2012 Ford Focus UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Owner-reported problems and safety issues filed with NHTSA. Review common failures, severity levels, and complaint trends over time.
Complaint Timeline
Chronological view of owner reports
Transmission problem
TCM needs replaced. Car does not have reverse, stalls and overheating.
Brought into Ford dealership for recalls to be done and when I picked my car up, no recalls were performed
UNKNOWN. I am aware of at least 2 recalls on my vehicle and took it to Long McArthur in Salina to have the recalls fixed in late summer 2023. As of this date, Long McArthur has not notified me the parts have come in to fix the recalls properly and I am still driving unsafely with many check engine lights on constantly and my vehicle making odd sounds. In summer 2023, Long McArthur said the parts were hard to come by and on back order and told me to highly consider buying a new vehicle.
While driving car trying to stall in middle of traffic.
we had a recall and Ford Motor frauded us three times. we brought our car in for ford focus transmission module in 2021 to get it fixed wihtin greico Ford the ten year and they made us pay 176 to hold the part put us off for two years telling us no part on back order and then they called us said they had it and gave it away in a day as we were five hours away after making us wait two years and taking money from us they refuse to give us back our money and then we took to anohter ford dealer sarasota ford and they frauded us and just reset the old defective part and now they saying sorry to late now i demand something done we shjpuld have it markled as not fixed the recall it is outstanding they lied and we never got it fixed and they l;ying saying it was fixed and they just reset the old defective part they frauded us
Transmition control module on my 2012 ford focus sel Broke on a road trip leaving me with 1,3,5 gear only , and online it says this is a common issue considering you NEED a transmission to drive I feel this should be something that gets a recall
The component is unknown and below is description. The car is stalling while accelerating and rushing forward when it does accelerate. At stop lights and when the car stops in traffic the vehicle is stalling. When the gas pedal is pushed to accelerate the stalling can cause a vehicle behind me to crash. After stalling, the acceleration causes the car to rush forward and it could cause my vehicle to run into someone in front of me. The vehicle was inspected at a dealership however I strongly believe their recommendations were not correct and that there is an easy fix for the issue above. They also claimed that it had nothing to do with the recall and did not provide information on the assessment about the recall. This particular recall does cause stalling so it is baffling to see that the dealership did not provide a written assessment on the report like they did for the door handles. I paid $150 for an assessment and around $200 for tow to bring the vehicle home after the assessment. The check engine light did come on and I took the vehicle to the dealership due to how unsafe the car was driving. I feared driving the vehicle and had it towed to the dealership for this poor assessment. I have not driven this vehicle in a year due to the unsafe driving conditions. I would like for the recall to be fixed and determine if that is causing the issue or not.
Sometimes when I start the car it shifts into next gear slowly. It may begin with a vibrating or jerky motion.
sudden loss of power. would not stay in gear. took it to the ford dealer and they had to replace the TCM.
Not even a month ago my car started jerking when taking off like hard enough to practically put you through the windshield. It almost stalled on me at a stop sign. I have the customer satisfaction program 14mo2 letter from Ford about my TCM replacement. But I believe it is the power shift dual clutch in transmission that’s having the issue.. I called Ford today because the dealership I want to take my car to wants to charge me $4000 if it’s not the TCM. Apparently there have been issues with the powershift clutch transmission and that the coverage that they had to fix that issue has expired years ago. I cannot drive it out of my small town for fear of it breaking down on me. I found out the TCM had been replaced in 2016 and I’ve only had this car six months to seven months tops and it only has 75,000 miles on it. It revs up real high and does not shift gears properly. I am afraid to take it out on a highway or anything afraid it might cause an accident and Ford told me they will not fix it unless I pay for it if it’s the powershift dual clutch. I thought ford was supposed to fix any transmission issues whether under warranty or not. These safety issues could get someone killed!
The truck opens by itself while I’m driving.
Electrical power Steering assist malfunctioning
After starting the vehicle I had no power steering. I drove the car all the way home with no power steering. I shut down the car at home and restarted it and then the power steering worked. I’m very worried about others in my family driving this car and having an accident. This has happened in the past but after moving the car it would start working but not this time. I haven’t taken it to any dealer yet but I think Ford should fix this problem
We have had many issues with our Ford Focus since purchasing it the summer of 2020. First in October 2020 it needed new clutches & throw out bearing. Which cost over $1,400. Second we have had to have both left & right wheel bearings replaced. In August of 2021, we started having transmission problems. The Ford dealership reprogrammed it. It did not fix the problem. We contacted Ford & was told it is the transmission control module which is under warranty. We were told it is taking 3-6 months for the parts to get in. Our Ford dealership ordered one over 6 months ago & still has not got it in. We need our car for transportation but haven’t been able to drive it for two months. Ford needs to step up & offer a solution. We are very discouraged, disappointed & unsatisfied with Ford right now.
Was driving on interstate when transmission suddenly quit working. The gears would not engage and then I got a "transmission overheating" message and the dashboard lit up in red warning lights. As I was pulling off to the side on the interstate trying to dodge must faster traffic, the engine quit. I waited for about 30 minutes then cranked it again. I got almost a mile down the road when the whole sequence started over again. I drained and changed the transmission fluid thinking that might be the problem but this had no effect. The transmission overheating warning would come on before I even made it a mile down the road. I have not taken to dealership yet because I am not sure I shouldn't just junk it. Ford is never going to recall these bad transmissions and I am sure I will have to pay between $3,000 to $5,000 for a new transmission and do not want it anyway if Ford is just going to put in another transmission that, like this one, their own technicians found faulty. You can inspect this vehicle any time you want.
Vehicle would shake and completely shut down whenever I would stop at a red light or stop sign. It put myself and others drivers at risk because the vehicle would shut down on extremely busy roads, this happened on multiple occasions. There was an inspection by a service center but at the time I didn't have the funds to pay for it.
My car is sitting in the garage because I was told not to drive. Parts from Ford transmission issue are on back order. I'm a 66 year old and I need my car to go to work. I called Ford to see if they would do the Lemon Law and after review they said no. I have had numerous issue with my car. My car has only 45000. I took it to a couple of other places and they said they are back up 3 to 6 months on the same issue with Ford transmission. I read an article about the Ford issues in your web page and it's identical with the issue I'm having. Clutch locks and I am unable to reverse and the car is not accelerating when I hit the gas pedal. It jumps. I need help with this. Thank you
I was told I would need over $1,000 in repairs for bad engine and transmission mounts. It shuddered off and on the whole time I owned the car but it seemed to get worse in the last 3 years. Not sure how much of that is caused by a bad fuel and transmission system but it seems like there is one thing after another with the Ford Focus.
I have an automatic transmission. Driving down the road the transmission feels as though it just goes into neutral as if it were a manual. It's like driving a manual & kicking it out of gear while your foot is on the gas pedal. This cause the RPM's rise all the while the car is in neutral. The one thing I found to get it back on track is to tap the brake. This will make it go back into gear. It has been doing this for a couple of years but it seems to be getting worse and more frequent.
The vehicle believes a door (Driver's side in this case) is ajar when it is in fact completely latched. This issue is intermittent and repeats several times during a short (10 min) trip. When the issue occurs the vehicle unlocks all doors (central unlocking) and turns on the dome light. When it randomly thinks the door is shut it will lock all the doors and turn the light off. This process repeats at random intervals. Unlocking the doors while driving is dangerous, especially for those of us who have children. I have engaged the child locks as a mitigation step. The dome light coming on randomly at night creates a distraction and degrades driver visibility.
FORD WILLINGLY KNEW AND STILL SOLD CARS WITH TRANSMISSION ISSUES
The transmission shuddering and slipping. The car has 160,000 miles
Just got transmission recall fixed and having problems again
My transmission was fixed by a recall and it's still hesitating and shattering when I drive.
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Quick Summary
The 2012 Ford Focus has 230 UNKNOWN OR OTHER complaints on file. 3 crashes have been reported. Review the timeline above for detailed owner experiences.