Steering column or shaft failure on the 2013 Ford Focus
Only 6 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When steering column or shaft failure gets reported
There are 6 reports of steering column or shaft failure on the 2013 Ford Focus, 6 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 45th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 96,294 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
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 carries the most reports, with 50; the 2013 has 6. 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.
Power steering assist failure indicated on instrument panel and full loss of any steering assist. Steering requires/required lots of muscle to maintain any form of active driver intended steering changes. It may fail at highway speeds of 70 or on vehicle startup. Fortunately, we were able to maintain control of the vehicle and find a safe place to stop and fortunately reset the power assist without anyone being injured or killed. Restarting vehicle reset the ps assist module for a few months but the system is now fully nonworking. The steering goes out whenever it desires. The vehicle is currently in the shop with a possible rack-and-pinion replacement or a steering column replacement once the problem is fully diagnosed. This will also require a vehicle alignment and possible computer reset and re-flash according to the shop. Cost will be at least $2500. Thanks ford for doing the right thing for your corporate structure and offloading your responsibility and cost for your poor engineering and design to the vehicle owner. Poor engineering and lack of willingness to fix a problem is sure to gain you a loyal following. I am almost…
Car started shifting funny so I took it to the ford dealer they said something electronic on the transmission needed changed so they did something did not charge me for anything but it's still shifts differently they said it had to get used to the way I was driving one month later my steering unit went out I took it to the ford dealer they put it on the machine the the person I talk to on the phone said it needed a whole new steering column and it was $2,100 and at that time they would readjust the module on the steering for free I said no I did not have $2,100 so I had to pay the $99 to have it put on the machine and when I got the paperwork it said nothing about a steering column it only said I declined module programming and that cost was $125 had I paid the 125 I would not have paid that had to pay the 99 dollars but there is nothing on here about a steering column I do know this is difficult for me to prove what he said to me but there is nothing on this paper saying anything about a steering column I do feel that this was a gimmick on this model because they have had so many problems my transmission is still shifting funny
Car started shifting funny so I took it to the ford dealer they said something electronic on the transmission needed changed so they did something did not charge me for anything but it's still shifts differently they said it had to get used to the way I was driving one month later my steering unit went out I took it to the ford dealer they put it on the machine the the person I talk to on the phone said it needed a whole new steering column and it was $2,100 and at that time they would readjust the module on the steering for free I said no I did not have $2,100 so I had to pay the $99 to have it put on the machine and when I got the paperwork it said nothing about a steering column it only said I declined module programming and that cost was $125 had I paid the 125 I would not have paid that had to pay the 99 dollars but there is nothing on here about a steering column I do know this is difficult for me to prove what he said to me but there is nothing on this paper saying anything about a steering column I do feel that this was a gimmick on this model because they have had so many problems my transmission is still shifting funny
Also reported on the 2013 Ford Focus
Other powertrain problem
Other engine problem
Other steering problem
Other electrical problem
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
Other fuel system problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 6 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 6 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 2013 Ford Focus?
Across 6 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 95,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. 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 2013 Ford Focus?
6 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.0 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