Eight problems related to wiring have been reported for the 2005 Ford Focus. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2005 Ford Focus based on all problems reported for the 2005 Focus.
The wiring between the hatch door and the body is deteriorated with a broken wire for the license plate light and the insulation cracked and missing on many of the other wires. This is a real hazard as shorts could occur affecting all the rear lights that are controlled with these wires. Luckily I read on a youtube report about this problem. I detected the problem with the vehicle parked in my garage while investigating the lighting problem.
The Ford zxw wagon's liftgate wiring harness had frayed inside the rubber housing at the junction where the gate pivots between the car body and liftgate. The wires shorted which caused the electric gate release to open at 70mph, while driving straight on a freeway. The liftgate rose up, opening the back of the cargo area to traffic. Luckily freeway speed winds kept it from completely opening, but when slowed to 30mph it went straight up. I'm lucky I had no children or animals in the back cargo area. And the fellow drivers on the road were lucky nothing shifted and fell out. The liftgate refused to latch after this point, making driving the car safely impossible. In researching the cause and repair, I noticed several forums where an identical problem with Ford's design was posted. The replacement bill at a Ford dealership was around $1,200, not including my time lost to research, repair, or finding alternative means of transportation for my business purposes. This is dangerous, potentially life threatening, and unfortunately, not fixed. The mechanics at Ford said the replacement part is the same as what was original. This will likely happen again.
The contact owns a 2005 Ford Focus. The contact stated that the wiring harness failed on the rear hatch of the vehicle. The brake lights stopped working and it caused the gear shift to become stuck. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who determined that the design of the wiring harness was too short and when it was stretched the wires caused the failure to occur. The failure mileage was unknown. The current mileage was 110,000.
An electrical short in teh rear wiring harness in the liftgate has caused the rear defrost, the rear wiper and teh high-mount rear brake light to all fail, concurrently. The dealership has commented that this was a common problem with zx3 Ford Focus model and was as recalled service issue on a prior model year. It was also cautioned by the tech that fire could result.
Ford Focus 2005 wagon. Noticed that electric lock will not open hatch back, but took no action to correct. Incident: could not move shift lever out of park leaving motorist stranded. Found that shared brake light fuse was blown. Replaced fuse, but wondered about root cause so tested brake lights. Immediately noticed that brake lights remained on when brake pedal was not pressed or pressed. Realized that this is a major safety concern, as other drivers will not be aware when the brake is pressed. After web search, I observed many documented cases of damaged wiring harness; I opened the hatch and removed the rubber boot covering the wiring harness. Immediately observed that several wires were severed and others damaged.
Hatch wiring harness fatigued and developed broken wires in the bend area of the wiring harness causing a short circuit. This resulted in loss of stop lamp function & harness burning.
Excessive heat from taillight/brakelight bulb caused plastic housing to distort and brake lights fuse to burn out, causing loss of rear brake lights. Potential for rear end collision & wiring fire. After fuse was replaced, wiring smoldered until new fuse also burned out.
The decklid wire harness has fatigued breaking 2 internal wires in the bend area. As a consequence, rear windshield wiper and decklid latch remote release function are lost. Because it is in the same harness, loosing stop lamp, defrost or vehicle registration lamp functions it just a matter of time. This failure mode has already been described only that with a different effect (loss of stop lamp). Please refer to your campaign 00v411000.