2018 FORD FOCUS — Complaint #1991183
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about POWER TRAIN:AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION:CONTROL MODULE (TCM/PCM/TECM) filed May 13, 2024
NHTSA complaint #1991183 (ODI reference 11588489) concerns a 2018 FORD FOCUS and was filed on May 13, 2024. The owner reports the failure occurred on May 13, 2024. The vehicle had 70,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Ohio based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as power train:automatic transmission:control module (tcm/pcm/tecm), 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:control module (tcm/pcm/tecm) 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 while driving at 50 MPH, the vehicle stalled while shifting gears. The contact stated that the vehicle lost motive power with the check engine warning light illuminated. The vehicle was restarted but the failure persisted. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed transmission shudder coming from multiple shift gears and the Transmission Control Module (TCM) needed to be repaired. The vehicle was repaired but the failure persisted. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 70,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1991183 |
| ODI Number | 11588489 |
| Date Filed | May 13, 2024 |
| Failure Date | May 13, 2024 |
| VIN | 1FADP3E21JL |
Similar POWER TRAIN:AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION:CONTROL MODULE (TCM/PCM/TECM) Complaints for 2018 FORD FOCUS
The contact owns a 2018 Ford Focus. The contact stated that while driving at undisclosed speeds and then attempting to park the vehicle, the check engine warning light illuminated. The vehicle was tak
The contact owns a 2018 Ford Focus. The contact stated while driving from a complete stop, the vehicle hesitated and experienced hard transmission shifts. There was no warning light illuminated. The v
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The contact owns a 2018 Ford Focus. The contact stated that the vehicle failed to shift into reverse. The check engine warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer where it
The contact owns a 2018 Ford Focus. The contact stated while driving 35 MPH, the vehicle started to shudder and then decelerated without warning. The contact stated that after several minutes the vehi
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.