Transmission is jerky and acceleration is not very responsive. Car also rolls back when stopped on hills.
2012 Ford Focus transmission complaints
Page 46 of 49: complaints 1,331 to 1,360 of 1,448, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Oil leak from rear main seal leaking onto cluthes. The car rolls back on hills and makes flapping noises. Also, at times it starts and stops like it's not getting gas.
1. My 2012 ford focus is stalling out and revving up at high rpms then stalling out for the last 4 months. 2. This is the fourth occurrence for the same issue in the last 4 months. 3 times in the last three weeks. 3. The first two times, ford could not find the problem and related to driving at high rpms or spinning on gravel which never occurred. I advised that the vehicle would rev at high rpms but not go anywhere then stall, not on a gravel road but a major highway going 55-60 MPH. Twice the vehicle had to be towed. The other times I could drive it to the dealership at 30mph but it would continuously stall out. The third time they replaced the computer which did not solve the problem. The fourth time occurred and my vehicle has been at the ford dealership for a over a week and they still cannot figure what is wrong with it. My vehicle has 41,000 miles and still covered under the powertrain. Ford is refusing to buy the vehicle back under state lemon laws and not giving me an offer for diminished value for the hit I am going to take on the trade in once I hopefully get the vehicle back operational.
I was driving down a bumpy road at 40mph this morning, came to a stop at a stop sign, attempted to turn right and merge onto a busy highway with an 50mph speed limit, the car started to go and then all power cut out without warning and the "stop safely now" and "refer to owners manual" warnings came up on the left screen! Luckily, I was not fully into the traffic yet as there were several semis coming. I veered to the shoulder and stopped. If I had got going even for a second more I would have been out in traffic in the path of a semi coming at over 50mph. It took a few minutes of trying to turn it off. Eventually I opened the drivers door and that seemed to free it up to turn it off. I was then able to start it back up again and carry on with my day.
I see here that several individuals complaining have the same complaints that I do, the incline problems, the vehicle sounding like it is going to die on you. The problems when you accelerate. This is a new vehicle and have had that problem from the time we purchased it. I am thinking it is the transmission. Can someone please guide me. I still have years on the note and it is not fair to pay on something that is as mentioned by someone here, is "embarrassing to drive with a passenger". The speed does not matter it keeps making this rattling noise when you accelerate. Please recall these cars.
Vehicle lost power and was not able to safely accelerate while traveling on the highway. The problem happened when I down shifted a gear to pass someone (manual transmission). The vehicle felt like it had about 30% power. I was forced to pull off of highway. Once vehicle was shutoff and turned back on it returned to normal. I had no warning lights on dash or anything. It just happened all of the sudden and was very scary.
My first incident was driving out of a parking lot, the power steering message appeared with a strange beeping noise followed by an extremely difficult to move steering wheel. When I turned off my car and got it back on, the power steering was back to its normal levels. Later the next day, the car was in movement over 30mph while driving through the highway and the power steering message came on again making my car totally unresponsive causing me to almost crash. It was very difficult to get the car out of the high way in order to have the steering levels back by turn it off and back on again. Today I took my car to the ford service complaining about this in order to get my car checked but the service manager indicated that there was nothing he could do about this incident for what suggested me to contact roadside assistance during the next incident and have them take in my car to there service to fix it at the moment. I mentioned that if that was to be done my car would obviously have to be turned off and on in the process causing the issue to momentarily disappear for what he would still not be able to witness the incident as he request, just like today. He refused to make any further comments indicating that was the best thing he could do.
This car has had the problem with rough shifting and roll back on hill almost immediately after purchased in may . I reported incident to ford motor company and they did not do anything but later in may 2012 received the service notice for reprogramming. It helped it but did not fix it and this problem returned and actually got worse. We just took it to our dealer for service on 6/21/13 and they said there was a clutch assembly pack they replaced. Once again the car is driving better but still not what I consider normal (smooth shifting/accelerating) for any car. I am concerned that issue will return with time. Ford needs to fix the transmission once and for all. What needs to be done in order to have a recall?
I bought as a ford pre-owned. I did not notice the transmission shuddering. After owning the car for about a week. I started noticing the transmission starting to get jerky. I contacted the dealership, and was told that they performed the update before I bought the car. They also stated that there was nothing that could be done because that is the way the new transmission are.it is not getting any better. If I could I would be trading in and getting another vehicle.
Submission from constituent re problems with 2012 ford focus. *smd the consumer noticed the automatic transmission seemed a bit jerky and it shifted more often. When the consumer visited the dealer to have the oil changed and the tries rotated, she mentioned her findings to the mechanic, and he indicated there was an update available they would perform. When she picked the vehicle up later that day, the problem was much worse. The transmission hesitated and shuddered even more than before the update and the noise was she was hearing, when the vehicle shifted was louder and sounded as if cans were in the transmission. The dealer advised the consumer, to give it a week, because the computer needed to reprogram itself. A week later, the dealer called the consumer, but the problem was still present. The vehicle was taken back to dealer. When the consumer returned to pick up the vehicle, there was still no change. Over time, the problem did not resolve itself. The consumer returned to the dealer, where they test drove the vehicle, and claimed the it was performing within fords specifications and there was nothing else they could do. The mechanic did acknowledge there was a jerk in the transmission, it shuddered and hesitated, but stated, there was no fix for the noise as of yet.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. The contact stated that while driving various speeds, the transmission slipped and made a grinding noise. The contact also stated that acceleration power was lost. The vehicle was taken to the dealer several times where the failure was unable to be diagnosed. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was contacted about the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 6,000. The VIN was not available.
Transmission shudders had it fixed twice front end want stay lined up have purchase three set of tires eating my tiers up had it lined up three times sick of this car it a lemon.
When I bought my focus I thought I was getting a 6 speed automatic transmission because that's what it said on the sticker but now I find out I have a manual transmission(that works off computer) that jerks and stammers after stopped and trying to go up slight incline. The car is embarrassing to have anyone ride in. Yes the dealership reprogrammed the trans but its back to dancing around when going up slight inclines. I don't have money to buy another car because I bought two in 2012, (fusion and focus) but now I have a piece of junk really that no dealer will even give you a decent trade in price. You can reprogram it all you want its not going to fix it, read it all over the internet. Its very distracting the jerking the car makes and distracts me and I can have an accident. I don't see why this hasn't been a recall.
I have an automatic focus se, and at 2000 RPM there is a grinding noise and loss of power (sluggishness in acceleration). The grinding noise started to happen at around 2000 miles but only occasionally. Now, it happens 100% of the time. I took it to ford service and they confirmed hearing the noise. They also have a code in their database for this issue. However, they say that they don't have a fix for it.
I purchased my 2012 ford focus new from am authorized ford dealer. A few days after purchase I noticed that the transmission seemed to slip in an out of gear when accelerating. The problem is worse on hills. Further the vehicle will roll backward when at a low idle on a hill with the engine running. I took the vehicle into the dealer where I purchased it and he said it was fine. But today I was alarmed at how much worse it seems to be getting. I did a quick search on google and discovered a lot of 2012 focus owners are having the same problem and dealers are giving the same explanation or doing little to fix the problem.
The car shift hard when taking off at stop light it fill sometimes that the car can not go shift hard then go.
I bought the 2012 ford focus sel on november 18th 2011 and first recall was jan 02 2012 they reprogrammed the transmission and there was a 2nd recall and the reprogrammed the transmission again but im still having hesitation on startups and loses power as well but hasn't stalled yet but I thought few times it will stall out but it didn't. I hope ford can fix the hesitation of this vehicle but if not then I will never buy a ford again. Also the suspension is very hard on bumps. Feels like there is no shocks on the car. Very disappointed on my front windshield. Cracked when I only had 15,000 miles on the car.
At highway speeds while trying to pass, meaning speeding, my engine would cut out or loose power which would last about 10 seconds. I am bringing this to your attention because I read about other ford owners having the same issue. Now ford said that it was easily fixed by reprogramming the transmission, this fix has alleviated some of the engine power loss but not all. In fact this fix makes my transmission act like it is slipping and the shifts points are way out of range. It is because of these issues I can't stand driving it, please advise as to what my options are since my factory warranty ran out.
Update 05/20/2013 this vehicle keeps getting worse: ?reverse does not work very well as it takes a long time to function. On a slight decline the car rolls forward and reverse has difficulty engaging. ?from a stop at a stop sign or red light, the car will attempt to lunge forward sometimes. ?from a stop at a stop sign or red light, the car will often not accelerate when the accelerator pedal is pressed. ?at any given time (full stop or in motion) the accelerator must be pressed half way or more to the floor in order to get the car to accelerate. ?the car lunges a lot and misses-then lunges while driving.
I had just exited the freeway and was driving up the street when my car shuddered and jolted furiously and sort of stopped but I was able to continue driving for a short while and while making a left hand turn it suddenly once again jolted more furiously and completely stopped and no gears were able to engage and the vehicle shut off completely. Thank god I was able to backup into a parking lot off the very busy street as I could not move forward at all. I had to be towed to the dealership where it has remained to date from sunday night until today while they are trying to reprogram and fix the problem.
Since purchasing this vehicle I have had consistent problems where I will pull out into traffic and the vehicle loses power. At some points, where the vehicle is stopped, the car shakes a lot! There seems to be an acceleration problem and it is getting much worse! I was almost rear-ended yesterday!
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. The contact stated that she was stopped on an incline and attempted to put her foot on the accelerator pedal, when the vehicle rolled backwards. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for inspection but they could not determine the cause of failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified. The failure mileage was 200.
I received a letter from ford in may 2012 regarding customer satisfaction program 12b37. The issue with the car was rough/jerky automatic transmission shifts & roll back when transitioning from the brake pedal to the accelerator pedal. My husband took the car into the ford shop to have this issue corrected on 6/8/2012. Everything seemed to be fine but both issues started up again and became more frequent. My husband again took the car back to the ford shop on 1/2/2013. My husband was told that this is the way the car drives. But the ford shop took the car and said they would take a look. We were given the car back the same day and were told that they reprogrammed the car and that everything was working fine. That evening I was about to merge onto the highway but the car would not accelerate. I pushed the gas pedal almost all the way to the floor and the car wouldn't go faster than 30 MPH. I was almost rear ended by another car. Luckily the driver was able to swerve into the lane next to me. I got off at the next exit and took the local route home. The next morning I took the car back to the ford shop. At this point, the car was driving completely normally. I explained what happened the night before. They wound up keeping the car for 2 weeks. I was told that they couldn't figure out how to fix the issue and had to call ford to get instructions on how to correct the problem. During this time, I placed a call to ford and filed a complaint with them. We received the vehicle back and everything seemed to be fine but slowly the same issues showed up more frequently. Today (5/13/13), I've taken the car back to the ford shop. I was told that they would check it but that this may just be the way the vehicle drives. I am very disappointed ford hasn't been able to correct the problem properly.
Repeated problems with transmission "slipping", lack of power, surging when finally does shift, extremely unpredictable acceleration from stop (e.g., pulling into traffic at intersections, or up hill at highway speeds). Did not display problems during test drive, but at approximately 1,000 miles up to current mileage (about 2,200) it occurs every time I drive. Have had three near miss accidents due to unpredictable acceleration from stops, also on highway under hill load. Had dealer service check three times, first time updated software in PCM/TCM, second time with same dealer returned "no errors", tried different dealer, also "no errors" but was told other customers complained and "that's how it's designed". Sent ford motor company demand for refund under california lemon law, ford customer relations center called and stated they will not pay refund at this time but requested opportunity to send special technician to local dealer. Have not heard back to schedule with special technician after one week.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. The contact stated that the vehicle stalled without warning. The instrument panel indicated that the transmission was engaged in park. The vehicle was towed to the dealer where an engineer was sent to inspect the vehicle. The engineer stated that there was nothing was wrong with the vehicle. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 5 and the current mileage was 27,000.
The transmission in the car has been reprogrammed for once for jerking and slipping gears than told parts are on back order for up to three weeks for clutch replacement. The car shifts rough , shutters, told by driver its the way I drive. The transmission is getting worst.
While pulling into traffic from a complete stop car would not accelerate. Had to push gas pedal almost to floor to get car to go, that lead to a bucking acceleration, car jumping forward and almost being rear ended. Took car to shop first told that's how the car drives, then told by transmission "specialist" I was not driving my car aggressive enough. After a 2 week stay the shaft seal and clutch was replaced. Did not correct issue called ford corp and again was told this is how the car drives basically telling me I was at fault. Car has since been back 2 times for the same reason, even took for a second opinion per ford request and car stalled on the service manager on a hill and yet I was told that's how the car is suppose to perform!!! Not happy. Tomorrow april 15th 2013 car is going back thus again for same reason. Not feeling safe in my car!!!!
Occasional and unexpected roll-back on inclines. Occasional and unexpected lack of acceleration when acceleration is required. Severe judder as the automatic transmission shifts between first, second, and third gears (occurs only after the car has been driven 5-10 miles). The car is fitted with a 6 speed automatic/manual transmission. The problems appear to be getting worse.
While leaving the parking lot of a store to enter highway, my focus started sputtering and then shut completely down leaving me and my two children stranded in the road. We got help to push it out of the way when attempted tries to start didn't work. A tow truck came when called and took it to our ford dealership here who just called (24 hours later) to tell me they "think" there's a problem with the fuel pump. I have had continual problems with the transmission as well, this car rolls back on even the slightest hill, has caused some close calls when vehicles are close behind me. I am a working mom with a non-working vehicle for at least the week.
2012 ford focus, automatic trans. The clutches disengaged during acceleration, this time while making a left turn in front of oncoming traffic. Check engine light came on. Then the car has erratic shifting, clutches engaging and disengaging while driving, high rpms. This time taken to dealer for same issue .dealer reprogrammed the control module again. There are many complaints about the trans on focusfanatics.com.
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