2018 FORD FOCUS — Complaint #1837987
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about POWER TRAIN:AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION:INTERNAL:CLUTCHES/BANDS filed September 2, 2022
NHTSA complaint #1837987 (ODI reference 11482539) concerns a 2018 FORD FOCUS and was filed on September 2, 2022. The owner reports the failure occurred on September 2, 2019. The vehicle had 50,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Missouri based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as power train:automatic transmission:internal:clutches/bands, 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 power train:automatic transmission:internal:clutches/bands 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 2018 FORD FOCUS shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2018 Ford Focus. The contact stated that while idling at red traffic light, the vehicle jerked and shuddered and then hesitated while attempting to accelerate. The failure also occurred while attempting to turn the vehicle to the left or right and also while shifting into reverse(R). The contact stated that occasionally the transmission failed to engage as needed. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and the clutch was replaced three times. The vehicle was diagnosed again and it was determined that the clutch needed to be replaced again. The clutch was not replaced. The contact stated the failure was related to NHTSA Campaign Number: 18V845000 (Power Train) however, the VIN was not included. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and opened a case. The approximate failure mileage was 50,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1837987 |
| ODI Number | 11482539 |
| Date Filed | September 2, 2022 |
| Failure Date | September 2, 2019 |
| VIN | 1FADP3F20JL |
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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.