2016 FORD FOCUS — Complaint #2043168
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:ENGINE:GASOLINE:BELTS AND ASSOCIATED PULLEYS filed November 25, 2024
NHTSA complaint #2043168 (ODI reference 11627295) concerns a 2016 FORD FOCUS and was filed on November 25, 2024. The owner reports the failure occurred on November 22, 2024. The vehicle had 136,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Michigan based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as engine and engine cooling:engine:gasoline:belts and associated pulleys, 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 engine and engine cooling:engine:gasoline:belts and associated pulleys 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 2016 FORD FOCUS shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2016 Ford Focus. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, there was a loud bagging sound that became worse while the brake pedal was depressed. In addition, the contact stated that white smoke was coming from the engine compartment. The vehicle was towed to the dealer where it was diagnosed with water pump and serpentine belt failure. The contact was informed that the serpentine belt and the water pump needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The contact was advised to contact the NHTSA Hotline to report the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 136,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2043168 |
| ODI Number | 11627295 |
| Date Filed | November 25, 2024 |
| Failure Date | November 22, 2024 |
| VIN | 1FADP3F23GL |
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.