My '14 SE 5-speed is giving me this fault message, except the car won't crank over at all. The battery is about a year old, all electrical works perfectly (lights, stereo, windows, door locks, HVAC), but the car will not attempt to start whatsoever.
I last drove the car Monday night, 2/25, and the next morning I went out to start it to leave for work and it gave one small crank and then nothing. Every attempt to start the car since has been the same: "steering assist fault", and no attempts at cranking over.
I looked in the fuse panel in the engine bay and all the fuses appear fine, but just in case, I swapped the starter fuse with a good one from another feature and nothing happened. Same thing with the big starter relay: swapped it with one I knew was still good from a working feature, and nothing still.
It's too damn cold for me to stay out and mess with the car long to diagnose anything in or under the engine bay, and I can't get the car into the garage to get it on stands to get underneath it because it's parked in the driveway which is at a decent incline, so it's not like the car could be pushed into the garage.
Thankfully I have other vehicles to drive in the meantime, but my Focus is my work commuter (80 miles round trip per day) so I'd really like to get it sorted ASAP. However, I really dd NOT want to piss the money away on a tow and shop diagnosis (if they even CAN diagnose anything) if it's something I can do myself (I'm handy with a wrench and have no problem replacing any parts, but tracking down electrical problems is my worst nightmare and this car has so many goddamn electrical systems and contact points that could be the culprit).
What do you think? It's a manual 2014 with 115k miles, the battery is an OEM Ford battery and only one year old, and everything electrical works perfectly, but the car will not attempt to start at all, throws the "steering assist fault" message each time the key is first put in to start, and it showed no signs of starting or steering issues at all leading up to the morning I tried to start it.