CarComplaints.com Notes: For the third year in a row, the 3rd generation Focus is experiencing massive transmission problems.
Most notably owners keep complaining about how there's bad hesitation and jerking when starting from a stop. This isn't the result of an old, worn out part. In fact, the average mileage it's reported to us is just over 15k miles.
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
11 / 1
Injuries / Deaths:
5 / 0
Average Mileage:
47,425 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 drove 200 miles, stopped for gas, and upon starting the engine there was a warning light and a loss of power steering. I drove to a hotel, unloaded our luggage, and returned to the car after 10 minutes. Upon starting the engine, I found that the warning light was out and the power steering was normal. Ten days later, the same thing happened; that is, I drove 200 miles, stopped for gas, lost the power steering, went to a hotel, and upon starting the engine the power steering had returned. Without power steering, the car was controllable but it was not easy and a frail person would have difficulty.
There was a cracking/popping sound coming from the front passenger side of the vehicle. It has been in and out of the dealership for 2 weeks now (08/18/2015) but they have not been able to fix it. They told me that they replaced the "rack" but that the vehicle still had the same steering problems. This is after they replaced the clutches again in this vehicle. After doing some research I found that there seems to be a problem with the epas (electric power assisted steering) in these cars. This car has major problems.
The contact owns a 2014 Ford Focus. While attempting to reverse at a low speed, the steering wheel became difficult to turn. The contact had to apply force to the steering wheel in order to steer the vehicle and the message steering assist failure, service required was displayed across the message board. The vehicle was taken to a dealer who diagnosed that the steering gear needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 38,000.
The contact owns a 2014 Ford Focus. After starting the engine, the message steering assist failure warning message displayed on the instrument panel and the steering wheel became extremely difficult to turn. The vehicle was towed to the dealer, who diagnosed that the cause of the failure was due to a faulty electrical connection in the steering column. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 15,500. Updated 09/14/15 updated 11/3/2017
The contact owns a 2014 Ford Focus. After starting the engine, the message steering assist failure displayed on the instrument panel and the steering wheel became extremely difficult to turn. The vehicle was towed to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the failure was due to a faulty electrical connection in the steering column. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 15,500.
- Princeton, MA, USA
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The 2014 Ford Focus SE. My mom and I traded in another vehicle for this car. It was working fine at the first 3 months of having it, but then after the second month, the transmission on this car started to fail. It would start to shutter and cause you to have problems accelerating trying to keep up with the car ahead of me after each full stop, or during traffic hours on a freeway/highway. This vehicle also had a problem when I was just barely getting on the freeway I tried pushing the gas peddles to reach 65mph, but for some questionable reason the gears were having trouble switching and as I look at the meter gage it showed 50mph. I push more on the gas peddle to get more speed and it would not move higher than 55mph. For some appearent reason it stayed stuck at 50-55mph. I'm quite disappointed on the dealers who sold us the car which they knew the issue of these particular vehicles, and also the manufacturers who have cause concern for who ever had bought this type of vehicle. I would appreciate if they would just recall any Ford Focus or any other vehicles that have such malfunctioning. America is suppose to be at the top, but what's going on with this issue that needs to be resolved. I'm was born in the philippines, but I was raise in the usa. I always thought the us was one top notch place to live. America is the life and I expect alot from thee higher up's/bosses.. for sure though, safety first for all vehicles designed and created and manufactured here in America or wherever they got their vehicles.. this place is one great place to live. We should live up towards true future expectations of any type of crucial designs of what so ever or some sort. America lets step up the richter scale of exclusiveness. God bless to all with peace and respect always.
2 weeks ago the car lost power steering while backing out of the driveway. There was not an accident at that time. Today 5-31-15 while traveling through a small curve on a neighborhood street, the car suddenly lost power steering again and caused my daughter to strike a brick mail box. Luckily, she is okay. The car has sustained significant damage and will have to have body work. When this happened I started to look to see if there were any recalls for this and saw that the Ford Focus is not included in the recall, however it is included in a class action law suit because of Ford's failure to acknowledge and handle the problem with the power steering. I have photographs of the damage and am willing to provide them to you if necessary.
The steering is very dangerous and will cause an accident. There is no centering the wheel, it constantly drifts back and forth left and right, on it's own with flat straight road and perfect straight line of sight. The steering is too sensitive, if I move the steering wheel just a slight amount it over corrects and continues to moves the car. The drive must constantly course correct or I will veer off the road right/left or hit another car in either lane, the problem is multiplied several times over when traveling at highway speeds. Searching the internet I see several other complaints from 2014 Focus owners and am quite shocked this issue has not been escalated and fixed by Ford, the new electric steering is not working and a safety hazard to any driver. I had the car in the mathews Ford collision shop to repair a hit to the front end from a deer, and reported the steering issue. They acted like they had no idea what I was reporting and recommended a front end alignment. I told them they needed to drive the car and would feel and experience the problem. I picked the car up last week and they said the steering computer was reset and re-calibrated, and the front end alignment was done. As soon as I left and was driving it was actually worse than before and when I traveled on the highway 2 days later it was very pronounced with very little wind that day. I went back to mathews today and had one of their estimators drive the car with me in it and he absolutely agreed and said the car drifted left and right on its own, like the old fashioned cars that run at amusement parks.they are supposed to contact me once they talk to the repair shop and then I started researching on the internet and was shocked that this is a known problem, so decided to file this complaint. This car was manufactured February 2014 and currently has only 10,000 miles.
When trying to accelerate from a stop, car shutters. It can happen with using no force on the gas or using full force on the gas. Car shutters and even makes a rattling noise.
While pulling over to the side of the road the power steering stopped working. An alarm chimed but no information displayed. I was only able to steer the vehicle using all of my strength and my husband had to drive it home. The next day the steering was back to normal. The second time was during a K turn. It was incredibly difficult to maneuver out of the turn but once the vehicle was driving straight the steering returned. No alarm or information displayed. The third time was turning out of a parking lot. An alarm chimed and "steering assist failure" displayed. Fortunately I was close to a dealership and able to steer it there as I would not have had the strength to steer it home through town and would not have wanted to risk trying it on the interstate. I'm waiting to find out what they will say. I have already had to have the transmission replaced due to hesitation of acceleration when the gas is pressed.
The steering is very responsive - there is no center on the steering. You move the steering wheel 1/4" and the car will move. When you are traveling you need to constantly correct the steering and are often going back and forth in your lane. You can't take your eye off the road for a second or you will be off the road or in the opposite lane. I glanced over to the passenger window to see how far it was down and I almost hit a stone wall on the right side of the road. My husband glanced down to see the cruise control buttons and when he looked back up he was 3' across the center line. Neither time did we have our eyes off the road for more than 1 second. When you are traveling at higher speeds the handling is worse - on the mass pike or garden state parkway you have to fight it all the time. If you are changing lanes you need to be very careful because when you take your eyes off the road to check your side mirrors before changing the car will often cross into one lane or the other. When you pull out to pass on a 2 lane road you better have 2 hands on the wheel or you will lose control - the same goes if you need to get on the brakes hard. The car has a mind of its own and if you don't have two hands on the wheel you are liable to end up hitting another vehicle or going off the road. I have taken it to my Ford dealer and they drove it. They didn't notice anything, but when you drive 40 miles roundtrip to work everyday you notice it. They did check for recalls, etc and couldn't find anything. The longer the trip the worse it is. I traded in a 2012 Focus for this car and am I ever sorry I did. I can't wait for the 3 year lease to be up and just pray I don't hurt someone because of the handling. We have searched the internet and have found numerous other complaints exact or very similar to mine and they are all having to do with the 2014 Focus.
His is a Focus St. Unable to make small steering corrections at speed. It's as if there is a "notch" in the center of the steering. A small correction becomes a large one causing the vehicle to veer across the road.
2014 Ford Focus. Consumer writes in regards to steering wheel malfunction and requests vehicle compensation. The consumer stated two days after the vehicle was purchased, the steering malfunctioned as she was parallel parking on a busy road.
I noted that the vehicle was not "tracking" well on highways at the recommended cruising speed of 65 mph. The vehicle appears to "drift" from left to right within the lane in which we are traveling. This requires constant attention and concentration in controlling the position of the steering wheel in order to keep the car going in a straight line. It is less noticeable as the highway curves in either the right of left direction. One gets the impression that there is far too much "play" in the steering wheel/column relative to the front wheel drive train mechanism. In addition, the problem seems exaggerated during higher wind velocities. I asked my wife to drive the car and she too noticed the problem. I questioned the service manager at the dealership, at the time of my first scheduled service appointment, and asked if they could drive the car and "tighten" the steering wheel to reduce the "play" in it. He told me that the test drive was pretty normal, that there was no way to adjust the steering mechanism and that the "sport" set-up for this particular model results in that "feel" during driving. As an experienced driver of 56 years who has owned numerous automobiles, including some rather high end sport cars, this explanation made absolutely no sense what-so-ever. He offered me the opportunity to test drive a different vehicle of the same model type, but I declined as I saw no point to the exercise. I had seen an investigative report on the abc national news presented by [xxx] relative to reported problems by others in this regard. Upon accessing this sight, I found that there are reports about this particular problem. My purpose in submitting this narrative is to place on the record a possible problem with this Ford product in the event that someone is injured as a result of the steering problem. Information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
The contact owns a 2014 Ford Focus. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the vehicle would swerve to the left or right making the vehicle difficult to maneuver. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The VIN was not available. The failure mileage was 1,200.
The contact owns a 2014 Ford Focus. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the vehicle would swerve to the left or right making the vehicle difficult to maneuver. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The VIN was not available. The failure mileage was 1,200.
Transmission jerks and grinds at 2200rpm in first gear, grinding noise while going up hills, transmission shakes and jerks when shifting from first to second, very rough and unpredictable shifts, shifts into higher gears way to soon then will downshift or go into neutral, hesitation and vibration from launch, transmission slips at random and will not downshift, transmission surges under acceleration....steering seems to have a mind of it's own when turning on to street the steering wheel wants to stay in whatever position you have it turned and is very hard to keep straight on highway..rattling noise like something is loose coming from front passenger area when going over bumps or while sitting at idle it can be heard has been to the shop three time S for rattling noise and it is still not fixed and has been in the shop for the transmission four times and every time they tell me the don't experience it or it's just the way it is or that I am driving the car wrong...I have a wife and a three year old and I am terrified for then to be in the car.
Power steering light came on as I was driving and totally went out. I could barely control the car enough to turn the corner to take it to the dealership. This is a brand new vehicle with less that 4000 miles on it and the dealership refuses to honor the warranty. This is dangerous and should not happen on a brand new vehicle.
There were four incidents on my brand new 2014 Ford Focus leading up to complete electric power assist steering failure. I bought the car new on a Saturday evening. I drove it everyday since then. I drove it about 100 miles Saturday night, then another 100 on Sunday. Monday afternoon I left for work. My drive consists of about two miles from my residence to the expressway then 18 miles highway and less than a mile to the parking lot off the exit. As I got off the exit I got into the left turning lane which crosses two sets of railroad tracks and takes a long swooping left hand turn to a light. Then the parking lot is about a half mile up on the right. Accelerating over the tracks and in mid turn the steering assist fault service required warning light illuminated in the information box on the cluster. I had no power steering up until I got in the parking lot, turned the vehicle off, opened the door, waited a minute, then started the car back and it reset. Then two days later, Wednesday, the same scenario repeated itself and once again on Friday. Then Saturday evening I drove the car to a restaurant for dinner about 25 miles from the house, mostly highway, with no issues. Once we left the restaurant and got back into town the steering failed accelerating around a turn from a stop light about 10 miles from the restaurant. Once we arrived at the ice cream parlor and then left again, it reset. We left the parlor and about 10 miles from the parlor I stopped at a red light, went to accelerate from the light, did not turn in either direction, drive path was straight, and noticed the warning light appear again with no power steering the rest of the way home. Once we arrived home I assumed that it would reset, however the next morning (Sunday) I went to start it and the first thing that popped up was the warning light again and I haven't had power steering since then.
Driving my new Focus is a challenge, especially on the highway, keeping the car in a straight line. The car wanders in either direction, demanding a constant grip on the steering wheel to keep it going in a straight line. When the car drifts left or right, and you slightly steer to correct, it darts in the other direction. This is very scary driving on the highway especially when there are cars on either side of you. The service dept at my dealership claims there is nothing wrong. The sales dept. Wants to take the car in for trade at a discount of $3500 and I have owned the car a month! I have driven 3 other focuses, same tires, etc and they track straight without the constant correction/overcorrection issue. Advice" I see others have experienced this same issue stressful and unsafe! why should I lose this kind of money, or accept this on a new vehicle, when this is not a problem I have created"!
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Charlottesville, VA, USA