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2016 Ford Focus Electrical Problems

44 owner-reported electrical complaints from NHTSA data

44
Complaints
2
Fires
Jan 2019Dec 2022
Date Range

Data sourced from NHTSA public database. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified mechanic.

Owner Complaints (44)

criticalELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,EQUIPMENT
Filed: May 2024

My radio stopped working and is now making horrible loud screeching and popping noises loud enough to startle me and almost cause a crash from the reaction I have to the loud sudden noises

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NHTSA #: 11589801
criticalELECTRICAL SYSTEM
FireFiled: Sep 2019

Tl* the contact owns a 2016 ford focus electric. While the vehicle was parked in the driveway, the charger cable overheated and burned. The contact stated that there was a burn mark on the outlet.

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NHTSA #: 11256941
criticalELECTRICAL SYSTEM,STRUCTURE
FireFiled: May 2019

" takata recall" I was driving to work when my car started smelling hot. I literally just left my house I was about 5 miles from home. It smelled like how you use the heater for the first time during cold weather.

NHTSA #: 11207047
criticalELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE
Filed: Oct 2017

Just filled my gas tank up then as I left the gas station got about 1 mile up the road then while sitting at a stoplight I turned the AC on and idle dipped, car felt like it was going to die(which it did) then as I tried to re-start, cel came on and car would not start. About 2 more times and it fired up along with a service engine soon message ...

NHTSA #: 11035325
criticalELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Filed: Jun 2017

Rodents ate through wiring effecting emission cable (located at rear of vehicle--just below gas tank)--this had to be replaced costing approx $500.--parts totaled only $15. Labor costs totally ridiculous--

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NHTSA #: 10993302
criticalELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Filed: Feb 2017

Rodents chewed through wiring because the wire is made from soybeans. Potential fire hazard. Makes car inoperable.

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NHTSA #: 10950074
highELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE
Filed: Jan 2026

I am writing to file a formal complaint regarding an ongoing mechanical issue with my 2016 Ford Focus. Although my vehicle currently shows zero active recalls, I have experienced a recurring and concerning problem. Each time I turn on the air conditioning and the air begins to blow cold, my engine temperature rises significantly and causes the vehicle to overheat.

NHTSA #: 11713578
highELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Filed: Apr 2025

The contact owns a 2016 Ford Focus. The contact stated that while his daughter was driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle inadvertently lost motive power. The driver was able to pull over to the shoulder of the roadway, where the vehicle failed to restart.

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NHTSA #: 11652549
highELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM
Filed: Aug 2023

My car has become hard to start after I fill up with gas. It also randomly loses all power. While driving everything in the car stops.

NHTSA #: 11536177
highELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM
Filed: Dec 2022

I got my 2016 Ford Focus in the summer of 2019 and from the start I had issues. The first issue was my car overheating the coolant tank kept getting a hole burned in it and the coolant would leak leaving my car to overheat I've had the tank replaced twice. The second issue was my car just kept turning off still don't know what that was about.

NHTSA #: 11496565
highELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM
Filed: Apr 2022

Car died and would not accelerate after slowing down to turn; no warning or dashboard lights on before incident; no overheating; started back up afterwards but stalled before engine turn over. Happened 3 times within 30 minutes

NHTSA #: 11459301
highELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE
Filed: Apr 2020

It rained, and car stopped. No motive power. A red warning, "stop safely now" message on dash.

NHTSA #: 11319990
highELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE
Filed: Mar 2020

Tl* the contact owns a 2016 ford focus. The contact stated while his girlfriend was driving approximately 10 MPH, the vehicle stalled without warning. The failure recurred three consecutive times.

NHTSA #: 11317535
highELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE
Filed: Jan 2020

Earlier in january, I was driving down interstate 70 from kansas city to st. Louis at the rate of 77 MPH. All of a sudden the car dings and sends a message on the dash "engine failure" and the car literally shuts down.

NHTSA #: 11302733
highELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE
Filed: Sep 2017

Our ford focus stalled and could not restart. The car was able to start up with no problem, run for a few minutes but stalled when driving. The battery light came on and the engine would not turn over when attempting to restart the car.

NHTSA #: 11023911
mediumELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE
Filed: Jun 2025

The contact owns a 2016 Ford Focus. The contact stated while driving at an unknown speed, an alarm sounded, the message " Pull Car Over Safely " was displayed, and the vehicle turned off independently. The contact stated that the vehicle was turned off and was restarted several times; however, the failure persisted.

NHTSA #: 11666609
mediumELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Filed: Jan 2025

While driving my car started skipping from first to second gear and then lowering acceleration. When at a complete stop car would not accelerate and just revs through first and second gear making a pinging clicking sound. Brought to dealership to be told codes p0702 and code p0734 were reading.

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NHTSA #: 11636276
mediumELECTRICAL SYSTEM,EQUIPMENT
Filed: Nov 2023

Radio will randomly cause a loud popping or screeching sound from the speaker while driving this is a common issue know by ford dealers that requires replacing the ACM witch is $800 for just the part.

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NHTSA #: 11553483
mediumELECTRICAL SYSTEM,WHEELS
Filed: Oct 2023

The lug nuts are swollen and cannot be unscrewed. Also my electrical system inside my car goes off sometimes for unknown reasons. I'm talking about my stereo.

NHTSA #: 11552477
mediumELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE
Filed: Jul 2023

2016 FORD FOCUS VIN: 1FADP3F20GL341128 Mileage: 64,750 Hello I am having problems with my 2016 Ford Focus. The vehicle is shuddering, moving forward, problems in shifting, vibrating and Ford cannot do anything about this as they have told me that you have not added this model on the recall.

NHTSA #: 11532023
mediumELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Filed: Jun 2023

The speakers are making a LOUD POPPING AND CRACKING. This is now happening with the radio turned off, and no Bluetooth connected to it. It even sometimes does it when the car is completely turned off.

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NHTSA #: 11527662
mediumELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Filed: Apr 2022

The contact owns a 2016 Ford Focus. The contact stated that the fuel gauge was not reading the correct fuel level. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer.

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NHTSA #: 11462231
mediumELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Filed: Feb 2021

My vehicle started all of the sudden to make some noises after the engine is off and the headlights are turning on on their own.we were told the battery is low , which we replaced but the vehicle still does the same.vehicle was parked when we first noticed.

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NHTSA #: 11395116
mediumELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE
Filed: Sep 2020

My car feels like it's jerking.

NHTSA #: 11361013
mediumELECTRICAL SYSTEM,EXTERIOR LIGHTING
Filed: Jul 2020

My driver side headlight kept giving out and to find out the wire of the socket to the low beam light is melting causing my headlight not to work. I replaced it now it's still melting again I'm afraid that's there something wrong with the wiring.

NHTSA #: 11340535
mediumELECTRICAL SYSTEM,EXTERIOR LIGHTING
Filed: Apr 2020

Tl* the contact owns a 2016 ford focus. The contact stated that while driving approximately 35 MPH and attempting to make a turn, the headlamps and instrument panel became inoperable. The contact stated that there was no warning prior to the failure.

NHTSA #: 11322506
mediumELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Filed: Aug 2019

Tl* the contact owns a 2016 ford focus. While driving various speeds, the infotainment screen malfunctioned and caused the screen to freeze. The contact heard a loud noise when the failure occurred.

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NHTSA #: 11245502
mediumELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ELECTRONIC STABILITY CONTROL (ESC),ENGINE
Filed: Jan 2019

Overheating

NHTSA #: 11166664
mediumELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,VISIBILITY/WIPER
Filed: Mar 2018

Wiper blades stopping in line of sight during rain and snow conditions car has been taken to dealer multiple times and not being fixed. Has replaced windshield and motors and still occurring. Video showing problem not being taken seriously and tired of ricart not fixing

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NHTSA #: 11076807
mediumELECTRICAL SYSTEM,EXTERIOR LIGHTING
Filed: Mar 2017

Tl* the contact owns a 2016 ford focus. The contact noticed that the headlights on the vehicle did not illuminate bright enough. The dealer stated that they could not remedy the headlight failure.

NHTSA #: 10958013
lowELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE
Filed: Jan 2026

This vehicle been having problems with heater

NHTSA #: 11712802
lowELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE
Filed: Jul 2024

When on freeway car suddenly displays an alert saying Stop safely now And will shut off , while driving makes it impossible to properly control the car . It has done this on multiple occasions, On the freeway , on residential streets and also when starting from park and proceeding to drive car has suddenly stopped and unable to restart right away

NHTSA #: 11599912
lowELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Filed: Jan 2023

I am having issue out of my engine harness I have shorts all in my harness and am only at 100k miles.

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NHTSA #: 11504475
lowELECTRICAL SYSTEM,EXTERIOR LIGHTING
Filed: Jan 2023

The Body Control Module controlling the lights, hatch, and door lock/unlock malfunctioned. Its a serious safety issue when the lights go out unexpectedly while driving.

NHTSA #: 11502673
lowELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Filed: Dec 2022

The radio makes sudden extremely loud popping sounds out of nowhere that are startling, this can happen when the radio is off. Makes me jump and that’s unsafe during operating the vehicle. This should be a safety recall!

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NHTSA #: 11498859
lowELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Filed: Jul 2022

The vehicle transmission looses power on the highway and it’s too dangerous to be on the road. I was arguing with Ford customer service but they said my car is not covered under some kind of transmission recall.

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NHTSA #: 11475150
lowELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Filed: Jan 2021

My power steering went out without giving me warning messages first, this happened last week 01/07/21. It's reading "steering loss".

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NHTSA #: 11387789
lowELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Filed: Oct 2020

When shifting into reverse, backup camera for 2016 ford focus se frequently displays as "camera unavailable" or displays an image too dark to decipher.

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NHTSA #: 11362507
lowELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM
Filed: Sep 2019

The update was done on the pcm due to vehicle not starting and fuel gage saying empty when I knew it had more than half tank. Now it is doing the same thing only worse. It worries me that this has cause my ignition to go bad as well due to this recall.

NHTSA #: 11253113
lowELECTRICAL SYSTEM,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM
Filed: Apr 2019

The vehicle shuts down, while coming to a stop. The message in the window reads, put the car in park in restart the vehicle. This has happened on four occasions.

NHTSA #: 11193629
lowELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Filed: Apr 2019

Ive had several occasions where I have my keys in my purse never opened the hatch in the back went inside a store came back out to my hatchback door open this is very concerning to me I do have my sons baseball equipment and my speakers in which one got stolen I need to know if anything is going to be done soon so I know what my next steps are going to be.

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NHTSA #: 11193330
lowELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Filed: Oct 2018

I have a 2016 ford focus hatchback every time when it rains hard or when I have the car washed water is getting into the wiring underneath the taillights shorting out the wiring I smelling burnt wiring the left taillight is out, the right brake light stays on, the right rear red turn signal is out,the left front side running light is out, the right front side turn signal is out.

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NHTSA #: 11143777
lowELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ELECTRONIC STABILITY CONTROL (ESC),ENGINE
Filed: Jul 2018

When I cut off the car and hen got back in everything was dead nothing would come on would not even come out of park it would no do anythimg

NHTSA #: 11109786
lowELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Filed: Apr 2018

Windshield wipers stick in line of site safety hazard when driving. Has been in shop multiple times and still continues to be unsafe to drive.

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NHTSA #: 11089836

Other 2016 Ford Focus Issues