Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure on the 2002 Ford Focus
2 crashes 2 injuries 4 of the 67 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 ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure gets reported
Owners of the 2002 Ford Focus report ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure at a median of 67,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 47,500 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles, from 56 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 35,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 125,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 89,724 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.
11% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 35,276 miles | 48,151 miles | 66,360 miles | 89,105 miles | 125,000 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, 2 a crash and 2 an injury are 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 $250–$1,500 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 17 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2013, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2007 at 225,000 miles.
By volume the 2000 carries the most reports, with 368; the 2002 has 67. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
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.
I have a 2002 ford focus se w/ 5 speed manual transmission and cruise control plus other options. On date listed, I was traveling at 65 MPH on a 4 lane hwy approaching a traffic light. The car was in 5th gear w/ the cruise control on. Upon touching the brake pedal to turn off the cruise control and begin braking, neither event happened. I tried 3x to get the cruise control to turn off by pressing the brake pedal hard. It failed all three times. By then, I was rapidly approaching a group of cars in both northbound lanes of ga hwy 365 completely standing still waiting for the light to change. In response to a runaway car, I attempted to drive off the right shoulder of the road; however, the car immediately in front of me did the same. I struck her car on the right side with the left side of my 2002 ford focus se. My passenger reached over & turned the ignition switch to off. I was able then to brake the car to a stop a few feet from a concrete culvert. The left front wheel of my car was folded approximately 45 degree angle and the entire front end was down on the ground. The left front tire had blown out. Neither car was driveable…
I have a 2002 ford focus se w/ 5 speed manual transmission and cruise control plus other options. On date listed, I was traveling at 65 MPH on a 4 lane hwy approaching a traffic light. The car was in 5th gear w/ the cruise control on. Upon touching the brake pedal to turn off the cruise control and begin braking, neither event happened. I tried 3x to get the cruise control to turn off by pressing the brake pedal hard. It failed all three times. By then, I was rapidly approaching a group of cars in both northbound lanes of ga hwy 365 completely standing still waiting for the light to change. In response to a runaway car, I attempted to drive off the right shoulder of the road; however, the car immediately in front of me did the same. I struck her car on the right side with the left side of my 2002 ford focus se. My passenger reached over & turned the ignition switch to off. I was able then to brake the car to a stop a few feet from a concrete culvert. The left front wheel of my car was folded approximately 45 degree angle and the entire front end was down on the ground. The left front tire had blown out. Neither car was driveable…
Car will randomly not start. This occurs both when engine has been cold for several hours and after engine has been running a while and then shut off and restarted. Car will eventually start usually after waiting about 30-40 minutes. Dealer says cannot replicate problem but they will not keep it long enough to really try. If we were to tow to dealer, car would be starting by the time it got there. Occurs at random, about 1-3 times per month since november 2003. Has been to dealership 2 times. First time, loose wire in steering column was corrected but they said nothing was wrong with car. Second time they replaced a part in ignition switch but said nothing was wrong with it to start with. Still having no-start problem. Returning to dealeriship tomorrow.*ak
Also reported on the 2002 Ford Focus
Other electrical problem
Other body or interior problem
Other wheel or tire problem
Other engine problem
Fuel pump failure
Other suspension problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 67 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 ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure happen on the 2002 Ford Focus?
Across 56 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 67,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 47,500 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure on the 2002 Ford Focus?
67 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.7 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