Steering Is Tight problems of the 2011 Ford Escape

Tl-the contact owns a 2011 Ford Escape. The contact stated while driving at unknown speeds the steering wheel was hard to move left or right. There were no warning lights illuminated. The contact restarted the vehicle and the steering wheel worked as designed. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified but no further assistance was provided. The failure mileage was 49,000. Ap.

After a 2. 5 hour out of town trip, once I came into town and slowed down to the speed limit, the steering wheel got very hard and I had a hard time controlling the vehicle at low speeds while driving on city streets. Because the steering wheel was hard, maneuvering the vehicle for turns or changing lanes was very difficult and require the use of excessive force. After reaching my destination I powered the vehicle off; when I powered it back on everything was back to normal. There were no service engine lights that came on to indicate any problem other than the steering wheel getting very hard at low speed. I found a recall online for 2011 Ford Escapes involving the electronic power steering but when I provided my VIN number to the dealership they stated the recall did not apply to me. I feel that this safety recall does in fact apply to my vehicle but was overlooked for some reason. Recall number is 14s05.

While backing from a drive the traction control light came on and I lost power/electronic steering. I have driven older vehicles without power steering but this was twice as hard to turn. I had to drive home and had to make sure traffic was clear at intersections to avoid other traffic when turning since I could not avoid going into opposing lanes. Reset itself later but went back out a week later while driving approximately 35 much and hit a small amount of slush. Limped it to the dealership. Had my wife been driving she probably would not have been able to control it. Reviews online show this is not an isolated problem and has been happening since at least 2008 that I can see. Although it did not result in a crash the possibility does increase if this happened at higher speeds.

Electrically assisted steering is hard on turns on winding roads. Had car to 2 different dealers and they say the steering is normal. It did not feel this way when it was new.

The contact owns a 2011 Ford Escape. The contact stated while driving the steering wheel was hard to maneuver and it was making a squeaky noise. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who stated that in order to remedy the failure the rack and pinion needed to be replaced. The remedy failed to repair the failure. The manufacturer was not made aware of the problem. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 2,500 and current mileage was 5,000.