Ford Fiesta stiff gears

This from another forum might be of interest ,


Warranty claim - Ford wriggling - daveyjp
Just been speaking to my dad, his almost two year old Fiesta 1.4TDCi has done 56,000 miles as a driving school car.

He has noticed when the car warms up gearchage becomes difficult, especially going through the neutral 'gate'. It will disengage gear OK, spring to neutral then it requires a real push to get it through neutral before it goes into the next gear with no problem.

Garage have diagnosed it as a bent selector bar in the gearbox - as it warms it expands and becomes problematic - it's a problem they have come across before.

Ford are wriggling saying as its a driving instructor car they may not pay to replace the gearbox (this is the cheapest option as stipping it to replace the bar will take so long the labour cost will be more than the new box) as it may have suffered abuse. Surely this is an argument they could use against any claim they have?

The car has been serviced at main dealer on the dot - it's due its 5th service at 60,000 mles. He's due to hear tomorrow if Ford will pay, needless to say he's not too happy at the moment - in 20 years of teaching and 7 or 8 Fiestas this is the first major fault he has had.

Really can't verify or refute this diagnosis as it is many ,many years since I last came across a gear box with that fault .With the improvements and changes happening all the time in cars , tolerances coming down ,might be a fault that is starting to become more common.