Car transmission(?) question

[Sibley]

Hi everyone. I've got a question about something my car has been doing, I'm guessing it's the transmission?

Car info:
2014 Ford Focus, hatchback
Automatic transmission
16,600ish miles
All regularly scheduled maintenance has been performed as per the manual.

What it's doing:
When I'm accelerating from a stop, the car is jerking/shuddering until I get to about 30/35 miles per hour, then it's smooth. If I'm already moving and then speed up, sometimes it'll do it, but not always. The faster I accelerate the worse it is generally.

Is this something I need to get checked out? Car is due for oil change at 17,500 miles, so later this year (I'll be visiting my parents which adds a lot of miles).

Thanks everyone :)

[JLee]

Has it always done that? We had a 2015-16 (not sure) Focus rental car and it was shuddery when starting off...my roommate looked it up and he said it was normal behavior for that transmission and a lot of people hate it.  You should still be under warranty, so it may be worth having the dealer look at it.

[Sibley]

I think it has been like this since I got it. If it's been verified to be "normal" I won't worry too much, but will ask the car people next time it's in. It is annoying though.

[brotatochip]

Could be a bad MAF sensor.  Because your car is fairly new, I doubt the sensor is faulty.  It might just be dirty and need a good cleaning.  This happened to me in my Subaru...easy fix.

[JLee]

Could be a bad MAF sensor.  Because your car is fairly new, I doubt the sensor is faulty.  It might just be dirty and need a good cleaning.  This happened to me in my Subaru...easy fix.

The transmission Ford put in the new Focus is jerky - as it's been this way since new (and the car only has 16k on it), I'm 95%+ sure that the transmission is the cause of the problem.  It's most evident when starting from a stop, which is what the OP is reporting.

[Syonyk]

It's virtually impossible to damage or destroy an automatic transmission in 16k miles.

And it's still under warranty.

Take it to the dealership, complain about it, and if they insist that they all do it, learn to live with it.  Often playing around with how you accelerate will make an automatic behave better.

[JLee]

This is the transmission in question:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ford/comments/2iumiq/new_focus_transmission_shuddering_issues/

It looks like some shudder is normal, but sometimes it's excessive and has to be repaired.

[Tester]

This is the transmission in question:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ford/comments/2iumiq/new_focus_transmission_shuddering_issues/

It looks like some shudder is "normal", but sometimes it's excessive and has to be repaired.

I corrected the "normal" part.
It is not normal for a transmission to shudder.
They just messed the implementation of a good idea.
And I say this because there are dual clutch automatic transmissions which do not shudder.
I am still waiting to see if I will get the shudder too, right now I am at 5000 miles with my car.
In the meanwhile I got a letter extending the warranty on the transmission - caused by multiple customers complaining exactly about this problem.
But I know how it can feel, I drove a rental once which had this problem - I thought it had it because it was a rental so I got the same car, just one model year later.
Until now I like it, I like the fact that it feels like a manual transmission.

So, from what I read, it is not something which will go away - it is a systematic problem and they just reprogram the transmission, it starts "learning" and then it starts to shudder. It seems when it learns how you drive it also learns how to shudder :).
I don't know how safe it is, but I know that if I get the same behavior in a manual transmission I go directly to the mechanic because it means bad clutch. So at least psychologically I don't like it.

[MoonLiteNite]

Based on just what OP said, i would say MAF or O2 sensor could be bad.
But if there is a known issue with transmission that could be it then

[Yonco]

There is a TSB with ford for this issue. The car uses an automatic trans that still uses a clutch(no tq converter) for engagement. My buddy had one and every light it felt like a teenager was learning to drive stick with all the jerking.  Eventually he had the dealer reflash the PC with some changes and it got 90% better.

[Sibley]

OP here.

I'm getting the consensus that a) this is a known problem with the car; b) I should take it in as they might be able to improve it; and c) maybe this car won't be lasting as long as I'd hoped. Lovely.

On the bright side, I made hotel reservations last night for an event a year from now which I am insanely excited for. Hotels sell out within days for this event, so this is not guaranteed. Even better, I will be able to get another person to split the costs with. So, overall, I'm really happy today.  :)