Other engine problem on the 2010 Ford Focus
4 crashes 2 fires 2 injuries 8 of the 42 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 engine problem gets reported
Owners of the 2010 Ford Focus report other engine problem at a median of 45,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 67,500 miles, from 35 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 145,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 129,800 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.
37% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16,200 miles | 30,200 miles | 46,000 miles | 67,500 miles | 146,000 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, 4 a crash, 2 a fire 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 $300–$4,000 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 2006, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 75,000 miles.
By volume the 2000 carries the most reports, with 327; the 2010 has 42. 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2010 ford focus. The contact stated that while driving 60 MPH, the vehicle suddenly stalled. After a few minutes, the vehicle restarted and began to drive as normal. The dealer diagnosed that there was a sensor failure inside of the engine. The vehicle was repaired. The failure mileage was 12,000 and the current mileage was 15,000.
The incident occurred on 9/1/2011 at about 3:00 pm. Traffic was light and weather was dry and sunny. We had been driving about 3 to 4 hours when the problem began. While driving the posted speed limit in ohio on I-75 southbound just south of mile marker 99 the car started behaving like I was out of gas even though I had at least a half tank left. It started to stall as I pulled it to the shoulder of the road. As I got it stopped I noticed smoke/steam coming from under the hood. I attempted to open the hood latch inside the car but was unable to. My wife and I exited the car and went to the front where she noticed it was on fire. We immediately called 911 for help. The fire department and ohio state troopers arrived and attempted to put the fire out. The car was totally destroyed as the fire completely engulfed the car. The vehicle was never modified from stock and was maintained as required. *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2010 ford focus. The contact stated that another vehicle crashed into the side of the vehicle. The air bags did deploy and the contact sustained minor injuries. A police report was filed. The vehicle could not be shut off nor shifted into park following the crash. The vehicle was towed by the contact's insurance company who ruled the vehicle as destroyed. The contact was informed that the ignition wires had to be cut to shut the vehicle off. The failure and the current mileage was 43,648.
Also reported on the 2010 Ford Focus
Other body or interior problem
Other speed control problem
Other powertrain problem
Other electrical problem
Other fuel system problem
Other wheel or tire problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 42 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 engine problem happen on the 2010 Ford Focus?
Across 35 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 45,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 67,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other engine problem on the 2010 Ford Focus?
42 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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