Shuddering while accelerating. Grinding noise while the automatic transmission is shifting gears. Vehicle has been into dealer multiple times for shuddering and shifting issues. The last time, at 49k miles, it was over an 8 week wait to get the car into the dealer - the transmission guys were backed up months at all surrounding dealers. Ford's repair has been to reprogram the transmission. We purchased the car new and have been the only owners. The car did not shudder and grind when first purchased. And it performs better immediately after the reprogramming. But after a few thousand miles of travel, shuddering and grinding return. Once it starts shuddering, I can duplicate this behavior within 2 miles of a ford dealership. There is a roundabout at livernois and hamlin roads that has a yield for incoming traffic. If the roundabout is clear, proceed into the roundabout between 5 and 10 MPH and accelerate slowly while navigating the roundabout - and you get shuddering. Personnel in the dealerships state that "drivers just don't know how to drive the car". I am a 50+ year old driver with experience in both manual and automatic transmissions. No tickets no accidents. This vehicle was purchased with the intent of passing to my children when they start driving. The inability to use slow acceleration without shuddering makes it too dangerous for inexperienced drivers. Especially in michigan where winter conditions often require slow acceleration to maintain control of the vehicle. Please act upon consumers behalf and force ford to provide a permanent resolution. Either a fix that permanently stops the shuddering or replacement of the defective powertrain components.
2012 Ford Focus transmission complaints
Page 37 of 49: complaints 1,061 to 1,090 of 1,448, newest first, as owners wrote them.
It starts shuttering at take off .also when braking and trying to come to a stop the rpms rev up words and the car pulls forward when you are trying to stop at low speeds when trying to make a complete stop. Also on any type of incline the car will roll backwards when it is in drive mode it is rolling forward as well when trying to back up into a driveway.we just purchased this vehicle a few weeks ago around christmas 2014 and it is in service at ford on january,12th and 13th 2015.the indications information in box in number 2 is information from the dealer provided me with that when it first went into service along with other problems I was told by ford and the place I purchased this vehicle that there is no fix and the recall has been done on it.
I purchased this vehicle in june 2012 and was never forewarned about the issues they had. The transmission has been fixed numerous times but continues to clip, shudder, jerk, and shake.
Constant trans problems with 2012 ford focus. Your agency is well aware of the problems individuals are having across the us concerning this car and others that include other years. Yesterday I nearly missed being in an critical accident due to total failure of the trans in the focus and having it totally lock up on me. The shift would not come out of park and all power was lost. I have had trans issues over three times now. Car is now in the shop waiting for a module that, of course, only come from ford and takes a long time. The media has made it know of this increasing problem and also the fact that your agency is doing nothing about it. Hopefully the perception that you are waiting for a death to occur before something is done is false but all news and information sources reflect otherwise. I will be contacting congressmen also to follow-up with your lack of taking action and some needed resolution.
I own a 2012 ford focus se. I bought my ford focus in december 2012 from folsom lake ford located in folsom california. At 20000 miles I took my car in for its factory service and advised the transmission was not operating correctly. According to folsom lake ford their service department reprogrammed the transmission computer and ordered parts for the transmission'parts that would take a month to arrive, but never heard back from folsom lake ford after that. About 35000mls started major transmission issues with my focus-it would not shift correctly. The check engine light never came on, nor were there any other diagnostic/malfunction advisements from the vehicles information system. Other systems began to malfunction 'specifically electronic systems, idle control malfunctioned-. Idle rough, sometimes idling wild and extreme fluctuations.my focus would stall constantly while stopped at intersections, also randomly stalling while at driving speeds. Multiple times my focus stalled on the freeway, while driving at normal freeway speeds 55-70mph. After my focus had a stalling incident it would not start at all as if it was due to a power drainage. If it did not immediately fire-up, the starter would continue to operate whether I tried to discontinue or not. When the vehicle did finally start, the transmission always operated unusually after that 'shifting incorrectly, not smoothly shifting into gear, sometimes not shifting into the proper gear or not shifting at all. At about 42000mls service performed on my focus the battery checked and in good working order. By 43000mls after major transmission issues my battery was corroded/ruined.
*ongoing *please see original complaints # 10473215 and #10670375* long history of transmission repairs since purchase. Latest repair on 1/5/2014 was to replace malfunctioning TCM. When getting car back from service, odd noise and hesitation upon starting. Service manager attempted to start. Symptoms of TCM malfunction again, and then complete loss of power. Service states that chafed wiring was found under driver seat, causing new TCM to malfunction and then shorting out all power in vehicle. After hearing odd noise upon starting, I was very close to driving car out onto very busy highway... Decided to turn car off instead and seek help from service manager. I am the only driver of this vehicle and I very rarely move the seat. I was told by service that moving the seat on 1/5/2015 caused the chafed wiring to short out the power in the car. I never moved the seat when I got into my car during pickup. This is very frightening and dangerous! I was just reading that chafed wiring can result in fire, also! These vehicles are putting many people at risk of injury or death. Please help the affected ford focus customers to get them recalled, as ford will not help. I have filed 3 claims with ford and I cannot even get a call back from them. Told that I don't meet the guidelines for buyback or replacement. Very afraid to drive my car, especially now since the weather is bitter cold and have already been stranded in freezing weather with sleet on 1/3/2015 because of TCM failure. Please help!!
I have taken my ford focus to the dealership three times to inform them about the transmission. At first they told me they had to reprogram it and that would fix the problem but it didn't. I took a second time and they told me the same. On saturday november 29 2014 I was parked at an incline at a furniture store when I put my vehicle in reverse it went but when I tried to engage the drive it just kept going back. I backed up into a ford f-150 that was in the back. Fortunately nothing happened to the ford f-150 and the gentleman did not want to file a report. I took my vehicle to my ford dealership on december 27,2014. They did not inspect my vehicle until december 31, 2014. The service manager called me to inform me that it would not be ready for another 3 to 4 weeks until the clutch for the transmission came in. I made it very clear to him that I would not be driving the vehicle in that condition. I went to the dealership on january 2,2015 that is when they informed me that it would be ready the next day. I called the next day and they informed me that it would not be ready until january 5,2015. Now I have a vehicle that is damaged from the rear passenger quarter panel and the lights are cracked but no one will take responsibility for the damage to my vehicle.
*ongoing *please see original complaint # 10473215 *clutch replaced twice and trans reprogrammed 4/5 times (within 35, 000) *now car not starting- 4 times in 2 months. Symptoms on 1/3/2015- 4th time: dash lights up, radio and heater work, headlights- no, but other lights- yes, no crank when trying to start *car usually starts next day, *car restarted afternoon 1/4/2015 and taken for emergency service 1/5/2015. *no call received from service with update, so called for shuttle to return to dealer. Techs were already gone. * listed repairs: found TCM inop codes u0101-u0100 tech performed PCM test auto trans diag and pinpoint test, replaced TCM and performed clutch learing (2nd replacement clutch installed 8/2014) *they brought car out and gave me the key. I tried to start car and heard odd noise, then shut car off. I again started the car. This time there was hesitation and noise again, shut car down. Went back into service area and found service manager. He tried to start the car several times, but would not start, no sound or crank, but all lights came on- same as when car broke down 2 days earlier. He moved gear shifter around and then tried to start again. This time lights in the car flickered and then everything went black, the car totally died. He stepped out of the car looking shocked and told me to go and sent me for rental. Was told that the car was fixed and almost drove off of the lot. Dark out and temp outside was 27 with wind chill of 12 . Dealership located on 6 lane, very busy highway and could have broken down on highway in freezing cold, very frightening! There would have been no one at the dealer to help me as everyone had left or was leaving. Would have been on my own in frigid nighttime weather. *over 2 yrs of trans repairs, still breaking down. Convinced car is a lemon. Please help as ford will not. Chronic problem with this car. Unsafe to drive.
This car is dangerous, living in a hilly state, this car rolls backwards down hill whilst still in a forward gear. In light of fords recent quiet recall for other focus transmission issues, they still have not addressed the fact that the car rolls quickly backwards when the brake is released and because of the shuddering transmission, it cannot grip and go forward. If I had wanted to drive with both feet I would have bought a manual. I am saddened by the fact that your organization is waiting for fatalities rather than order a large corporation to withdraw their dangerous product. I thought you worked for me and all americans to keep us safe on the road? Protecting the public who have been sold an unsafe vehicle??? I would wager every focus sold since 2012 is an accident waiting to happen. Please log my complaint with the thousands of others you have received about these ford transmissions. Thank you.
Engine light came on exiting a parking garage on a busy evening in hilly san francisco. Seconds later, the car lost momentum and wouldn't get into gear, even though the gear shift was in drive. Alarming, for a 3-year old car with merely 43300 miles that has been cared for dutifully since it's purchase new in nov. 2011. My wife and I, with our kid and his friend in the backseat, decided to head home, foregoing plans for dinner, and continued to make our way to the highway homebound. The car seemed to run fine through the city streets for the next 10 mins., until we needed to cross 2 busy lanes to enter the freeway onramp. At that point, the car lost the power to safely cross the lanes, we missed our entrance, and were forced to circle city blocks to return to the onramp. The car seemed to regain normalcy, and accelerated to 55 MPH, but then, approx. 2 miles later, lost power (even though the engine was revving), acting as if it were nearly in neutral. The car seemed to shift to a very low-powered drive. We were in the slow lane and took the first available exit, hazards blinking. Once on city streets, we pulled over to the curb, and tried to re-engage the desired gear. We finally cut the ignition and restarted the car to try to limp it over to the gas station across the intersection and across oncoming traffic. We arrived at the gas station, and called the ford roadside assistant who was extremely polite but I won't go into the headache (and expense) of towing the car to a sensibly-located dealership and getting 2 adults and 2 kids back to our hometown some 80 miles away, at night. We feel extremely blessed that we experience these worrisome problems without injury (or worse) to ourselves, others or damage to property. We are not sure if our confidence to drive the car will be restored after reading many similar complaints below. We await for mon. For ford's answer.
This issue started to happen pretty much out of nowhere. I was going from 2nd gear to 3rd gear and all of a sudden it seemed my car was going to stall. It started to shake and studded violently and I quickly stepped on the clutch, took it out of gear, and put it back into third. This time it went and moved fine but as time progressed it has gotten worse.
I am filing a complaint against a 2012 ford focus se. The car has been making transmission noises that cannot be resolved for quite some time now and while driving on the 101 freeway, all of the instrument panel lights came on and the entire car completely shut off and no controls were working at all almost causing an intense pile up that could have killed my mother and I instantly. We were left in the middle of the freeway with not power of any use of controls until chp officers were finally blocking traffic from hitting us. This is the worst vehicle we have ever owned and ford should be ashamed for being negligent.
I have had an ongoing issue with the transmission almost since buying this terrible car new. Transmission constantly shudders and jerks. Most recently was driving at about 60 MPH when the car suddenly lost ability to maintain speed. Very dangerous timing as I was accelerating on to expressway and needed the speed to merge. Ford has no answer for this problem. Someone will be killed in these cars because of this problem. Please force a recall of these cars now! This is too common of a problem and the federal safety agency can be considered complicate when someone is killed at this point given the lack of action.
While driving on the road the vehicle lost all power. Went from 40mph to 0. When able to drive it again it would not go over 30 MPH. The next day it drove with hesitation and jerking. Then appeared to run somewhat normal for a short time (10 minutes) after that started to jerk so violently that if a car was in front of me I would have hit it. After reading up on the ford focus, this problem seems to be consistent. I am afraid to drive it. This vehicle poses a danger to not only the driver and passengers but to all the other drivers and vehicles on the road with it. I do not feel safe driving it on the freeway.
I purchased this vehicle in november of 2012 and was never forewarned about the issues they had. The transmission has been fixed numerous times but continues to clip, shudder, jerk, and shake. I had to go to durham a year and a half ago and was almost involved in a bad accident when the vehicle started to roll back on an incline while in drive. I have come close to many accidents though due to this car, mostly because the transmission hangs up so bad. I have to constantly pull into either a parking lot or the center turn lane when I am in heavy stop and go traffic because the transmission stops pulling. I normally have to turn the vehicle off and sit there for a few minutes before it resets itself and I can go on my way.recently I was in the mountains and the rpms kept hanging up at 4,000 RPM going up and down the pass. I had to keep hitting the brakes and hitting the gas in order to resolve this issue. With semi trucks behind you this is very disconcerting. I also was stuck in heavy stop and go traffic on the interstate in the middle lane and the transmission was trying to quit. Last year the seat belt buckle broke and I could not get it to unlatch, this past summer the AC was not blowing out of the vents, had to take multiple trips to the shop to get it diagnosed, and eventually fixed both blend door actuators. The chrome plating started peeling off on the steering wheel this past year at only 40,000 miles and almost cut my hand multiple times. It took them two tries to fix that. My gas mileage is not even what is advertised for these vehicles. In town I get 22 to 25 and on the highway I get 26 to 29 mpg. This car is ridiculous! Ford will not even acknowledge the issues that it has, instead the transmission is within normal operating parameters, the rest of it well as the customer service lady stated to me "all cars have issues".
Faulty powershift transmission would not engage gears properly causing vehicle to stall, shake violently, grind gears, drop first and second gear when accelerating, no reverse.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. The contact stated that the vehicle slipped out of gear. The failure occurred on several occasions. The vehicle was taken to a dealer on numerous occasions where it was diagnosed that the transmission needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 65,000.
Transmission control module problem. Unexpected loss of transmission shifting while driving. Problems with shuddering, vibration between gears and hesitation with the transmission. Rolls backward on inclines like it is a standard but it is an automatic transmission. Ford performed a reflash, relearn, and a pinpoint test. Test failed and ford removed the transmission and replaced the clutch and seals on 11/05/14 per recall14m01. Ford claimed that there were no other problems found with the transmission. On 12/08/2014 the shudder was back and the car bogged down to 30mph in a 55mph hwy. The situation was very scary and dangerous. I took the car back to the dealer and opened a case at 3:50 pm with [xxx], [xxx] at 1‑800‑392‑3673. Ford refuses to acknowledge there is an ongoing problem that was not fixed the first time. The ford dealership is maintaining fraudulent business practices by charging $1025.00 to fix the TCM (transmission control module) that remains dysfuntional and potentially dangerous on the road. [xxx] and [xxx] with the ford sullivan dealership claim that the recall is separate from this related transmission problem. This was my first and last new ford product. All the way around the transmission in this and many other ford focuses is a major problem for consumers and the federal safety agency. Many deaths will happen due to fords unwillingness to address these faulty transmission components. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6).
Letter regarding problems with 2012 ford focus and insufficient customer resolution of those problems. *smd the consumer stated the transmission was serviced multiple timed, with only short term improvement. The dealer informed the consumer, ford designed the transmission to perform as the old style clutch type transmission. Ford was able to improve the mpg by designing the transmission in that manner. The consumer stated the vehicle would surge ahead with the front end of the vehicle moving upward with such quickness, that he quickly had to apply the brake to avoid an accident. Secondly, when going up a hill from a stop or low speed, the vehicle chattered and surged.
This is an automatic transmission. It continues to roll back while in drive and stopped on any simple incline. Brought it to dealers and they continue to say that this is normal. This is dangerous issue.
I bought my car at 38,000 miles as a certified preowned from a ford dealership. Within 5k miles, I was experiencing chattering on take off, and at low speeds (mostly rush hour) & very hard shifts. I took it in, they reprogrammed the clutch, and sent me on my way with much less chattering and almost no hard shifts, still horrible in rush hour. In september, it started doing the same thing. I took it back, they fixed it again. Sent me on my way with (again) some improvement, but no symptoms gone. I took it back in october, the service manager drove it with me, he said the items I was experiencing were all "normal operating conditions." he actually told me: "drive it harder, it will perform better." I was always taught that you don't rag on your car and it lasts longer. Dumb advice that irritated me. Sunday, I was driving down a busy road (lucky it was on a sunday with no school traffic), and my car suddenly acted like it was in neutral. Driving down the road my car stops moving forward. After the car stopped accelerating, I was able to get it into a parking lot. I put it into park, then drive, park, reverse, nothing. At this time, I turned it off and it would not restart. I had it towed to the dealership, the dealership said it was my transmission control module. There is less that 52k miles on my car. I've had the car 8 months.
I have recently had an ongoing problem where my dash lights turn off, head lights turn off, radio turn off, and a message comes on the dashboard saying "hill start assist unavailable". The radio turns back on after about 20 seconds. The dangerous part is when the speedometer shuts off and I cannot tell how fast I am going. I have contact the dealer about this problem, and taken the car in for service on this and they claim there is nothing wrong with the car. I already had a problem with my transmission where I had a full replacement and they are refusing to take any action regarding this problem. This vehicle is unsafe for anyone to drive until they figure this out. I dont know who else to contact regarding this issue since I have gone to ford, the dealers, as well as independent shops and they all claim they cant find a problem.
It has happened a few times when I start the car and go into reverse or drive I cannot turn the steering wheel. It takes a minute and then I can turn the wheel. I stopped at wayne akers ford and they said it might be the electronics for my power steering. They were surprised it is happening so soon. They said to bring it back for service on a weekday when more staffing.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. The contact stated that while driving at approximately 60 MPH, the vehicle shifted from drive into neutral and shifted back into drive independently. The vehicle was restarted and the failure recurred. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 79,000.
This car has been horrible since the 1st week I bought it brand new off the showroom floor. The car shudders as I go in reverse, or if I press down on the accelerator from a stop. I've been in and out of the ford repair place more times then I could count. They have replaced the whole clutch assemble with no improvement. In fact it has actually got worse, and now I do not feel safe in my vehicle. I will go to accelerate across an intersection an it will shudder, does not move, and makes grinding noises. I have contacted the dealership, and they want to replace the clutch assembly again. However they could not promise me that this would resolve the problem. I only have 18,000 miles on this car and I absolutely hate it! On top of all of this they can not even get me in to repair it because there are so many focus' that are having the same problem they are bombarded and my appointment will be some time in 1/15!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The car goes into neautral with no warning loose all power and three months later it does not go into reverse and lost gears we had to pay out of pocket someone going to get hurt this car needs a recall on transmission before someone gets hurt bad there is so many complaints on transmission.
Purchased this vehicle used from ford/nissan dealer. Transmission makes grinding noise constantly. Dealer says this is "normal and within specs" which is hard to believe. I can probably live with the noise factor but car shifting is also erratic and jerky. When merging into traffic and speeding up car will "bog down" before upshifting to faster gear and then makes high revving sound. Purchased this vehicle to replace our families second vehicle and was also to be used by my daughter. Don't feel safe having her drive this. Driving safely in todays world is already a challenge but when you have to also adjust your driving and situational thinking to compensate for this vehicles abnormalities, it makes this ford focus an accident waiting to happen. Very disappointed with this vehicle and very hard to believe that this was designed to perform this way and that ford has no fix or revision to correct this issue.
I have been experiencing increasing hesitating and shuddering from my transmission when attempting to accelerate. At times, I have experienced high engine revs with very little power to the wheels. I can no longer rely on the transmission to deliver the engine power to the wheels when I need it. I have had several incidents where I've experienced loss of power when attempting to maneuver the vehicle into the flow of traffic. This presents a very real safety hazard to the driver. I went to my dealership in response to the letter from ford and was told that the parts are on national back-order. I was told that this was not a safety issue and would need to continue to drive my vehicle until parts were available. At this point, I have parked the car and have made other arrangements until I can get it serviced. Ford must own up to the fact that this is a serious safety issue and issue a factory recall.
While driving, the vehicle loses power. The engine is running, but there is no power to the drivetrain. There is no revving ? Just a loss of power. The first time this happened, it was along a back road. There was no warning, the car just started slowing down. My daughter braked and came to a stop ? Thankfully as there was no traffic. She put the car in park, then back into drive. The car went into reverse. She put it back in park then tried drive again and this time it did go back into drive. She was then able to move forward under power. The vehicle worked fine for the next week. The second time it happened was in the evening. Again, the car just started to lose power. It would not go over 45 MPH and she had to pull to the side of the road. She stopped and a friend?s dad came to help. He got it moving forward for about 1.5 miles; then the ?check engine? Light came on and the d on the dashboard flashed red. Then the car stopped completely. He put it in park and turned the vehicle off. He waited a few seconds and tried to turn the car on. It would not turn over, there was nothing. Since this was at night, we had to leave the vehicle where it was. The next morning, while waiting for the tow truck, I decided to try and start it. It did start. The "check engine" light was off and there was no other warnings flashing. It was like it cleared itself. I put the car in drive and the car moved forward as if nothing was wrong. I had it towed to the ford dealership in case this problem was related to the other transmission issues. I explained what happened and they said they would try to replicate the problem. According to the technician since the ?check engine? Light was no longer lit, and although they put it on the computer, the codes that were there LED them nowhere. They cleared the codes and tried for another day to no avail.
Car is shuddering, vibrating, rolling backwards on inclines, stuttering bad gas mileage at low speeds between 0 and 20 miles per hour. The car has been in 4 times to the dealer beginning on 5/3/12 through 11/14/13 it has been reprogrammed 3 times and a new transmission replaced it which has solved the problem temporarily but starts happening again. When driving in or pulling out into traffic because the car either hesitates so bad or just wont move for a few seconds. Needless to say there have been many close calls. The dealer has been proactive in working with me however this is not a dealer issue this is a manufacturers issues.
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