2013 FORD FOCUS — Complaint #1689881
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about FUEL SYSTEM, OTHER:STORAGE:FUEL GAUGE SYSTEM filed September 4, 2020
NHTSA complaint #1689881 (ODI reference 11353144) concerns a 2013 FORD FOCUS and was filed on September 4, 2020. The owner reports the failure occurred on August 4, 2020. The vehicle had 152,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to New York based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as fuel system, other:storage:fuel gauge 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 fuel system, other:storage:fuel gauge 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 2013 FORD FOCUS shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2013 FORD FOCUS. THE CONTACT STATED THAT WHILE DRIVING AT VARIOUS SPEEDS, THE FUEL GAUGE FAILED TO OPERATE CORRECTLY PAST 85 MILES UNTIL EMPTY. THE VEHICLE STALLED WITHOUT WARNING. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE FUEL GAUGE NEEDED TO READ HALF TANK IN ORDER FOR THE VEHICLE TO OPERATE CORRECTLY. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO AN INDEPENDENT MECHANIC WHO INSPECTED THE VEHICLE AND DETERMINED THAT A RECALL WAS PRESENT ON THE MODEL AND INFORMED THE CONTACT THAT A RECALL COULD POSSIBLE BE ON THE VIN. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT DIAGNOSED. A DEALER WAS NOT CONTACTED. THE FAILURE RECURRED. THE CONTACT RECEIVED NOTIFICATION OF NHTSA CAMPAIGN NUMBER: 18V735000 (FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE) WHICH THE CONTACT DETERMINED WAS POSSIBLY THE CAUSE OF THE FAILURE. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOT MADE AWARE OF THE FAILURE. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS APPROXIMATELY 152,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1689881 |
| ODI Number | 11353144 |
| Date Filed | September 4, 2020 |
| Failure Date | August 4, 2020 |
| VIN | 1FADP3F28DL |
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.