Steering column or shaft failure on the 2000 Ford Focus
1 crash 1 of the 50 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When steering column or shaft failure gets reported
Owners of the 2000 Ford Focus report steering column or shaft failure at a median of 57,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 12,500 miles and a quarter after 77,500 miles, from 27 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 23rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 12,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 112,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 99,851 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
33% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13,600 miles | 13,600 miles | 58,000 miles | 78,000 miles | 113,451 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 a crash is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $600–$2,500 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2007, at a median of 30,000 miles, and latest on the 2013 at 95,000 miles.
By volume the 2000 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Ignition core comes completely out when removing key. Difficult to correctly realign into steering column. Have read other complaints about same problem from multiple consumers. *jb
Key lock mechanism on steering column fails (won't accept the key). This leaves the motorist and his (her) passangers stranded. I've seen many identical problems reported in numerous posts on the internet. Probably a manufacturing refect.*ak
I have a 2000 ford focus and my steering column locked up in december of 2002. I took it to a ford dealership and they replaced the ignition. I have been having on and off problems with my steering wheel locking and the key not turning to unlock it. Luckily before february 16, 2004 I was able to keep trying and finally unlock it. It is now locked again and the same ford dealership is saying that I will have to pay again to get it fixed and that the part was had a warranty of 12 months or 12000 miles. My parents have a 1988 ford escort gt my father has a 1994 ford mustang gt and my mother has a 1997 acura and haven't had any problems with the steering locking up. I believe that something is defective in the 2000 ford focus causing the lock up and that ford should have a recall on this because I shouldn't have to replace the ignition every year. *jb
Also reported on the 2000 Ford Focus
Other electrical problem
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
Other engine problem
Fuel pump failure
Other body or interior problem
Other brake problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 50 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does steering column or shaft failure happen on the 2000 Ford Focus?
Across 27 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 57,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 12,500 miles and a quarter after 77,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is steering column or shaft failure on the 2000 Ford Focus?
50 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed