2002 Ford Focus CL 1.4 45,000 miles

My Focus had the following symptoms
1. handbrake light coming on regularly whilst driving
2. whilst driving when changing gears the gearbox would lock meaning i had to release the clutch and put it back down to select a gear
3. when using reverse gear it would get stuck in gear and not come out without forcing it
4. when setting off from stationery position the car would judder

i recently took it to a garage who diagnosed the problem as needing a new clutch so duly had it replaced
when i got it back everything seemed ok, the one thing i noticed was the biting point was a lot lower down, after 24 hours i went to go out in it and once again the car wouldnt go into gears, i took it back to the garage who said that the slave cylinder(which they fitted at same time) was leaking and they tightened it up and topped up the fluid
this appeared to sort the problem

now (2 months later) the car is displaying all the original symptoms, except now it doesnt judder from a standstill it just bolts off as soon as the clutch is lifted a few centimetres

your advice would be appreciated, especially since weve spent the best part of £500 and have got nowhere

craig smith, September 2010

the reason you had handbrake light on is because it shares same link to low brake fluid which the clutch uses too my summary is clutch slave cylinder was leaking and when they did clutch might not have changeed it suggest you take back to garage and tell them sort it clutch will still be under warrantee in such short time

here to help, September 2010