I had the oil changed and fuel system service. The check engine light came on the next day. The shop reset the code several times and finally told me the catalytic converter was bad. The car only has 36000 miles. The dealer said the car is out of warranty by 5 months. I have had the maintenance done and have records stating dates and miles on the car.
2000 Ford Focus engine complaints
Page 3 of 18: complaints 41 to 70 of 492, newest first, as owners wrote them.
00 ford focus taillights not working. Found that ford has a recall for the wire harness decklid. Took vehicle to a ford dealership was told that my vehicle is not part of the recall. I've numerous recalls on this vehicle already. Vehicle was overheating. Was told by ford dealership that needed a new radiator, cost me $800. When I picked up the vehicle it was still overheating, come to find out I only needed a new water pump.
Tl*the contact owns a 2000 ford focus. While driving approximately 15 MPH, the contact smelled a burning odor in the vehicle. He pulled the vehicle over and opened the hood, but did not find any smoke. In addition, the coolant temperature was fine; however, he felt is was extremely hot under the hood. He entered the vehicle and noticed that the service engine light was illuminated on the instrument panel. He has not taken the vehicle to be diagnosed by a mechanic. Through online research, the contact discovered the federal safety agency campaign id number 02v288000 (electrical system:battery:cables) for the same symptoms he was experiencing in his vehicle. He had also been experiencing loss of power and hesitation in the vehicle while traveling at low speeds. He discovered the federal safety agency campaign id number 05v030000 (latches/locks/linkages:doors:latch). The manufacturer stated that his VIN was not included in either recall. The contact believes the vehicle should be included since he is experiencing identical failures. The current and failure mileages were 73,450.
Tl*the contact owns a 2000 ford focus. The contact stated that the instrument panel lights illuminate intermittently. In addition, the speedometer does not work properly at times. The vehicle will idle roughly or fast and has to be shut off in order for the idling to stop. The VIN was not included in the federal safety agency campaign id number 00v302000 (vehicle speed control:cables). The current mileage was 106,000 and failure mileage was 105,000.
Tl*the contact owns a 2000 ford focus. The vehicle would hesitate driving at any speed. There are times where the engine will rev and it will raise 2 or 4 rpms but the speed of the vehicle will remain the same. She took the vehicle into a shop and was told that there was a problem in the fuel line and that it needed to be repaired. But she decided to check for recalls before making repairs. She went online and founds recalls for her year make and model. She found a recall that explained her exact problems she called the dealership and was told that the recall did not affect her VIN. She believes that her VIN should be included in the recall. The current and failure mileages were unavailable. Updated 09/10/08 *bf the consumer stated the vehicle hesitates and shuts off. Updated 09/11/08
I was driving and I came to a stop sign and when I pressed on the gas to drive off my 2000 ford focus just died on me. And this happened like a month ago also. I just didn't say anything. But this is very dangerous that my car doesn't tell me when its overheating,it just turns off. That's not safe.
First the back passenger door lock went out, and then the drivers door lock went out. You can not open with a key, nor the automatic locks. I took the handle off to try to manually unlock the door, and you can't. Also the air and fan just went out. It was working great, and then all of a sudden it just stopped working!
Ford focus 2000 se - car loses engine power when driving on highway at 50/55 MPH. Then warning sign lights up after a few minutes. I noticed this happens during hot weather mainly. Even after less than 10 miles of driving. If I stop the car a few minutes, the warning light shuts off but the problem is still existing. Does not happen during cold months.
My son was driving the car. He got to his destination and there was smoke billowing from under the hood. He was going to open the hood but he noticed flames and he then retrieved an extinguisher and called 911. The front of the car was totally burned and all the windows were shattered.
My son was driving a 2000 focus hatchback. Just entered into a jughandle to make a turn engine light and oil lights went on, car locked up and smoke entered inside the car. He was able to get out of the vehicle and car was on fire. Vehicle was totaled in the fire.
Tl*the contact owns a 2000 ford focus. When the contact started the vehicle, all of the instrument panel lights illuminated as normal, including the check engine light. She stated that the check engine light illuminated a few days after purchasing the vehicle and has remained on ever since. The dealer stated that there was failure with the fuel tank. When the gas tank cap is not secured properly, the check engine light will illuminate. The dealer removed and replaced the gas tank cap and the check engine light dimmed; however, it illuminated again a couple of days later. The last time the contact attempted to start her vehicle, it would not start. She waited a couple of hours and when the vehicle finally restarted, it made a loud rumbling noise. White smoke appeared under the hood and the vehicle failed to restart. The powertrain was unknown. The current and failure mileages were 100,757.
Tl*the contact owns a 2000 ford focus. The RPM would sporadically increase up to 3,000 and caused the vehicle to excessively accelerate. The contact had to downshift the gears in order to stop the vehicle. No lights illuminated on the instrument panel prior to the failure. The vehicle is currently being inspected. The speed was not a determining factor with the failure. The powertrain was unknown. The failure and current mileages were 64,288. Updated 04/14/08. *lj updated 04/11/08
Tl
Tl*the contact owns a 2000 ford focus. While driving 2 MPH, the vehicle shut off. When the contact restarted the vehicle approximately two minutes later, the check engine light illuminated. The contact smelled smoke coming from under the hood. He raised the hood and noticed flames. The fire department extinguished the fire. The weather was dry and approximately 100 degrees at the time. The current and failure mileages were 140,000.
2000 ford focus-air intake manifold (failure). Symptoms, rough idle, stalling, causes computer control system to make engine run lean furthering the problem. On the lower side of the air intake manifold is what appears to be an air intake control valve. The material disintegrates over time which allows excessive air into the air intake manifold, causing the oxygen sensor to detect to much oxygen and sending the computer a signal to increase the amount of fuel. The engine speed at idle decreases to around 500 RPM and stalls. At higher speeds, the engine runs rough and has substantial lack of power and misfiring. Dealer examined vehicle and tried to defraud me by encouraging me to replace numerous items at the same time. Inspection cost was excessive, so I took the vehicle home and raised the hood to investigate further. An air sucking sound was heard and it was discovered this air stop or valve had disintegrated. The way it was discovered was by following the sound to the part and touching it to confirm a vacuum into the engine. When touched the part disintegrated into my hand. I proceeded to temporarily seal the leak with duct tape and the idle increased to normal speed and the vehicle quit stalling. Thereafter, I went to my local kragen auto supply and picked up a rubber hose cap about 3/8 inch diameter internally. Then I took the duct tape off and forced the rubber hose cap over the air valve which sealed the leak. Since then I have not had any problem. The dealer recommendations would have cost me around $1,000.00 in repairs. The actual repair cost me around 0.35 cents. Fords original equipment part should be on recall because it should not disintegrate. I can understand wear and tear and mechanical failure, however I can not and will not accept product disintegration as acceptable in current automobile technology, and neither should our governments national transportation and safety administration.
Tl*the contact owns a 2000 ford focus. While driving 60 MPH, the contact heard a loud noise coming from the vehicle. She noticed thick smoke rising from inside and outside of the vehicle. The windows were rolled up. There were no warning indicator lights and no flames. The vehicle was pulled over and towed to the insurance company. There had been no previous failures. During the vehicle inspection, a rod failed and created a hole in the bottom of the motor. The current and failure mileages were 69,000.
The 2000 ford focus was not idling correctly. It would act as if it were going to die after deceleration. I have had three mechanices look at it including a ford dealership. There was a service bulletin on their website regarding a valve sticking. It requiree d replacing the head at a cost of $1500-$2500. Ford had since redesigned the engine so this problem will not happen again with future models. I would like to ask for an investigation or a recall. Instead of ford fixing their designed defect they were making money off the repairs for something the owner could not prevent nor does it mean improper maintenance.
Tl*the contact owns a 2000 ford focus. While driving 60 MPH, the engine shut off and all of the warning indicators illuminated. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer. The contact stated that the failure is similar to the one noted in recall # 00v302000 (vehicle speed control:cables). The powertrain was unknown. The current mileage is 118,000 and failure mileage was 116,000.
While on a trip from sebastian, florida to jackson, ohio to return my car to me at what I hope to be my new home, my father encountered a recurrence of stalling while running by my vehicle. The car has a similar problem just two weeks before, was checked out on computer by a repair shop in orlando florida and then last week at a repair facility local(in sebastian). The check engine light had come on in orlando where the facility said they could not find a problem on the computer but thought it sounded like the catalytic converter. The car was towed to sebastian to the second facility. At the second facility the computer again showed no problem. The check engine light was reset and the car was returned with indirections to drive it to try to get the light to turn on again. It never turned on again so the car was returned three days later (monday, 4/9/07) and again hooked up to computer. No problems were seen and the problem could not be duplicated on the road. The mechanic thought perhaps some carbon has been dislodged and run through the system so a cleaning was done. Car was then driven almost 400 miles to ridgeland, sc on the way an accident occurred on the highway ahead and the car had to sit in traffic for quite a while. When the car was free to advance, it was taken off the road for a lunch stop. When taken back on the road, the car stalled in motion and after restarting continued to stall.
I drove a 2000 focus zx3 for 3 years without a single problem. On march 2007 (90000 miles) the car stalled and died completely in the middle of a california freeway. After 5 min I was able to restart the car and drive to my mechanic (not a ford dealer). Computer analysis showed a faulty mass air flow sensor. He replaced it ($450). Two days later, the car stalled again in a residential area (20 MPH and full tank of gas). The car restarted and I drove back to same mechanic. He didn't find anything wrong and suggested I should drive to a ford dealer. They replaced the fuel delivery module at no cost because of ford recall #03n01. After that the car stalled (and died) again while pulling out of a parking lot (5 MPH and full tank). Ford technicians drove the car for 150 miles while hooked up to a "flight recorder" and found nothing. I drove it for 20mi with a "flight recorder" and it stalled right away. I tried restarting it and it stalled again (4 times in a row). I was able to record the data using flight recorder. For the first time the check engine light was on (code p1237). The ford dealer inspection all the electrical wires looking for a faulty connection ground. After re-wiring they test-drove the car again. They think the car is ok now. This has been my third week without a car. I was renting a car in order to go to work (paying to go to work). I can't afford to spend more money on more surprises. I have been stressed emotionally and financially. Even if the car is ok now, I don't feel safe driving it (or any other ford). At this point I decided to sell the focus to the same ford dealer. I'm complaining about the ford focus and ford in general (as a corporation and a brand) for allowing such a flaw to be sold to the general public. I have been very well treated by the service department at the ford dealer.
Car engine stalled without notice while cruising on a highway. Had to pull over immediately with remaining speed inertia. After 10 minutes car started ok, and then stalled again in a residential area. After restarting, the car stalled a third time. No "check engine" signal triggered. Mechanic unable to find anything wrong and unable to reproduce failure while test-driving the car for 30 miles. Two days later, car stalled again while yielding into a major highway. Had to pull over immediately, wait, restart car and get off at the nearest exist.
Engine malfunctioned: ford focus se year 2000. Purchased from omar car sales in fremont (510)-770-0107 I thought it was the battery. When I came out of raley's at about 4:50 pm, I could not start my car. It was making a clicking sound only. (1) just had major work some of the timing belt, a motor mount, and spark plugs, all new ford parts were used as replacements. The car had been in excellent condition beforehand. I had only purchased the car a little over a year ago from omar car sales for $6,000.00, and it was running fine till 3 months ago, when the timing belt went then got fixed in one week. One minor problem with an ignition switch was found when I 1st bought the car, also very minor. (2) butch's automotive inc in fremont, 510‑793‑9883 found problem, (the valve seat inside the engine collapsed and failed, pistons came down, ruined my entire motor including oil on parts in process) I reported it to the federal safety agency, they said I also needed to contact the dealership, and manufacturer of which I did. The federal safety agency said that if the dealership didn't do anything, to file a complaint. I spoke with jose in service at fremont ford within 24 hours. He said contact the manufacturer, but the manufacturer tried to claim that there weren't any recalls. I think there are, and if not, I would like a discreet recall started. (3) butch said the cost of repair will be $5,200.00 for all the damages engine wise, plus a re-built engine being installed. I would like all costs reimbursed to me, as this was a safety hazard. Had this happened on the freeway, I might have died when other cars crashed into my stalled vehicle. I had recalls done at fremont ford, and my recalls were up to date. Butch says he was able to get a newly rebuilt ford engine to newark , ca dealership, and my malfunctioned engine was returned to that dealership. (510)-651-5600. I alerted responsible parties of this matter in ford, local and factory wide.
Tl* - the contact called regarding a 2000 ford focus. The contact stated that the vehicle had an oil leak. The contact did not know the source of the leak. There were no warning indicators. The failure mileage was 52,000. The contact has not taken the vehicle to dealer for diagnosis. *ak consumer states that oil was dripping onto the catalytic converter. Oil burned which could create a potential fire. Consumer states vehicle inspected by dealer on 3/14/07 and replaced the valve cover gasket on 3/20/07. Update *4/23/07
Recently the vehicle started to idle erratically sometimes dying, I took it to the dealership and they told me the bosch platinum spark plugs were not compatible with ford vehicles and sold me new spark plugs. The problem seemed to go away but about 30 days later it started again. Frustrated with the dealers performance I checked the vehicle myself and found that the crankcase vent between the engine and firewall had a rubber elbow and hose that were collapsing after the vehicle started. I removed them and found the elbow had a hole and the hose seemed to be structurally weakened. I replaced both and no more problem.
Tl* - the contact's car was marked as a total loss as a result of a fire. There was an engine fire while it was parked. Contact heard of some other instances of that happening. There was no indication of previous problems with the car. The contact believes there was a police report filed.
While driving my 2000 ford focus zx3 my car lost all horsepower and would barely drive down the road. I had the throttle body replaced and now it is making a loud noise if you try to excelerate. With this occuring I am left with nothing to do but, spend "more" money on problems everyone is having with this year and model of car. What does it take for the ford corporation to do something about it...someones life could be taken with all these defects and reoccuring problems.
The engine blew on my 2000 ford focus. A connecting rod broke and cracked the oil pan. Engine fluids, including oil and anti-freeze poured out of the engine. While there are 130,000 miles on the vehicle, it was well-maintained. We did not expect it to fail after 6 years.
Dt*: the contact stated while driving 30 MPH, the readings on the gauges spiked, all the warning lights illuminated briefly, then the rpms seemed to slow and the vehicle stalled completely. The vehicle was pushed to a parking lot, however the vehicle was not seen by a dealer.
Vin: [xxx] number of items: 2 item id: [xxx] recall date: title: pinch bolt torque and zetec engine battery cable routing item id: [xxx] recall date: title: rear door latch corrosion. *nm updated 07/12/2012 *js information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6)
At 88,000 miles my focus started losing power and cutting off completely. It would start back up when cranked. The dealership (way brothers) would always say its not doing it now or we can't find anything wrong with it. After taking it back several times with the same results it started knocking and cut off completely. The dealership told me it would cost 3500-4000 to fix (that's without knowing exactly what was wrong with the engine) I had another engine installed and it drove fine for a year and started doing the same thing (losing power and cutting off) the dealership told me the same thing (can't find anything wrong) now it is knocking and smoking from the pipe leading to the manifold. This is my second engine what is the problem with 2000 focus or is it all focus.
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