Thanks for your info. Any idea where I might find Ford's acknowledgement in writing ?

I should hope they did offer some contribution, £1100 bill for that work is frankly ridiculous, i'd have expected that sort of bill on some £40k bling machine not a standard Focus.

Can anyone tell me what the slave cylinder, an item known for decades to be prone to leaks, is doing inside the bell housing in the first place?

In days when cars, and the world in general, were more sensible, the slave cylinder would be bolted or clamped somehow to the outside of bell housing and would simply push a lever which operated the clutch through a suitable pivot through the bell housing casing.

Last time i looked there was nothing wrong with this system, the worst that ever happened was the slave cylinder leaked, which meant a 5/20 minute cylinder swap then fresh fluid and 6 pumps on the clutch to bleed it out, job done, in extreme cases the operating level might break or bend if a poor design, but in many cases the lever was able to be replaced without removing the gearbox.

What exactly is the benefit from an internal slave cylinder, apart that is from emptying the wallets of victims of such pointles design.

Edited by gordonbennet on 12/01/2017 at 19:19