On 6/82016 I was driving to work in the early morning , as I accelerated forward while turning the corner at a elementary school zone, a steering assist fault error message appeared on my instrument cluster. Then I lost all steering and I could not turn the wheel to avoid the small children and parents that were at the corner waiting for me to pass.I slammed on the brakes and avoided a life changing tragedy. I towed the car to santa margarita ford who informed me that the electronic power steering box failed and the repair was going to be $1,895. I called ford and talked to alex (case # tas-9779156-d5j4q5) who took my report , checked and quickly returned with bad news that there was nothing they can do. I asked him if someone needed to die for ford to take resposiblity for this unsafe system, but got no reply.
2012 Ford Focus steering complaints
Page 25 of 32: complaints 701 to 730 of 927, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Power steering fault service assistant
Power steering assist indicator comes up intermittently when starting the car or while driving and it is extremely difficult or impossible to steer the car. Now it has not gone off for days and I am unable to safely operate my vehicle. It has happened to my mother a couple of times on the highway and she almost got into an accident at 70mph. Ford needs to address and correct this before there are anymore accidents or deaths. They did it in their other vehicles, why did they leave out the focus??? And for that matter, when is the federal safety agency going to finally step in????
In 2012 I purchased the vehicle from future ford in sacramento california. Over the past four years, the car has problems with the transmission, PCM module, transmission control module, clutch, starter, steering wheel, electrical system. I took the car to two ford dealerships for repairs. The service technicians cannot repair the car. I contacted ford motor company many times and they refuse to refund my money and recall the vehicle the car is very dangerous to drive and a risk to my life and safety. Updated 07/19/16*lj
Takata recall // for several months I have experienced the power steering going out on my car. Most of the time it happened as I started the car. I was able to turn off the car and start again and it was fine. Few times I was driving and the power steering went out. I looked online and see other ford cars are under recall for rhis problem but not for my focus. Ford obviously is aware of this problem and is ignoring it. So does someone have to die before ford takes notice of how many cars they manufactured are faulty and they are putting us comsumers at risk every time we have to be on the road. Not everyone can afford an extended warranty or the expense of getting problem fixed. And it should not be up to the consumer to fix faulty car made by ford, it is ford that needs to place recall on this car and fix to have all thier consumers safe on the road. If not I can guarantee I will not recommend anyone to buy ford.
Electric steering gear out. $1650 dollars to replace at the dealership. This is an ongoing issue with ford's bad design of electronic steering. 150 plus complaints with crashes and deaths. This is my 20yo daughters car and thank god she wasn't driving it when it went out. Basically a yard ornament now until we can afford to fix it. Still making the payments but no chance of driving the hazard to the road car.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. While driving 25 MPH, the power steering light illuminated and the steering wheel became difficult to turn to the right. The vehicle was towed to a dealer where the steering gear was replaced. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 88,000.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the power steering seized without warning. The contact was able to stop and restart the vehicle where the vehicle resumed to normal. The contact stated that the failure recurred approximately two weeks later. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the power steering had failed and would need to be repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 71,000.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. While driving 25 MPH, the steering failed and a "steering assist failed" message displayed. The contact pulled over and turned off the vehicle. When the vehicle was restarted, the steering returned to normal. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 72,000.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. While driving approximately 30 MPH, the power steering seized and the power steering warning indicator illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the steering gear moduler needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The VIN was unknown. The approximate failure mileage was 126,000. Updated 06/29/16*lj
I have had transmission problems from day one. The car studded and stop from time to time. I almost got into an accident with my daughter when the car suddenly stopped on me because of faulty transmission. The radiator also went out. The steering gear locked up on me while I was driving and I almost had an accident with my kids in the car.
The display on the dash reads "steering assist fault". It started as an intermittent failure that happened once the car was first started, the problem would go away after shutting down and restarting, that had been happening for a couple weeks. Now it is a consistent problem. There is absolutely no assist in the power steering, makjng the car very difficult to maneuver at normal driving speed and near impossible to maneuver at very low speed, e.g. During parallel parking, u-turns, sharp turns, etc.
Steering freezes, makes a very dangerous moment, door window doesn't suddenly work. Feel a recall should be in effect, chosen states have a recall on the steering, but not in texas, I'm a senior citzen, living off gove. Benitfits , can't afford the price to fix, the vehicle was stationary, and one time in motion.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. While driving approximately 45 MPH, the steering seized without warning. The contact drifted the vehicle over to the shoulder. When the vehicle came to a complete stop, the steering ability returned. The dealer diagnosed the failure, but it was unable to be duplicated. The approximate failure mileage was 77,600.
Started car and put it in gear to begin driving out of driveway. Got a message in the info system that said "steering assist fault" ( think that is what it said) the car had no power steering. Extremely hard to turn the wheel at all. Shut the car off and restarted. Same thing. Shut the car off and started it later in the day to take it to the dealer and the error was gone and the power steering was fine. Dealer said there were no codes to read. They could not reproduce the problem so nothing was done. Scared to drive an unsafe car.
Received "steering assist fault " and complete loss of power steering. I had just begun to drive out the driveway. Fortunately I did not make it onto the road.
Steering went out at starting the car. This was just hours after dealer repaired some recalls., has never come back. "steering assist fault service req'" read out on dash. One ford dealer wants $125.00 to look at it after I mentioned steering. Another has refused to answer calls. I discovered that dealers were warned about problems with steering but did not notify owners.
In 2015 after I started my car the power steering went out when coming out of the driveway at home. It use to come back on but comes off when car is parked then driven again . Now there is no power steering. On march 28, 2016, my car started honking twice when I push the lock button while the car is running on park and driving on the city street.
My 17 year old daughter was driving to basketball and all of the sudden she lost all power steering n it all locked up. Thank gosh she was on a straight a way. I looked up to see if there any recalls n there's not. I have called ford 1800-392-3673 they said thy hv no complaints . I told them all the ones I saw on this sight but thy said they need anyone that has had this problem to call ford directly 1‑800‑392‑3673 then hopefully thy will put a recall . So please everyone call ford n complain about the lost of power steering so we can save lives. Thank you
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. While driving approximately 35 MPH, the steering locked. The contact turned off and restarted the vehicle and it resumed normal operation. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 15,922.
While driving m power steering goes out. Also when first start car will indicate problem with power steering. Will have to turn off car then start again to resolve issue. I started few months ago and has become progressively worse. I hope they recall this before someone gets hurt.
Went to start my 2012 ford focus se on 3/3/16 and immediately received a message stating "power steering malfunction". The steering wheel felt like it locked up and was very difficult to turn. Thank goodness I was in my driveway and not on the road with my kids in the car! We were able to get the car to apple ford in columbia md where they ran diagnostics and said we need to replace the the steering rack, which will cost $1,950!! After reading the forums, complaints and pending lawsuits online, it is clear that this is a common issue where several models are being recalled. My VIN has not been associated with that recall, but I'm desperately hoping that it will soon. This is an electric issue causing the power steering to fail, and it's happening to so many ford owners. Please take action!
I was driving on a city street going 30mph when my steering started to get hard to steer but not impossible. When I pulled over I got a notification on my dash the "steering loss, stop safely". At that point there was no way what so ever to turn my steering wheel at all. All most seemed like it was locked. Tried restarting the car and still no steering
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. While driving 5 MPH, the steering malfunctioned. The vehice was diagnosed and repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The failure mileage was 84,800.
On 2/25/16, after a severe rainstorm, I went to turn on my car and tried to turn on the wiper blades, but they would not come on. The next morning they did turn on. That afternoon, when starting my car, the wiper blades turned on without the control being activated. The blades continued to run even when the car was turned off and no keys were in the ignition. The only way to stop the blades was to disconnect the fuse from the box. This has happened twice when I was not aware of this and my car battery was dead when I went to start the car. I cannot use the wiper blades at this time as they will not turn off. According to ford motor co., this is not covered under the recall on the wiper blades since my car is out of warranty. I have had my car in the dealership to repair the defective clutch and it is still not repaired due to ford motor co not sending out the necessary parts in a timely manner. My car is shuddering and jerking when accelerating and changing gears on all types of roads. I have had this issue since I bought the car brand new. The cruise control on my car works intermittently. When the battery is disconnected and then reconnected, the cruise will work for a few days. Ford technicians could not diagnose the problem. This has been a problem for as long as I have had the car.
Transmission shutters and slips and the power steering just shuts down at times, this is very dangerous. My wife was merging onto the interstate and the steering shuts down the engine still running. She has to shut the car off and start it again to get the power steering to work. This has happened around 10 times.
The electric power steering system regularly fails to start when I turn on the car. This seems to happen especially when the car is cold. When it does not start, it often times comes on when I turn on interior lights, put the car in reverse, or restart the engine. Sometimes it does not come on at all and I am forced to drive without power steering. I have read many complaints online about this problem happening to other focus owners and have seen that this electric power steering system has caused problems in the fusion as well.
I was driving home with my children and the alert light came on to say there was a steering problem then all of a sudden the car decided it wanted to steer itself into oncoming traffic. I could move the steering wheel so I slammed on the brakes and put car in reverse to get into the median before getting hit. My girls were screaming and crying. After cars passed I had to slam the steering wheel in order to pop it and drive like I was in mario cart to get home. This is ridiculous that this is not a recall when it is clearly a mechanical issue with this piece of crap car.
Electronic power steering failure occurred again with warning lights. I shut down the car and it came back on. The steering fairly frequently briefly stops working. I experience this typically while parked before getting out on the road.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. While driving 10 MPH, the steering wheel became inoperable without warning. The failure occurred randomly. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where it was diagnosed that the rack and pinion failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 92,000.
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