Problems with 2012 Ford Focus STEERING

While driving car at approximately 45 mph while in a curve the steering assist quit working. it was very hard to steer.

Takara recall there is a "steering assist fault" message that comes randomly. the steering is really tough to move while driving, went to see if they had any safety recalls on it but there isn't. this has happened multiple times randomly while i was driving and is not very safe.

Scraping noise coming from electronic steering component. similar issues described on line. seems like a widespread problem.

Power steering failed as we were pulling into a shopping center and had to have the vehicle towed to the mechanic. it started by making a grinding noise and then the steering got very hard to turn so we had it towed. we are aware that this has been a big problem on the ford focus but neither nhtsa or ford has placed recall on this issue meanwhile focus drivers have been spending an average of $1500. to $2000. to repair the power steering rack and pinion. shame on you both

Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. while the vehicle was stopped, the power assist steering warning indicator illuminated and the power steering failed. the contact stated that the vehicle became difficult to maneuver. the vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. mcfarland ford sales inc (located at 151 portsmouth ave, exeter, nh 03833, (603) 772-5953) was contacted and an appointment was scheduled to have the vehicle diagnosed. the manufacturer was contacted and case number: cas-24090379 was provided. the approximate failure mileage was 100,000.

Upon starting up my vehicle immediately on the dash display it said 'steering assist fault service req'd' i am not able to move the wheel or drive my car whatsoever. the car is usually okay to drive once restarted, but this time it won't go away the first time it happened was when i just took off from the curb and was driving fine but when i went to take a right turn the same prompt appeared and the steering went out completely. luckily i was on a side street so i was able to restart my car and move it.

Recently on multiple occasions when i start my car i have no steering and i see a warning message come up on the dash that the steering is not functional. when i turn the ignition off and restart, it seems to work properly again. i am scared that i am going to lose my steering while driving.

Takata recall. i was leaving the store when my steering locked up out of nowhere. luckily i was able to pull back into my parking spot and park, instead of my 7 year old and i driving on a busy road and crashing. i have seen 1000's of the same complaints from other drivers as well. this is very dangerous and will cause accidents for people driving and can not turn the wheel once it locks like myself. this needs to be recalled asap before lives are lost!

The electric-assist power steering has begun to fail. randomly when i start the car and i get an alert on the dash about the power steering system along with the orange safety alert icon. the car has no power steering at all. i turn the car off and then restart. usually, this clears the error and brings the power steering back online. i have occasionally had to restart the car more than once. this has also happened to my husband while driving. we had to pull over and he restarted the car multiple times to get the power steering back online. it is increasing in frequency and is to the point we have an appointment for the fix which will cost us over $2500.

Power steering malfunction. warning occurred each time car was turned on for the first time during the day, but would usually reset and turn off after restarting the car while stationary. this happened for about six months when the power steering completely went out. the mechanic had said this has been a frequent problem for ford focus' as the power steering column has a bad and unusual setup that causes the wiring to overheat and thus resulting in the power steering to not work.

The power steering in my car went out. while i was leaving work my car prompted the following message "steering fault assist" came on and my power steering went out. i was very fortunate to be on a straight residential road when this occurred. the steering gear in my car needed to be replaced. after doing further research i found that this is a common issue with ford cars. so much so that ford has recalled ford/lincoln midsize sedans for an identical issue (recall number: 19v632000). it is inexcusable that ford continuously ignores this issue for compact cars.

Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. while driving approximately 60 mph, the power steering warning indicator illuminated and the vehicle became difficult to maneuver. the vehicle was taken to matt bowers ford (located at 3724 veterans memorial blvd, metairie, la 70002, (504) 887-8410) where it was diagnosed that the steering gear needed to be replaced. the vehicle was not repaired. the manufacturer was not contacted. the approximate failure mileage was 46,000. *js

Failure of the electronic power assisted steering (epas). the system has to be replaced at a cost of $3k. the steering completely failed making driving not possible. the system has been going in an out of service. upon start up it would not work and then begin working a short time later. finally it has completely failed. the ford dealer says that although this is a known safety defect, it is not being recalled.

My 2012 ford focus sel has an issue where a yellow icon will come up on the dash then display another icon saying that there is a steering assist malfunction and that service is needed. the steering wheel will not move and literally takes all of your power to get it to move. after several times of turning the car on and off it will work but always comes up with that icon again. this has even happened while i was driving! this is a major safety issue! i am not trying to die while i drive my car down the road. ford also replaced the transmission on my car about a year ago for a transmission recall after the car would shutter when going into first gear. now, a year later the problem is happening again and just as bad. when my husband and i went to ford they said that the warranty was up and that they couldn't help me. it was either hit the road or pay $1,500 to replace it again! you're telling me that you put in a faulty replacement part and now expect me to pay out of my pocket to replace your mistake? that's hilarious!! when i turn left into my neighborhood while going across oncoming traffic, it's scary when my car shutters into first gear to the point where i stall in the middle of the road and almost get hit. come on ford, get your stuff together! if you truly care about the safety of your customers like you say that you do, then protect us. fix your mess and don't put dangerous cars on the road. also, when people come back and say they are having problems that have even led to death again i say, fix the issue.

My wife and i were driving and had fortunately just pulled over avoiding an accident when the steering wheel assist light came on locking up the steering and making it extremely hard to steer the vehicle. we got it over to quick lane ( a ford affiliated service center by our home and as you can see by the documentation analyzed the problem and had to replace the electronic steering rack and reprogram the module. this cost us $2530.24. i have read on the internet and as you are aware there are many complaints related to this issue. we were surprised there was no recall relate to this, and if there is i wasn't aware of or made aware of it.

Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. while driving approximately 40 mph, the steering wheel seized and the service power steering indicator illuminated. the vehicle shut off and could not be restarted. the vehicle was towed to the contact's residence. the vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. the manufacturer and dealer were not notified of the failure. the approximate failure mileage was 927,008.

Power steering failure at startup. initially, this was intermittent and restarting the car would solve the issue. the power steering is failing while actually driving. the ridiculous part is i am one of over 700 complaints and nobody had required a recall to ford. this is ridiculous and this issue will cause more and more loss of life as it occurs more frequently. this should be a recall for sure. it is a obvious manufacturer defect.

Power steering locks up intermittently - even when driving and it has happened numerous times. so far it has only happened at speeds of less than 45mph. the lights come on, the power steering no longer works but if you shut the car off, wait a minute and start back up it works fine.

Drove my car to a destination and when leaving, i got in my car, started the engine and when trying to leave, my steering was extremely altered. tried to go in reverse thinking it may be in a rut. same issue, steering was next to impossible. turned car off to explore under the hood. no power steering fluid under the hood. after searching the owners manuel and looking on line sitting in 100 degree heat i attempted again and steering was fine. it has since happened again within a weeks time and all i can think of is what happens if it looses power steering while i'm on the freeway, or if i have my grand babies with, or in the middle of a turn? what if.... people have already lost their life. what's it going to take for ford to do the right thing.

Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. while driving at unknown speeds, the steering wheel seized and "power steering failed" appeared on the instrument panel. the vehicle was towed to van bortel ford, inc. (71 marsh rd, east rochester, ny 14445, (585) 586-4415) where it was diagnosed that the electric motor failed and the rack and pinion needed to be replaced. the vehicle was not repaired. the manufacturer was notified of the failure. the approximate failure mileage was 14,000.

Power steering assist failure warning light upon cranking the car, steering wheel impossible to turn but not locked up. car hesitates/sputters at acceleration from stop

Steering assist malfunction light came on. steering wheel automatically locked. huge safety issue. should be looked at immediately. this can cause multiple accidents and even lead to death.

Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. while the contact was turning into her neighborhood at 15 mph, the steering wheel seized. the power steering indicator flashed right before the failure. the manufacturer stated there was no recall and stated that the contact would have to pay to have the vehicle towed to holman ford maple shade (571 nj-38, maple shade township, nj 08052, (888) 722-6721). the vehicle had not yet been towed, diagnosed, or repaired. the failure mileage was 92,000.

1st time - while driving on the highway the steering wheel locked up and i was unable to turn left of right. this was dangerous as it locked up while trying to switch lanes. staying in the lane and coming to a light i turned the car off then on, and it went back to normal. months later 2nd time - my car was stationary in a shopping center parking lot. when turning on my car to back out an alert turned on saying steering assist malfunction, and i was unable to turn my wheel left or right. after turning my car off and on a few times i was then able to turn my wheel. 3rd time - my car was stationary and parked on the street. (later the same day) when turning on my car to pull off an alert turned on saying steering assist malfunction, and i was unable to turn my wheel left or right. this time i had to drive home when it being super hard to turn.

Takata recall started car and dash light indicated the following message, "transmission malfunction. service now" also got power steering assist error message earlier in the month.

The electronic power steering goes out without warning while driving on a city street !!! the internet is teaming with complaints about this on this vehicle. does someone have to die before the nhtsa takes action ?

Power steering assist fault warning..results in loss of power steering dealer had to change complete steering rack told us it could happen again since it is same rack that was faulty.ford has not made changes to this system or ordered a recall

The power assisting wheel steering has malfunction and leads to very difficult wheel turning. it increase the risk of accident when the malfunction was suddenly happens when driving on road. ford franchise dealer store has verified that this issue happens on 2012-2014 ford fusion and focus and the issue happens without car being hit or involved in any accident. ford has already announced recalls for 2011-2014 escape, explorer, and mariner for power steering defect. i have experienced the exact same situation described for those recalls. therefore focus should be ianother model of ford vehicles that needs investigation for power steering defect and be recalled for repair. more complaints from focus owners online: http://m.carcomplaints.com/ford/focus/2012/steering/power_steering_failure.shtml

Steering assist malfunction on console display upon start of vehicle. steering is almost impossible and vehicle poses a serious hazard if this happens while i'm driving. recall is issued for similar problem on other models, yet no recall is issued for the same problem on the focus.

Tl* the contact owned a 2012 ford focus. while driving 25 mph, the power steering failed and the contact's daughter lost control of the vehicle. the vehicle crashed into a pole and the vehicle flipped over multiple times. the air bags did not deploy. the contact's daughter sustained neck pains that did not require medical attention. a police report was filed. the vehicle was towed and deemed totaled by the contact's insurance company. the dealer and manufacturer were not made aware of the failure. the cause of the failure was not determined. the failure mileage was unknown.

Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. while driving 20 mph, the power steering failed and the contact's daughter lost control of the vehicle. the vehicle drove into an embankment, crashed into a light pole, and flipped over multiple times. the air bags did not deploy. the contact's daughter sustained head and neck injuries that required medical attention. police report number: 85507869 was filed. the vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic. the dealer was not contacted. the manufacturer was contacted and provided case number: cas21646310. the cause of the failure was not determined. the failure mileage was 90,000.

Takata recall i noticed that this vehicle "chugs" when it is sitting idle, and that sometimes it feels as if it wants to stall while idling. there is already a recall out for this issue but i have not been informed of it. it says that 10/22/2018 there was a recall for this issue. onto the next issue, without warning my vehicle began to shake (this car is my daily driver) and then i began to hear whining whenever i would turn! help!

Steering beings to lock intermittently during driving, steering wheel locks during driving, steering wheel then becomes very hard to turn upon start up. i was driving on the freeway nearing a curve to exit when issue happened. this car cannot be operated without power steering for someone who is eldery, sick, even a normal person. the wheel just wont budge. i am trying to secure funds to pay out of pocket

Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. the contact received a recall notice for nhtsa campaign number: 18v735000 (fuel system, gasoline). the contact stated that the manufacturer exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. stuart powell ford lincoln mazda (225 s danville bypass, danville, ky 40422, (859) 236-8917) was contacted and confirmed that the parts were not available for the recall remedy. the manufacturer was notified and was not able to confirm when the parts were to become available. the contact stated that the vehicle also experienced steering failures several times. the failure mileage was unknown. vin tool confirms parts not available.

Loss of power steering

Owner of a 2012 ford focus 4d se, experienced the loss of power steering "power steering assist". it has happened to me twice within minutes of each other. going down a city street and lost control it was extremely difficult to turn to get off the street to safety. in the process of turning i came close to hitting a car. turned the car on and off, figured works for electronic devices, the "power steering assist" was removed then 10 minutes later the "power steering assist" engaged again this time turning off the freeway. very scary experience. after reading the cost to correct the issue i will be out $2000.00. is ford putting lives in danger to create another revenue stream?? i can not believe that these vehicles have not been recalled for this issue!!!! 57k miles

Have had several instances of the power steering not functioning upon start up. warning light came on, but reset and worked upon restarting. occasionally steering will take extra time, approx. 5 seconds, to function upon starting however yesterday it would not reset and function properly. had to drive approx. 5 miles with no power steering. worked properly after parking and restarting car after approx. 15 min.

Bought this used for my son's first car. power steering went out while driving. only 80000 miles on this car. this could have killed my innocent boy. recall this before someone dies!!!

The power steering for a while worked intermittently, but 1 month ago that stopped working completely.

On two separate occasions, the car lost steering ability without any warning while my son was driving on a busy highway in traffic. he was luckily able to pull over without crashing, though required considerable effort to maneuver the car out of traffic, as steering required full strength. the steering assist malfunction message appeared after the 3rd incident when he started the car in his driveway. i cannot understand how ford can can continue to endanger drivers and others by not recalling this clearly defective electronic steering system. the exact same system has been recalled in other models totaling over 1.3 million vehicles, per a new yorktimes article. this is not a small or trivial problem. in addition, ford manufacturing has notified dealers of 'steering problems' but fell short by not investigating the issue. the problem is apparently well known and documented. please do something before innocent people are injured and/or killed. we have already endured the stress of a transmission/clutch malfunction, for which ford extended the warranty to cover, but did not notify owners, as an official recall would require. our extremely honest and diligent mechanic researched it and found out, so we were able to have those repairs done at the dealer at no expense. this is a no-brained, do the right thing and issue the recall. don't play russian roulette with other people's lives.

The transmission is under class action lawsuit. having trouble with since buying in 2012, still waiting on outcome of that. today. march 27, 2019, "steering wheel assist- service needed". steering out wheel will not turn. i work i need a car. i will be calling ford today. my ford focus se is no longer under warranty, over 140,000 miles on it. i was not able to leave home for work today. sometimes when i turn the car off the time changes i then turn it back on and it goes back to the correct time. also in the past sometimes in would not start. i would wait a while and then it would start. it has not done that since i bought the car in 2012. this car has a lot of problems.

Electronic power steering assist failures. several times over the past four months my wife and i started the car and there was no power steering. the car was undrivable and warning on the dash indicated steering failure. sometimes two or more restarts were required before the warning went off and the power steering returned. although it hasn't happened yet while driving the car. my research on this failure showed that its highly possible that it could happen while driving and cause injury or death. farther research shows that repairs could cost as much as $2,200.00

After a 30 mile drive, i stopped to fill my tank. when i restarted my vehicle, i received a warning that the power steering boost had failed. i checked under the hood and did not see any other problems. i was able to drive the car back to drop off my passenger, although the steering was extremely tight. after my friend left my car, the power steering came back and the issue has not recurred. i did some research on the internet and found at least 200 other instances of similar events, leading to a total failure, and a $1600 bill from ford for each occurrence. there is a tsb which exists for this issue, and there was a recall of other ford vehicles for similar problems. however, the focus was not included in the recall but it sounds like a similar issue which necessitated the recall of 600k vehicles in 2015. there are also plenty of articles from reputable sources, like the new york times, which also document this,

Steering quits intermittently.. it's a well known and documented safety hazard as i have seen hundreds and hundreds of similar complaints. just adding one more to the list. don't see a full recall in the future but a little help with a very expensive repair would be nice.

After turning on ignition to the car a warning comes up "steering assist fault" on the information screen near the odometer. the steering wheel is then very hard to turn. this has happened 2 times in the first day of the issue. when i turn the car off and restart the car the problem goes away. i have researched and found several complaints of the same exact issue i am having and some have reported losing steering while driving so i am very concerned about my safety.

Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford focus. while driving 10 mph, the steering wheel seized and was unable to turn. the contact called denny menholt ford (located at 50 ford ln, butte, mt 59701, (406) 494-6333) and was informed to schedule an appointment for diagnostic testing. the vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. the manufacturer was not contacted. the failure mileage was 124,000.

While driving approximately 45 mph in traffic on the 5 freeway in los angeles, a warning came up on the dashboard stating "steering assist fault - service required". after the message displayed, a turn in the road was coming up and i noted that i had no power steering and had to use excessive force to turn the wheel to make the turn. luckily i managed to nurse the car back home without causing an accident or going off the road. turning at slow speeds is nearly impossible. i will be taking the vehicle into the ford dealership but it is my understanding that similar issues have occured to multiple 2012 focus vehicles and no recall has been issued similar to other recalls for different ford models. luckily my current failure did not cause an accident, but the car is not a hazard to drive for both myself and other motorists. this issue needs a recall before someone gets injured or worse, and owners don't have to fork over $1500+ to fix the issue as seems common online.

Transmission was not shifting into gears, then the reverse went out..talked to 3 different ford dealers..asked about my warranty then said no recalls on this and out of warranty would be out of pocket..so i did have an outside warranty for repairs but they said nothing was covered..so i paid aamco to fix it..3500.00 and 2 months later i am at another aamaco (because of their warranty) the new aamaco place says transmission shot need a new one..about 5 grand..so..no we drove it back home and put her to pasture..i have all paperwork on all work done..and not done..but we travel for my husband's job..so my paperwork is home in tx..we are now in tn..for a few weeks.my car acted up badly , hot transmission, had to stop several times just to get it to the shop.. also..would be great if it at least had a dip stick to check your fluids. also on first transmission work..we had to rent our motel room for 3 extra days waiting on the car repair to be completed. this after he had it a week already..i also have phone numbers and quotes from 2other people that would have worked on my car if they had the tools to work on a dual transmission.

Steering became very stiff, almost jerking at times, when turning. feels like it takes a couple seconds for the steering to correct itself like there's a delay from turning the wheel to the car actually turning. does it at low city driving speeds and on the highway. we drove it saturday, it was fine. it didn't get used sunday, and problem started on monday morning. when turning at low speeds there is also a grinding noise coming from behind the steering wheel. no warnings on dash, no incident to cause this. vehicle has only 83,000 miles. took it to the dealer and they said it's the steering gear and it will be over $1500 to fix. money i don't have for a problem that shouldn't be happening on a car this new. i'm scared to drive it and can't afford to fix it so it sits in the driveway like a giant expensive paperweight.

I was driving down the street still in my neighborhood the steering went out .i the car was almost impossible to turn ,i was able to get back home thank god i wasn't in traffic yet. when i restarted the car it reset itself, and continued to do the same to point i can't drive it at all it's too hard to control while driving. ford said it would be 2245.00 to fix it that there is no recall or anything, that's a lot of money and it's a safety hazard i just don't understand why this isn't a recall i'm trying to save money to get the problem fixed but it's hard being without your car depending on other people or catching a bus the ford dealership didn't even give me my diagnosis report even though i paid 115.00 for the diagnostic test that's not right either they gave me receipt saying i had one done and that i declined repair