2003 FORD FOCUS — Complaint #1331667
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION:FRONT:MACPHERSON STRUT filed November 4, 2016
NHTSA complaint #1331667 (ODI reference 10924347) concerns a 2003 FORD FOCUS and was filed on November 4, 2016. The owner reports the failure occurred on October 30, 2016. The vehicle had 34,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Pennsylvania based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as suspension:front:macpherson strut, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same FORD FOCUS cohort independently describe similar suspension:front:macpherson strut failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2003 FORD FOCUS shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
THE SUB FRAME BROKE WHILE DRIVING THE CAR. ENTIRE SUB FRAME HAD TO BE REPLACED. ALMOST CAUSED AN ACCIDENT. STRUTS HAD TO BE REPLACED. CALIPER AND ROTOR HAD TO BE REPLACED. CONTROL ARM HAD TO BE REPLACED. JUST REPLACED THE IGNITION SWITCH TUMBLERS AFTER THE SWITCH LOCKED UP AND REFUSED TO WORK. THERE ARE NO RECALLS LISTED FOR THIS CAR. SERVICE MANAGER SAID THAT FOCUS ARE NOTORIOUS FOR THESE PROBLEMS. CAR HAS 34,000 MILES ON IT. THE BRAKE LINE RUNNING FROM THE FRONT OF THE CAR TO THE REAR RUSTED OUT CAUSING A LOSE OF BRAKES. THE CAR IS DANGEROUS. *TR
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1331667 |
| ODI Number | 10924347 |
| Date Filed | November 4, 2016 |
| Failure Date | October 30, 2016 |
| VIN | 3FAFP31383R |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.