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2002 FORD FOCUS SVT — Complaint #617695

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NHTSA Complaint about POWER TRAIN:CLUTCH ASSEMBLY:BELL HOUSING filed March 21, 2007

NHTSA complaint #617695 (ODI reference 10185871) concerns a 2002 FORD FOCUS SVT and was filed on March 21, 2007. The owner reports the failure occurred on December 10, 2006. The vehicle had 52,151 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Texas based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as power train:clutch assembly:bell housing, 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 SVT cohort independently describe similar power train:clutch assembly:bell housing 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 2002 FORD FOCUS SVT shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2002 FORD FOCUS SVT
Component
POWER TRAIN:CLUTCH ASSEMBLY:BELL HOUSING
State
Texas
Mileage
52,151 mi

Complaint Description

1. THIS HAPPENED UNDER MODERATE ACCELERATION TO GET ON THE FREEWAY AND WITH NO PRECURSORS OR INDICATORS. 2. THE VEHICLE MADE A LOUD POP. IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE POP THE ENGINE STALLED, AND WHITE SMOKE EMITTED FROM UNDER THE HOOD. UPON CLOSER EXAMINATION AFTER PUSHING THE VEHICLE OFF THE ROADWAY IT WAS FOUND THE FACTORY FORD PRESSURE PLATE ASSEMBLY EXPLODED AND SHOT SHRAPNEL THROUGH THE TRANSMISSION AND RIPPED A HOLE THROUGH THE TRANSMISSION COOLANT LINES. THE OIL AND COOLANT SPILLED ONTO THE HOT CLUTCH , LUCKILY AT THE SAME TIME, PREVENTING A FIRE AND JUST\ EMITTING STEAM. THE SHRAPNEL FROM THE TRANSMISSION HOUSING AND PRESSURE PLATE WAS FOUND THROUGHOUT THE ENGINE COMPARTMENT AND THE SURROUNDING ROAD. *AK 3. IT WAS BROUGHT TO MY ATTENTION SHORTLY AFTER THIS INCIDENT THAT FORD HAS A TSB ON THIS ITEM BUT NOT A RECALL. AFTER CONTACTING SVT AND FORD, I WAS NOTIFIED SINCE I HAD 52,000 MILES ON MY VEHICLE THEY WOULD NOT COVER THIS ITEM AND IT WAS UP TO ME. I REPLACED THE CLUTCH AND FLY

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 617695
ODI Number 10185871
Date Filed March 21, 2007
Failure Date December 10, 2006
VIN 3FAHP39512R

Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.