we could call it, effort?

The recall covers the 2016-2018 Focus with the 1-liter Fox GTDI engine and 6-speed manual transmission. The previous recall covered the 2013-2016 model years.