2012 Ford Focus: ball joint or control arm failure

Filed Oct 17, 2025 · Steering · PA

I was driving to drop my fiancé off at work when the "Steering fault, Service now" warning came on. Went home, parked the car. Start it up to go pick him up later, the wheel locked and "Steering loss, stop safely" warning came on. I just recently had my car inspected and had two new lower ball joints replaced. The one employee said my cars steering was working fine, and it was driving okay with no issues until today. Same thing just happened. You can't turn the wheel.

Filed Feb 8, 2023 · Steering · 50,000 miles · PA

The contact owns a 2012 Ford Focus. The contact stated while driving 30-35 MPH, the vehicle lost power steering functionality. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact was able to veer across a parking lot. The contact stated after investigating the failure online, she turned off the vehicle for a moment. The contact then restarted the vehicle while turning the steering wheel and the vehicle responded as needed; however, the failure reoccurred increasingly while driving. The message "Loss of Power Steering Assist" was displayed. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic, where it was diagnosed that the electronic power steering rack and pinion and outer tie rod needed to be replaced. The contact related the failure to Ford Campaign Number: 15S08. The dealer and the manufacturer were not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 50,000.

Filed Jul 22, 2021 · Steering · KY

I started having a lot of issues with balance and the vehicle bouncing while driving. I replaced the inner and outer tie rods. Suddenly, on the way to get an alignment, I got a warning on my screen that stated “STEERING LOSS STOP SAFELY”. I was told by a mechanic that the electronic rack and pinion needed replaced. Doing research on this problem, I find that this is actually an extremely common issue with this year make and model. The vehicle had to be towed back to my residence costing me $125! If I had not been an experienced driver, this could have been a very deadly situation as I was traveling at 65mph at the time that I lost steering.

Filed Sep 24, 2019 · Engine, Transmission · 9,664 miles · PA

Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. While driving 15 MPH, the transmission malfunction warning indicator illuminated and the vehicle stalled. The contact powered off the engine. The vehicle was restarted, but the failure recurred and the vehicle moved slowly. The contact called ciocca ford of quakertown (321 s west end blvd, quakertown, pa 18951, (215) 536-8600) and scheduled a diagnostic appointment. The vehicle was towed to ciocca ford where it was diagnosed that the clutch, gasket cylinder, tie rod, in and out lug nuts splash guards, gasket valve cover, lower control arm and bushing, oil pan gasket, pollen filters, air filter element, all four tires, wipers, and the battery cable negative and positive needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired due to the repair fees. The VIN was included in the federal safety agency campaign number: 18v735000 (fuel system, gasoline). The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 9,664.

Filed Jul 18, 2019 · Steering, Suspension · 113,900 miles · PA

Threads on the outer tie rod end stripped on the driver side. Tie rod end came off while I was driving! Called several local parts departments and funny thing is they report that's the usual side that is affected. Every store in a 20 mile radius had right tie rods but no left.

Filed May 15, 2014 · Steering, Suspension · 26,000 miles · TX · crash

We had a problem with ford motor company over our 2012 ford focus . As background, while my wife was driving 40 MPH on a straight road the car steering locked and pulled her into a curb causing a broken wheel, rim, and tie rod (estimated at $1500 to repair by bob tomes ford in mckinney texas). After the car setting at the dealership waiting for word from ford's corporate office for seven weeks we just found out they are not taking responsibility for this issue. It's pretty incredible to me that it took ford seven weeks to respond while I made two car payments and paid for insurance throughout that time without a car. We had found through research on the web that many people are reporting steering problems on the 2012 ford's focus. For your information we do not feel safe with this car and are asking bob tomes ford to help us resolve the issue locally since ford has not offered any help.