2012 FORD FOCUS — Complaint #1458309
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about STEERING:HYDRAULIC POWER ASSIST SYSTEM filed March 31, 2018
NHTSA complaint #1458309 (ODI reference 11082327) concerns a 2012 FORD FOCUS and was filed on March 31, 2018. The owner reports the failure occurred on March 30, 2018. The vehicle had 3 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Arizona based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as steering:hydraulic power assist system, 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 steering:hydraulic power assist system 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 2012 FORD FOCUS shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
STEERING ASSIST FAILURE NOTICE APPEARED ON AND OFF FOR NEARLY A YEAR. NOTICE WOULD DISAPPEAR AFTER TURNING VEHICLE OFF AND STRAIGHTENING STEERING WHEEL. AT 77000 MILES, WARNING CAME ON AGAIN AND WOULD NOT CLEAR. THIS IS A SERIOUS SAFETY HAZARD ESPECIALLY IF IT HAPPENS WHILE DRIVING ON THE ROAD. I WAS LUCKY IT WAS JUST IN MY DRIVEWAY. FORD HAS RECALLED SEVERAL CARS OF SIMILAR MAKE AND MODEL FOR THIS SAME ISSUE YET HAVE NOT RECALLED THE FORD FOCUS. THIS IS A SERIOUS SAFETY HAZARD ESPECIALLY IF IT HAPPENS WHILE DRIVING ON THE ROAD. FORD NEEDS TO OWN UP TO THEIR MISTAKE AND SEND A RECALL AND FIX THE PROBLEM ON ALL VEHICLES. I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO PAY FOR A MANUFACTURING DEFECT. THE CAR IS NOW OUT OF COMMISSION BECAUSE I CAN'T AFFORD THE REPAIR AND I AM TO SCARED TO DRIVE IT AS IS.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1458309 |
| ODI Number | 11082327 |
| Date Filed | March 31, 2018 |
| Failure Date | March 30, 2018 |
| VIN | 1FAHP3N22CL |
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.