CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2016 Ford Focus & its "Powershift" transmission has a defect trend where the car shudders when accelerating, especially when starting uphill.
Most owners have reported their Ford Focus remains driveable while the vehicle is still at low mileage, but the shuddering is annoying & unpleasant & may reduce the resale value of the vehicle.
However, owners of higher-mileage vehicles from earlier 3rd generation Focus model years report transmission failure & a host of other major & expensive transmission-related problems. Potential buyers beware.
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 1
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
33,872 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
Car started trying to shut off randomly and accelerated and decelerated, then car wouldn't start was told the clutch was stuck sounds like a recall I saw online.
Car would not start, battery tested fine. The car gave a msg of transmission fault. This has happened twice. After the first time I took it to the dealer. They ran test not finding anything wrong. Less than 24 hours later it happened again at night lights and gages flicker same msg. But something seemed to arch under the hood
Manufacturer recall #18S32 NHTSA recall #18V735 I was driving home from work. I was probably about a mile and half away from my work. I was approaching a red light and began to slow down and prepare to stop. All of a sudden, the display shows "not in drive" when it obviously was or I wouldn't be moving... next thing, lights/electronics were flickering and car just turned off in drive. What was really scary and almost costed me my life was my hazards were not displaying to surrounding drivers there were a few times when I got yelled or honked at but 1 or 2 times I almost got ran over.... after my friend came to help me push it out of road, he got it in park, restarted and got car starting again.... we took the car to our family mechanic and he took a look at it. He was going to charge me a lot for the part needed to get fixed. Which brought me to go see if I can find a part for cheaper or a mechanic for cheaper. That's when I discovered about this VIN and car recall.
When shifting into reverse, backup camera for 2016 Ford Focus SE frequently displays as "camera unavailable" or displays an image too dark to decipher.
My driver side headlight kept giving out and to find out the wire of the socket to the low beam light is melting causing my headlight not to work. I replaced it now it's still melting again I'm afraid that's there something wrong with the wiring.
The contact owns a 2016 Ford Focus. The contact stated that while driving approximately 35 mph and attempting to make a turn, the headlamps and instrument panel became inoperable. The contact stated that there was no warning prior to the failure. The vehicle was taken to cortese Ford service department (2500 w. henrietta rd, rochester, NY 14623, (585)277-3280) to be diagnosed. The contact was informed that the body control module needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 34,600.
It rained, and car stopped. No motive power. A red warning, "stop safely now" message on dash. Towed to dealership. There was a technical service bulletin 20-2004 to put on a splash shield to keep the 318volt (high!) connector from being hit by water, but the dealership just put on a big 350 amp fuse and put the car back in service. The fuse blew due to water intrusion. Treated a side effect, not the main problem. They refused to do what was in tsb 20-2004 & fsa 16B02. The attached picture shows how close the tire is to the high voltage battery connector! Ford knows this, but no recall, and dealership refuses to fix.
The contact owns a 2016 Ford Focus. The contact stated while his girlfriend was driving approximately 10 mph, the vehicle stalled without warning. The failure recurred three consecutive times. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer or an independent mechanic for a diagnostic test. The contact stated that prior to the failure the vehicle was diagnosed by dch Ford of eatontown located at 67 NJ-36, eatontown, NJ 07724, and the contact was informed that the failure was due to the fuel control module. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 117,000.
For the last couple years, my transmission in my 2016 Ford Focus has stalled upon nearly all attempts to accelerate from a stop. On January, 17 2020 I returned to my car from the library in irvine, ca to discover that upon turning the ignition, the car did not start. I tried a couple more times and my windshield wipers went on one time and stopped, the lights on my dashboard lit up, the media screen lit up and the interior car lights came on. I called aaa, my insurance carrier, despite it not appearing to be a battery issue. The representative stayed on the phone with me after I explained the issue and tried to schedule roadside assistance. I tried the ignition one more time and the car started. A notification on the dash screen appeared reading "transmission service required" and remained on the screen for a second before disappearing. Usually if a dash notification appears, the small icon light will remain lit while I operate the vehicle, this icon light did not remain on. My insurance representative explained that an issue with a transmission would need a tow and it may be unsafe to operate my vehicle on the road. I sat in my car for a minute and noticed my average mpg had changed from 33.3 to 0.0. I drove the car home as I needed to leave the location to tend to other parts of my day. I arrived safely to my destination. The following day, the exact same situation occurred when I attempted to start my car and leave for the day. Turning the ignition several times did not work, the windshield wipers came on once, the transmission notice appeared and disappeared and the average mpg was at 0.0 again. This time, the car notified my that I had 0 miles until empty, despite the gas tank containing well over a quarter fill. The gas notification disappeared and the miles to empty section changed back to 175 miles until empty. I have not driven my vehicle since this occurred
Earlier in January, I was driving down interstate 70 from Kansas City to St. Louis at the rate of 77 mph. All of a sudden the car dings and sends a message on the dash "engine failure" and the car literally shuts down. I had no control over the car, no lights, no brakes, nothing! luckily I got to the shoulder of the road safely and finally came to a stop. I put the car in park and turned the key off. Still nothing... I waited about 5 minutes and then turned the car back on and thankfully it started. I drove it to the nearest place to have them run a diagnostic test and nothing came up. Finally got it home. It's not done this again, but now it runs rough. Like really rough. I've had the transmission clutch fixed once already. Luckily it was still under warranty. I will be contacting my local Ford dealer about this issue. Was unaware it was under recall.
Transmission module was going 60 car when to 30 mph, car can go in rev was informed by dealer. Car wont start on cold or warm days not battery, clicks after trying to start and turn off.
The update was done on the PCM due to vehicle not starting and fuel gage saying empty when I knew it had more than half tank. Now it is doing the same thing only worse. It worries me that this has cause my ignition to go bad as well due to this recall.
The contact owns a 2016 Ford Focus. While driving various speeds, the infotainment screen malfunctioned and caused the screen to freeze. The contact heard a loud noise when the failure occurred. The vehicle was taken to ourisman Ford & Lincoln (6129 richmond hwy, alexandria, va 22303, (703) 660-9000) where the contact was informed that the accessory protocol interface module needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and informed the contact that the vehicle was not included in a recall. The failure mileage was 55,000.
The transmission seems like it is slipping and not going into gear. When I try to put I put the car into reverse and push gas peddle it does not go, but when I put in drive it moves. The car only has 45, xxx miles. When I start the car a bunch of clicking sounds come from the motor, and when I turn the car off it makes a bunch of weird clicking sounds also
I was driving on my way home, and my car stalled in the middle of the road. I had to throw the car in neutral and crank it back up and slam it into drive and speed off, because I was going to get hit both directions. The transmission shudders hard in between gears, stalls out on hills/ struggles on hills, it fails to accelerate in the moment, the car fails to know what gear it wants to be in. That's just the beginning. I live in the city a small area not very populated but I still deal with stop and go traffic the transmission jerks hard if you don't start moving at a steady pace. The highway though it does relatively well, but that's when other problems start I have loss of power at times while in cruise control, it will bounce back and fourth like I have bad gas or something, it also has a very bad glitch with the windshield wipers (they hit each other). I have had the upmost problems with this car primarily the transmission, but that's not all folks. I do however feel this car is such a safety hazard to people, I have a "dont buy a Focus" sticker going down both sides of my cars windows. I'm stuck with this car because of credit issues so I'm going to let everyone know my story if I can save them having problems not even a year after buying this brand new Focus. All Ford had to say is it's a clutch problem if completely safe. That's even when I told them I didn't feel safe and I didn't want to drive it till they did something about it. I'm not on transmission clutch set #5 I've dealt with so much lost time because of this matter and Ford should be held completely responsible. Start date for the problems is the day I bought the car. Dont buy a Focus!!!!
" takata recall" I was driving to work when my car started smelling hot. I literally just left my house I was about 5 miles from home. It smelled like how you use the heater for the first time during cold weather. I checked the gauges to make sure I was not over heating. I had no warning lights pop on and my temp gauge was normal. I than started seeing smoke coming from the side of the hood. I pulled over on the side of the road and got out. The entire car under neath was on fire. I immediately got away from the car and waited for the fire department and police to come.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Fayetteville, NC, USA