2018 FORD FOCUS — Complaint #1869270
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:INSTRUMENT PANEL:FUEL GAUGE filed January 30, 2023
NHTSA complaint #1869270 (ODI reference 11504387) concerns a 2018 FORD FOCUS and was filed on January 30, 2023. The owner reports the failure occurred on January 10, 2023. The vehicle had 73,474 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Florida based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as electrical system:instrument panel:fuel gauge, 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 electrical system:instrument panel:fuel gauge 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 after starting the vehicle, the transmission experienced rough shifting while the vehicle jumped, and the engine revved loudly. The transmission fault message was displayed. Additionally, the fuel gauge level was inaccurate. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was diagnosed that the transmission control unit (TCU) needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired and remained at the dealer. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 73,474.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1869270 |
| ODI Number | 11504387 |
| Date Filed | January 30, 2023 |
| Failure Date | January 10, 2023 |
| VIN | 1FADP3F23JL |
Similar ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:INSTRUMENT PANEL:FUEL GAUGE Complaints for 2018 FORD FOCUS
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.