Notice came up on dash monitor "steering assist malfunction-needs attention". After re-starting the car you could steer it, and took it to a ford dealer and was told it needed a "steering rack" at a cost of $1600.00, not covered on the "drive train" warranty, even though I was told by the sales man from a different dealer where I bought the car, that a new steering rack had been installed at just over 3000 miles. The car now only has just over 45000 miles on it. Not happy! Car was not moving when the initial "needs attention" message appeared, it was parked in a parking lot, and just started to go home from work.
2012 Ford Focus steering complaints
Page 20 of 32: complaints 551 to 580 of 927, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Power steering assist fault. Incredibly dangerous was on the freeway starting our vacation that is now ruined because ford is closed on sunday's.
Upon engine start, electric power steering does not work. After 10 seconds, it works fine. This happens every time the car is started, except sometimes when it is cold outside, it requires a few start/restart cycles for the power steering to start working. This has been going on for the past 15,000 miles, about 10 months. No fault light has ever come on. Steering has never failed while driving. Once the power steering comes on, it stays on for the entire time the ignition is on.
The electric power steering unit is defective. My daughter was driving on the highway. It began making a grinding noise while driving and minutes later after pulling off the highway it started locking up where it would not turn. My daughter was able to jiggle it back and forth to make it steer into her works parking lot. Steering failure light came on and said to safely stop. I had to trailer it a mechanic shop because it would not turn. Mechanic and had to replace entire electric steering rack ($1947.74).
I went to start up my 2012 ford focus to drive my son to school, and as it turned over I received a message on my dashboard saying there was a problem with the steering assist module and that it needed service immediately. I still had to drive my son into school, so I had to drive my focus in traffic with no power steering. The car was very hard to steer and fortunately I made it ok. Later, when I went to leave for work, there was no message and it has been fine the rest of the day. This seems very dangerous to me. Why is there no fix or recall on this?
The power assist fault keeps coming on and the steering wheel is hard to turn when stationary and when you try to turn.
Steering fault light and locked steering wheel - recurring in my driveway, unable to diagnose & fix - what if it happens on the freeway?
Loss of steering at 55 MPH on two lane highway. Crossed center line and hit by oncoming truck
While driving on the highway 2/17/2017 my focus lost power steering. I managed to pull over and had the car taken to dean sellers for repairs. After the repairs were done ($2100) I learned of similar problems with the 2012 ford focus and the power steering going out.
Tl* the contact owned a 2012 ford focus. While driving 70 MPH, the vehicle independently veered to the left over the double lines without warning. As a result, the driver crashed into an oncoming vehicle. The air bags deployed. The driver sustained fatal injuries. A police report was filed. The vehicle was destroyed and towed. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was unavailable.
Upon start-up a yellow warning message was displayed that the power steering had failed, I.e. It took great effort to turn the steering wheel. Car was shut off. Later in the day, car was re-started and the power steering was again working and no warning light (amber) was displayed. Appointment with dealer was made to address issue.
Started the car in my driveway and the steering assist failure light came on. The car has no power steering. It is not drivable. I drive 70 miles a day on the freeway and it was pure luck this didn't cause an accident.
"driver assist fault" again. This is the 4th instance that is happened in 3 weeks - where my car suddenly powers off while I am behind the wheel. The last three times it happened while my car was in reverse motion. Today, it happened while I was in drive but stopped at a red light in downtown charlotte, nc. Someone had to help me push my car out of the middle of the road. Occurred on my way to work around 3:30 pm est.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. The contacts stated that the steering wheel locked intermittently when attempting to start the vehicle. A warning message illuminated on the instrument panel stating, "steering assist failure". The contact was advised that the vehicle would have to be transported to the dealer with the error message. The manufacturer was not notified of the issue. The VIN was unknown. The failure mileage was 60,000.
It used to be that upon starting my car, a warning prompt reading "steering assist malfunction" popped up and my steering wheel would be very diffcult to turn. Usually, I would turn off the car, turn it back on, and voila--it would work fine. But now, the steering wheel malfunction has developed while driving the car with no patter or warning of it happening. Again I would turn off the car and turn it back on once I merged out from the roads of the street or freeway. Steering alone was really difficult. Now, my car reads the same malfunction prompt, and my nifty trick of turning it off and back on no longer works. The issue is permanent as of now. Also I have lots of videos documented about this issue on youtube.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. After the vehicle was shifted into the drive or reverse positions, the steering wheel failed and became difficult to maneuver. The power steering default warning message displayed. The vehicle was taken to a dealer, but was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 75,600. The VIN was unavailable.
Intermittent power assist steering malfunction over the past 6 months. Power assist malfunction on starting car would reset after restarting car. Ford garage checked and could find nothing wrong. Went out to start car today and power assist steering now out completely. Unable to turn steering wheel. Restarting car does not help. Fortunately car was parked in garage when this happened. Will be calling ford tomorrow.
Metal on airbag assembly/steering wheel cover cracking and peeling. Causing multiple finger lacerations while driving.
I got in my car, but it in reverse and began backing out of my parking space when my suddenly car lost power. The car was in motion but the steering wheel and brake pedal locked up and I could not steer or stop my car from going backwards and I hit a parked car in the parking deck at school as a result. The code on my dash was (I) steering assist fail. I turned the car off and on several times before the steering wheel and break released and I was able to gain control of the car again. This is the 3rd time in 2 weeks it has done this (jan 28, feb 2 and feb 8). All three times the car has been in motion and in reverse gear. I contacted ford corporate offices and the ford dealership where I purchased the car from and they said there is nothing they can do unless the car duplicates the problem in their presence.
On 2 seperate occassions when the car was started after hours of non use, the power steering failed. The indicator message in the car states no steering assist. The car could be manually steered with great difficulty.the car was in front of my house on a residential street, so it could be manuevered safely and parked. When taken to the ford dealership for service after the first event, no problem could be found. One week later, the problem recurred and was taken back for service again.
I bought my car last year at carman ford, with about 91,905 miles in an "as it is" contract. I also purchased an additional guarantee for up to 24,000m. I took the car to regular inspections to the dealer, no damage was reported. Then, I hit 117,609 miles, and my steering wheel needed to be replaced completely, and I had no guarantee. A few months after I bought the car, while driving, I felt that the wheel was moved slightly to one side of the road (highway). I asked about this to the dealer after an oil inspection; they said that probably it was an alignment issue. Recently, they said no damage was reported before. "steering wheel assistance required" appeared on the screen. While driving to the shop, it was very hard to turn either way. It was very hard to drive. I don't know how it is possible that they did not identify the problem earlier. However, if this is a manufacturer defect, I would like to know if they are going to do a recall or something. I think that the car is not super old and most of the mileage was because I have a long commute, I drive mostly on the highway. It is odd that a 2012 car has such a problem. Couldn't go to work, school, since suddenly the car stopped working on friday 02/03/17. I had to make arrangements to get another car. Overall, so much loss and drama involved with this incident and I feel it is unfair that this happened since the car had regular maintenance and is not super old.
The car needs now a replacement of the steering gear. The price is over $1500. The car didn't let me turn right or left and I just bought it at a certified carman ford dealership. It showed problems at 117650 miles. This is a scam, I paid for insurance and I brought the car to change the oil earlier ans they didn't find any defect. Now, I cant use my car. I was in motion, the car seemed to move to one side, then at home while stationed, I couldn't move the car at all. No even right or left.
Power steering failure. As I have found out this is happening to this vehicle and others too. You go to the dealer and you may get charged for something that is a know issue. Why do we have to pay on something that should be recalled.
The power steering has gone out on my vehicle and the repair cost is very high. Other vehicles were recalls for this exact issue and I don't understand why mine has not also been recalled. It went out while I was driving nearly causing me to crash.
For a few weeks when starting the car and backing out of parking space the power steering (eps) does not immediately work. After a minute it engages and works. However, it currently is not working at all. I turned the car on and received the warning "steering assist fault" and then had to drive about 5 miles home on city streets with no power steering. It was very dangerous. My concern is the possibility of this happening while driving. It is a major safety concern.
The car randomly looses power steering function and becomes very hard to steer, everything else seems fine. This can happen at any time but usually when first starting the car and can self resolve in a few seconds or not at all. This should be a recall. I'm pretty strong and a big guy and I still struggle to keep this thing on the road when it happens.
I was driving my 2012 ford focus with 83244 miles on interstate 81 suddenly the power steering stopped working and the message power steering assist fault appeared on the dash it was very dangerous but I pulled over in a rest area and towed the vehicle to my house I called ford dealer hoping the it has safety recall but the person I talked to at ford service said there is no recall for power steering fault . Now I do not have the money to fix it . I hop ford issues a recall on this problem ....
While driving suddenly was unable to steer the car. Thre is no power steering. Luckily was traveling at a minimal spped. Had my daughter and 2 small grandchildren. Took car to local dealership where it was purchased paid to put the car on the computer and was told to take it to a ford dealership 45 minutes away. Was told the car was dangerous.
I started my car this morning, put it in reverse and began to back out of my driveway when the car locked up and lost power. I could not steer or brake and the car continued rolling backwards until it hit my garage and stopped. The lights came on my dash read "(I) steering assist fault". I turned the car off and on several times before the lights went out, the steering wheel unlocked and I was able to depress the brake and gain full control of my car again. I took the car to my ford dealer in kannapolis, nc (where I purchased the car) and they said the car would need to "duplicate the error" before they could diagnose it. I explained the car would have to be in motion for that to happen and I cannot stop the car if that happens again. I drive on the interstate and I am petrified this will happen while I am on the road and have no control over the car. The tech said there have been hundreds of complaints about the loss of steering power on these fords, but that until ford issues an official recall there is nothing they can do to fix it. It could be as simple as a software update.
Electronic rack and pinion failure after 91,000 miles. Making steering nearly impossible and nearly causing accident. Why was this not included in the other electronic power steering recalls from ford? Everything I have seen is the rack is being exposed to too much heat and failing prematurely
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