My 2000 Ford F*ckus

Complaint #1 of at least 20

Car would stall, progressively got worse and worse. Got to the point it had to put it in neutral and rev the motor to keep running while stopped at lights.

We had an earlier problem with it stalling earlier that summer, first time we had it towed to mechanic #1, when the mechanic started it, ran like a champ for him. He didn't see a problem, suggested a standard tune-up, told us to come pick up (he didn't even charge us anything). Week later it stalled, wouldn't start back up and had to be towed. Happened right by a fairly busy intersection, 6PM traffic, wife was driving it at the time. To mechanic #2 we go. Said the "tensioner" had to be replaced. Didn't know the real problem and decided to con us. That's where the first $800 of the total repair cost of $800.02 was spent. (in all fairness, this could have been a separate problem, but in the spirit of bitching, I'm going to stick to my gut opinion). Car seemed to run worse after mechanic #2 saved the day...

The remaining $0.02 was the strip of duct tape that made the car run like brand new again. How? Used it to cover a dime sized hole that developed in the inner joint of a 90 degree bend in a rubber hose that's behind the engine (if you hear a hissing noise while the engine runs, this is it). Pain in the ass to access, but if you can manage to get it covered yourself, air flow through the engine returns to normal, problem goes away.

Focus is a fine car, just don't buy a 2000 model, it's a LEMON. Many of these problems magically disappear beginning with the 2001 models (huh, go figure). Moral of the story: Ford hears your cries, accepts zero responsibility. They just file your complaints in the "suggestions box." Thanks. They'll be sure to fix their F*ckus next year, but when it comes to fixing YOUR F*ckus, you're on your own.

I feel sorry for anyone that happened to own a 2000 F*ckus AND a 2002 Exploder at the same time... holy sh*t that would suck!

I have seen similar complaints to the one I'm having. I bought my used 2000 Ford Focus ZTS(2.0L DOHC) in September 2007. I paid $4800, and have spent approx. $2,500 in repairs. I'm pissed!!! I'm a student I dont have that kind of money. The main issue is when ever I stop, the car shakes like it is going to stall. This is one repair, on top of many, that I'm not sure about getting fixed. So far, I have had to replace motor mounts, all four brakes, wheel bearing and cylinders, timing belt, wiper motor, valve cover/gasket, coil pack.I know what people may think when they see my age, "oh he's just a stupid kid that drives the sh*t out of his car" I hate ford and will never buy another. Foreign is the way to go!

I bought a 2000 Focus LX used. Since day 1, I had nothing but problems with it stalling on me. Whenever I stopped or the gas gauge showed 1/4 of a tank, it would make a knocking noise, lose power, shake and then it would die on me. (Yes, all in that order) I took it to many mechanics who couldn't figure out what was wrong. Finally, one was smart enough to pull the VIN number and it showed that the fuel pump had been recalled. So, I took it into my local Ford dealer, they replaced it (happily at no cost to me) and it has been running excellent ever since.

My only advice is to pull up the VIN and make sure there aren't any recalls!

While driving home on the 158 bypass my engine started to lurch intermittently, did this a few times until finally 5 more miles down the road she quit accelerating and speed began to drop, once she hit 30mph she cut out. Luckily I coasted into a turning lane, the check engine, battery and ignition light came on - I put her in park and started her up while revving the engine and she got home fine (taking back roads and not going above 25mph. Had a similar problem a few years ago and it was just the air filter so I figured maybe that was the cause again. Bought an air filter and replaced it the next day, test drove her around town and she seemed fine. Took her to work the next morning, she did fine, then on the way home she started lurching again, got scared so i turned off on the beach road, she continued to lurch for a while until finally she once again cut out on me a few miles up the road. I did manage to get her into a driveway (sort of) before the tires locked up. Once again started up as I revved the engine. Took her to a mechanic yesterday, they had her all day and could not duplicate or find one problem wrong with her. Was very surprised to find on the internet so many people with the same problem and more surprised that it seems Ford is doing nothing about it. I can officially say I hate this car now, am totally scared to drive it and WILL NEVER PURCHASE A FORD VEHICLE AGAIN!

My 2000 Ford Focus ZTS has been nothing but problems since I bought it used 2 yrs ago. I've already almost put in $3000 of repairs. Definitely NOT worth it. The most recent issue I've been having with it- is it has been shaking (feeling like it's going to stall) when I come to a stop-light or when I am in traffic. The shaking is extensive and feels like the car might shut down. I have no idea what the problem might be- but after reading a couple other reviews on here...I'm only seeing how common it really is. FORD= Disaster.

My Ford Focus 2000 Diesel got the same problem when driven 300.0000 km. The engine kept dying while driving long distances. Sometimes it could die every km and sometimes I could drive for hours without problem. The accelerator was changed (110 €) and the problem disappeared. Afterwards I opened the old accelerator and found out the carbon stripes were worn out on the 5 cm piece of plastic. I guess that small piece would have cost 50 c if replaced.

- But they don’t repair them even if it could have been done in 10 minutes!

Smoke comes out on the vents two days before stalling. I have the car towed to my Ford Dealer and I was told several days later that the head gasket has blown up and we might need a new engine. I gave my go ahead but later was told that the engine is in back order and will not be available two months later. I tried to get a loaner car both from the dealer and finally from Ford directly but I was told that since it is already out of warranty they could not help me. What I do not understand is why does the engine stall at only 38000 miles and why there is no available engine from Ford? Does this mean that they are not ready to support the cars the sell?

My Focus was bought used in 2002, it had about 25,000 miles on it. It was not a very good car, I had to have it fixed every 1-2 years for an average of $800 each time. I encountered several of the problems other people had described, hesitancy, unable to accelerate fast, and going up hills sometimes I would only be able to go 35 miles per hour on a freeway with the pedal to the floor (thinking I was going to get killed by a semi). But, my car was a survivor, until today, when I found out (at 110,000 miles, that the engine needed to be replaced). Now, I did not drive the car hard, or ignore maintenance issues. That just seems kind of a young age for the engine to go out. The worst part of it was, it cost me $275 just for the Ford mechanic to tell me this. That is $165 for a diagnostic workup and $110 for an hour of labor-----you have got to be kidding me, that is more than a lot of doctors and lawyers make. I will never buy a Ford again and will never recommend for someone else to. It wasn't just that the car was a dud and it fell apart really fast, it was that I felt like I was getting ripped off left and right with this car. And I probably did. It seems that conducting business this way will help Ford in the short run, but will burn a lot of bridges in the process. They have just burnt one with me, forever.

I bought the Focus new in 2000. Car is an el cheapo, with no A/C, power anything & with manual trans. On the whole it has been quite a good car. I like handling & power (hey it's only a 4 cylinder). It has been quite reliable, even starting without being plugged in in F***ING cold Manitoba winter weather.

About 2 years ago, started dying intermittently when weather got hot. Runs perfect the rest of the year. As mileage increases, seems to be getting less intermittent. Today, happened twice on the way home from work. Last year I could drive all the way home without problem occurring. This seems to be a problem related to ambient temperature more than engine temperature.

I tried a number of things to restart the car, & one thing I found is that it will recover much quicker if the ignition is shut off. If I'm driving in traffic, I can usually push in the clutch, turn off the ignition, wait a few seconds, restart, re-engage the clutch & be on my merry way without ever coming to a stop. This technique does not work well in the middle of a curve, as steering locks when ignition is shut off. Ignition computer reset? I don't know.

Based on what I've seen to date, I don't expect Ford will be of any help. I'm capable of fixing the problem myself, but I don't want to start dropping hundreds of dollars replacing parts that may or may not be bad. I would like to be able to isolate the fault so that I know I've nailed it.

Hey Ford, are you reading this? I don't expect you to fix my car or pay for parts, I can do that. What I do expect is that you be able to tell me what is causing the problem. If you can't tell me, you can bet your ass my next car WILL NOT BE A FORD. I will also tell friends, relatives, co-workers & anyone else who will listen about this issue. Quality is job 1? Sure it is. You'd be better off spending some of your advertising budget on keeping existing customers happy. If your executives have any brains (which I doubt) they will be investing in Toyota & VW.

& Ford dealerships, I don't expect you to care, just do your *&^#$ jobs.

2000 Focus with the DOHC "ZETEC" engine, hand shaker, with 148K miles. I had to replace many components including the coil pack, vehicle speed sensor, throttle position sensor along with spark plugs, wires, fuel filter (including the recalled fuel pump), and other things not related to this problem. My car runs great and gets 30+ mpg (much better than when it was new) but it keeps stalling out on me. The first time I noticed it was when I was getting back from work (about a 20 minute drive, mostly highway) where I have a big down hill where I can idle for a while. At first it would only happen one time while getting back from work but then it started to repeat while getting to work too. Within a week the problem has spread at most times at idle once the engine has heated up a little bid. There are no codes stored in the ODB II.

I can usually keep the engine running by tapping the gas and letting the RPM's slowly back to normal. The biggest problem occurs when there is an unexpected stop that does not allow me to tap on the accelarator. This does not happen every time, but most times. You can almost tell when it will happen because the RPM's seem to dive instead of slowly decreasing to its notmal speed, when the clutch is depressed. I will try all of the things posted on-line (clean MAF, TPS, etc.) and if I they do not help I will have to take it to Ford so they can take a look at it. I will update soon.

My 2000 manual transmission would stall when the engine was idling...at a stoplight, in the driveway, or when I was driving with the clutch in. Took it to several mechanics who were stumped as to what the problem could be. Then took it to the best mechanic ever and he found a soft elbow joint that was part of the air intake system (I think that's the official name of the system it belonged to, but I may be wrong) in the back part of the car. He said that a vacuum was created when the car idled and it sucked closed the elbow joint, cutting off air to the engine, thus causing the stalling. He replaced it for about $200 and I haven't had the problem since!!!

Car stalled at idle and would not run over 1800 rpms. Took to dealer and they wanted to replace numerous parts for about $1,000 and charge me $133.40 to put on computer and provide false report. Dealer wanted to replace front exhaust gas oxygen sensors, replace idle air control valve, replace fuel filter but refused to replace fuel pump on TSB service bulletin, flush trans, flush coolant system, and flush brake system.

I took it home, raised the hood, looked and listened.

Heard air sucking sound and felt vacuum at air intake on intake manifold. Plastic part had disintegrated probably due to vacuum and heat of engine. Part further disintegrated when touched as if it was made of sand. Temporarily sealed with duct tape. Purchased 3/8 ID rubber hose cap and placed over vacuum. Idle increased to normal and engine rpm was not limited by problem thereafter. The part cost me about 0.35 Cents. It has been running fine now for about two months. Just how dumb does Ford think we are? Pretty dumb I believe, and most people would have probably spent the $1000 or more believing it was necessary. It is my understanding that the mechanics get sales commissions on repairs on top of their base wage, so the incentive is there for them to recommend numerous unnecessary replacements.

Wow, I thought I was the only one! However, my problems were solved pretty easily. Since they both involve stalling, I'll just tell all here...-Hope this can help a couple of people

We were on a road-trip when about 300 miles in the car started losing power/mph till it just stalled completely. We started it up again, made it a couple more miles then it would die again. Luckily, we were about 20 miles from the nearest town where we were able to limp to by start/stalling where we found a mechanic who plugged it into a computer. It said there was a problem with a cylinder. He checked all the cylinders out, said one looked like it was slightly loose, shoved it back in, poked around a bit more to make sure there wasn't anything else wrong and then we were on our way with no more problems. Same thing happened a few months later. We just jiggled the cylinder connections and then no more problems.

Stall #2 - Often when the car has less than a 1/4 tank of gas it will start happily then stall on idling. I wait anywhere from 10 mins to 2 hours start it again and then it's fine(I go put gas in it, of course). OR if I know it's low on gas and I don't want to play it's little game, I start it, without letting it 'warm up', I throw it into gear then take it to the nearest gas station (it's fine once it's in motion). There's obviously something 'wrong' with it (even though mechanics haven't found anything). However, it's done this consistently the 2 years I've owned it and as this is the most serious problem that I've encountered with it, I've accepted it as a little car-quirk in an otherwise really reliable car for it's 140,000 miles.

So! if you have had the same problems, look at the gas gage before you start dumping money in it or smashing windows. Hopefully it's just has the same quirk as mine.

We bought this 2000 Ford Focus used. My daughter keeps encountering 'stalling' issues with it. We bring it back to used car dealer who takes it to Ford shop and, of course, they find nothing wrong with it. I searched under http://www-odi. nhtsa. dot. gov/cars/problems/recalls (bulletin section) and discovered there are numerous recalls for this vehicle. Wish I would have thought of doing this prior to purchasing it! We may have thought twice about it!!!!! My daughter complains about 2nd gear in the transmission though I haven't encountered what she has as she's driving it more often.