2014 Ford Focus: steering wheel locks up

Filed Oct 15, 2026 · Steering · 145,145 miles · TX

The contact owns a 2014 Ford Focus. The contact stated that upon starting the vehicle, the "Steering Wheel Alert Malfunction" message displayed on the instrument panel, and the steering wheel seized. The vehicle was rendered inoperable. Upon research, the contact associated the failure with Customer Satisfaction Program: 15N01 (EPAS Steering Efforts); however, the VIN was not included. The failure mileage was 145,145.

Filed Apr 9, 2025 · Steering · 32,000 miles · FL

The contact owns a 2014 Ford Focus. The contact stated that while the vehicle was parked, the steering wheel seized. There were no warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that the failure was related to the federal safety agency Campaign Number: 14V514000 (Steering). The vehicle was towed to the local dealer to be diagnosed, and the contact was informed that the steering wheel gear needed to be replaced. The DTC: P3000 was retrieved. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was contacted, but no additional assistance was provided. The failure mileage was approximately 32,000.

Filed Nov 21, 2024 · Steering · 167,000 miles · WI

The contact owns a 2014 Ford Focus. The contact stated while starting the vehicle, the steering wheel seized, and felt very stiff. The power steering warning light was illuminated. The dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 167,000.

Filed Feb 6, 2023 · Steering · AK

The steering assist went out at approximately 27000 miles without any warning. I was heading out to work and the steering locked up and I had to manually turn the wheel but I needed a lot of strength to get it to turn. The vehicle went to a mechanic to be diagnosed, and I was told the steering rack and pinion had failed and needs replacing.

Filed Apr 13, 2022 · Steering · 54,000 miles · MI

The contact owns a 2014 Ford Focus. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the steering wheel seized and the vehicle experienced a loss of power steering assist. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic but was not diagnosed nor repaired and remained with the independent mechanic. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 54,000.

Filed Jan 19, 2022 · Acceleration, Electrical · NV

On January 14, 2022, at approximately 5:20 P.M. my wife was traveling southbound on Pleasant Hill Road in Lafayette, California towards the freeway entrance when the Ford Focus Electric she was driving displayed a Stop Safely Now message and almost immediately thereafter lost motive power at the busiest intersection in the City of Lafayette. She was able to steer the car to the shoulder since she was in the right hand lane. The vehicle would not move and the steering wheel locked up. She called for assistance and I drove down and exchanged cars with her within approximately 15 minutes. After approximately 10 minutes of trying, I was able to get the vehicle to turn off and to turn on again without the Stop Safely Now warning and was able to return the approximately 1.5 miles to our residence. The sudden unexpected loss of motive power and loss of ability to accelerate is extremely dangerous and frightening and that danger can be extreme when traveling on roads without shoulders or in any lane except the right lane on a freeway.

Filed Feb 10, 2021 · Steering · 97,000 miles · MD

I took my car into my mechanic for a horn problem and while there he told me that there is a problem with the power steering. I had issues with the steering locking up before but thought it was is a stuck gear or something till he told me it was because of the epas. He had mentioned it could lock up and I never said anything about it to him before. It's locked up a few times but the most recent one was not even a few months ago. I thought it was just cold and it had to warm up a bit as it was rather cold out. Looking more into this there was a whole lawsuit out of ca for this same issue with the same year and make of cars. They threw it out even though ford said they knew about the problems. That was back in 2017 and yet the cars still have this issue and they have done nothing to fix it. Ford should have to fix this but they want me to pay over 2,000$ to have this fixed. This is a huge safety concern. I don't even let kids in my car any more because you never know what will happen. I have no other transportation and I have to worry constantly if it is going to lock up again. I have tried to get a hold of someone at ford about this issue but they all say the same thing. ' there is no recall so there is nothing I can do. You have to take it to ford to be fixed. ' I have had issues after issues with this car yet they know about all it's problems from the radio to the transmission and they still do nothing till people are getting hurt or worse.

Filed Nov 23, 2020 · Steering · 170,000 miles · ME

Steering locked up

Filed Aug 2, 2019 · Steering · 79,000 miles · HI

Steering wheel locks up after starting car and also while driving at low speeds

Filed May 19, 2019 · Steering · TN · crash · 1 injury

Power steering failure, the power steering locked up one day when I went to the store,I started the car& the power steering was locked and extremly hard to steer, I finally drove it home which was about 15 miles, I had to drive very slow because it was very hard to steer, the car was parked in a store parking lot and when I returned to the car it was very heavy to turn the wheel I was afraid to drive it home but I didnt want to leave it overnight in a store parking lot...

Filed Feb 19, 2019 · Steering · 117,000 miles · MS

Three separate incidents. All three incidents happened while first starting vehicle, putting vehicle in reverse, and then the steering wheel locks up and a steering assist failure warning comes on. Steering wheel will not move. Had to pull back in to parking spot and turn car off. Upon turning the vehicle back on, the steering wheel is back to normal and the warning is gone. Terrible vehicle. Feel unsafe driving my child in it. Never will buy another ford ever again.

Filed Sep 21, 2018 · Steering · 51,000 miles · NY

Tl* the contact owns a 2014 ford focus. The contact called on behalf of the driver. While driving at an unknown speed, the steering wheel seized and the power steering warning indicator illuminated. The vehicle was able to be coasted to the side of the road and was towed to a tow lot. The vehicle was later taken to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed that the steering computer system failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that no recall was associated with the VIN. The approximate failure mileage was 51,000. The VIN was not available.