Other brake problem on the 2002 Ford Focus
3 crashes 4 injuries 7 of the 44 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 other brake problem gets reported
Owners of the 2002 Ford Focus report other brake problem at a median of 22,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 27,500 miles, from 25 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 9th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 10,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 52,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 41,334 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
80% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10,866 miles | 14,800 miles | 22,314 miles | 26,300 miles | 52,200 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, 3 a crash and 4 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 $300–$1,800 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 19 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2009, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2011 at 105,000 miles.
By volume the 2000 carries the most reports, with 224; the 2002 has 44. 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 purchased a 2002 ford focus se. At 10,956 miles I had to replace the front brakes. I was billed 256.06 for this repair. I also had a water leak that occurred on the front passenger side. The leak was fixed. The problem was said to be the pollen filter. The center console was loose, that was also fixed asap. And lastly the fuel economy is far from what ford claims it to be. Please visit www.fordfocusbrakeproblems.com for more info. *jb
The vehicle was taken to the dealer because noise was heard coming from the front brakes. The dealer replaced the front brakes. *ak the brake problem continued. The radio had no bass and after the vehicle was shut off the radio would turn back on. *scc *nlm
2002 ford focus has failure of front brake calipers, needs replacing of rotors, pads and calipers under warranty but dealer refuses to agree to this estimate by master brake. Dealer says I only need pads and rotors machined. Car only has 14,692 miles on it.*ak
Also reported on the 2002 Ford Focus
Other electrical problem
Other body or interior problem
Other wheel or tire problem
Other engine problem
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
Fuel pump failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 44 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 other brake problem happen on the 2002 Ford Focus?
Across 25 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 22,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 27,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other brake problem on the 2002 Ford Focus?
44 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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