Both Front Door latches have failed and will not open from the outside
2008 Ford Focus: doors won't lock, open or latch
48 of the 250 complaints about the 2008 Ford Focus describe doors won't lock, open or latch.
- owner complaints
- 48
- of this car's complaints
- 19%
- typical mileage
- 74,100
- recalls
- 0
Is there a fix? No recall or service bulletin covers this area of the car yet.
Doors won't lock, open or latch by model year
What owners say
The driver side door handle no longer works from the outside. It feels like the door handle isn't latching on to the mechanism inside the door to open it. I can open my door from the inside though. I have found online that it is a common problem and am confused to why no recalls have been issued out for the faulty door handle brackets.
Entered vehicle as usual closed door and began driving (vehicle was in motion). While in operation driving down a city street the driver side door swung open. I attempted to close door immediately but door would not close. It bounced open at every attempt. I pulled the vehicle over to the side of the road where after many attempts I was able to close the door. I attempted to open door to get into the vehicle the door latch pulled but the door would not open latch remained in pulled position and door unable to be opened at all. This malfunction appears to be a broken door latch which was recalled for vehicles (not including mine) the federal safety agency recall number 17v652000. However ford stated my VIN was not covered under recall. I am currently awaiting a estimate for repair as it is extremely dangerous to operate the vehicle in this condition.
Door locks stick and lock. Varies with temperature/dust. Unknown actual cause but happens to back doors. Sometimes drivers side sometimes passenger. Most recent back doors are unlocked again but drivers side front will not open from outside but will from inside. When it was back doors would not open from inside or out. Does not make a difference if moving or not. This started with the back passenger side door and then switched to driver side over a year ago and has been an ongoing issue for me. The passenger side finally released a couple weeks ago but drivers side was still locked. After a trip shopping I hit the lock switch by accident and door unlocked. After I opened the door it did not want to latch. I finally got it to close after messing with the lock between compressed air, pb blaster and grease. Both back doors are free now but my drivers side front door will not open from the outside now. It does not seem to be locked but its not working right. The back passenger was very similar but it freed itself. Not so sure I will have any luck with the new issue.
Door latch will not close.door bounced open upon trying to close it. This is the 3rd door latch! Needs to be recalled!!!
Tl* the contact owns a 2008 ford focus. The contact stated that the rear driver side door latch failed without warning. As a result, the contact stated that the door had to be secured with a rope. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 90,000.
Have problems with passenger door and both rear doors. Door won't latch at times and power door lock won't lock at times and sometimes won't unlock or both.
The doors will not open from the outside & the passenger door will not stay closed. The problem started one day when it was parked at wal mart & I could not get into the car upon returning to it. I pop trunk, push seat down & crawl through. There are multiple complaints on line with same issues & recalls on newer models for same complaints.
Tl* the contact owns a 2008 ford focus. While the vehicle was in park or in drive, the front driver, rear driver, and rear passenger doors would not lock. There were no warning indicators illuminated. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The VIN was not included in the federal safety agency campaign number: 16f698000 (latches, locks, linkages). The manufacturer was not notified of the issue. The failure mileage was unknown.
Driver side door will not open from the outside. 2 weeks later passenger door failed from the outside as well. I drilled a hole through the interior handle and strung it outside the door so I can get into my coupe. Yeah that's right all doors will not open from the outside. What makes it even worse is ford in their infinite wisdom discontinued both parts I need to fix it faulty though they may be. 8s4z-5421812-d (passenger) and possibly 8s4z-5421813-b (driver - though I'm not entirely certain this is the correct manual lock assembly.) so ford put millions of faulty latches out there and discontinued the part needed to fix it. In the meantime I'm not able to keep my car secured with any belongs I may put in it as I have to have a rope/string hanging out anyone can walk by and pull to get in my car.
In july of 2015 the right front door of my car would not open from the outside. In july and august of 2016 my drivers door will not open from the outside as well as the back door on the right side. I'm disabled and I have to leave my doors unlocked so that I can crawl into the back seat and open my drivers door with my cane to get in.
The takata recall-both of my door latch are not working on my ford focu 2008
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the 2008 Ford Focus door locks
Is doors won't lock, open or latch a common problem on the 2008 Ford Focus?
48 of 250 owner complaints about the 2008 Ford Focus (19%) mention doors won't lock, open or latch. The model year with the most reports is 2012.
Is there a recall or service bulletin for this on the 2008 Ford Focus?
There is no recall or service bulletin for this area of the car on record.
Other symptoms on the 2008 Ford Focus
No deployment 15Stalling 10Airbag light 7Won't start 7ABS 5Hesitation 5Loss of power 5
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