2012 FORD FUSION — Complaint #1789585
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about STEERING:HYDRAULIC POWER ASSIST SYSTEM filed January 21, 2022
NHTSA complaint #1789585 (ODI reference 11448409) concerns a 2012 FORD FUSION and was filed on January 21, 2022. The owner reports the failure occurred on January 3, 2022. The vehicle had 122,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Tennessee 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 FUSION 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 FUSION shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2012 Ford Fusion. The contact stated that while she was at a complete stop at a red light, the steering wheel inadvertently locked and lost power steering assist. The warning message "Power Steering Lock" was illuminated. The contact turned off the vehicle and she was able to push the vehicle to the side of the road with the assistance from her husband. The vehicle was towed to the contact's residence and then the vehicle was towed to the dealer who diagnosed that the power steering control module needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that her vehicle could not be repaired under NHTSA Campaign Number: 15V340000 (Steering) because the recall had expired, and the vehicle was out of warranty. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 122,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1789585 |
| ODI Number | 11448409 |
| Date Filed | January 21, 2022 |
| Failure Date | January 3, 2022 |
| VIN | 3FAHP0JA5CR |
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.