CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2002 Ford Focus 2.0L SOHC engine has a defect where the intake valve seat fails. The valve then falls into the cylinder, destroying the engine & most owner relationships with Ford in the process.
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
1 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
33,784 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
I am writing this for two incidents happened within a two week time frame. 1. the engine had to be replaced since one piston pin had broken due to which the whole piston had broken inside the engine. The whole engine had to be replaced as per mechanics suggestion. I have the invoice from the mechanic shop and the mechanic would gladly provide more details if needed. 2. this was scary ! while driving at 70 miles an hour on cruise, the car would not come out of cruise control and constantly accelerated even after trying to use brakes. (ideally when you first touch the brakes, the car should come out of cruise) once the car reached at a speed of 80 miles and I could not do anything. When the car was shut down abnormally, and restarted the issue continued and even when it was in neutral, it constantly raved up. I see other people have recently filed complains for this and expect the NHTSA to do something about it urgently as in my opinion it is a huge safety issue. The mechanic mentioned that the cruise control cable was stuck in the housing. Currently the cruise control has been disconnected by my mechanic and I have bought a new cruise control cable from the dealer and hope to get it fixed soon, however expect the company to take care of both of the above issues.
While driving my 2002 Ford Focus about 45 mph vehicle suddenly accelerated up to 85 mph. I tried to reduce speed by stepping on the brakes still would not come to a complete stop I had to pull the emergence brake, steam was coming out of vehicle and turn the engine off but when I started it back up the engine is still revving up.
The speedometer on my 2002 Ford Focus suddenly drops to zero. It often takes several minutes to reset and often does this repeatedly. It has been happening with increasing frequency this started after the warranty expired but it is a safety issue that Ford knows about and will not correct. They claim that I must replace the entire expensive instrument cluster.
: the contact stated while slowing down at ten mph and putting the vehicle in neutral the RPM's drop to 500. This causes the vehicle to stall or sputter intermittently. The dealer can not duplicate the problem and no repairs have been made.
The contact stated the vehicle would not start. The vehicle was towed the dealership and it was determined the fuel pump failed. The fuel pump and iac valve were replaced. There were no warning indicators prior to the failures.
- Birmingham, AL, USA
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The contact stated when starting the vehicle the engine will rev without warning. This problem only occurs on morning starts and in cold temperatures. He immediately turns off the ignition and restarts the vehicle. This procedure remedies the problem. He plans to take the vehicle to a dealer for further inspection of the problem. The replaced the throttle position sensor. Updated 12/27/05.
Engine accelerated at a high speed while shifting from forward to reverse (and vice versa). To overcome the problem I maintained heavy pressure on the brake and tapped the accelerator.
I was accelerating rapidly to merge into traffic and the gas pedal got stuck, and the car kept accelarating after I removed my foot from the brake pedal. It has done this twice. I have a 2002 Ford Focus
On several separate occasions vehicle commenced to accelerate and lurch forward without warning. No incident occurred at this time. Vehicle has been to the dealer and they were unable to duplicate the problem.
While pulling inside of the garage vehicle suddenly accelerated. Consumer was able to maintain control of the vehicle by applying both feet on the brakes. Consumer drove the vehicle to the dealer for inspection, and mechanic informed the consumer that the problem could not be duplicated.
Sudden acceleration of vehicle while pulling into a level parking stall at a shopping mall. Vehicle collided into a planter head on and the air bags did not deploy
Our 2002 Ford Focus SE, has had a surging problem since the day we purchased the vehicle on 04/15/02, the engine seems like it wants to stall out.lso we have a water leak under the dashboard, and we need new tires. After only 20000 miles on them.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Winston Salem, NC, USA