Steering Rack And Pinion problems of the 2013 Ford Escape

The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. The vehicle was taken to a local mechanic for routine maintenance where it was diagnosed with needing the rack and pinion replaced. The contact stated that there was no warning light illuminated. The manufacturer was not informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 105,000.

Power steering assist fault error would come on when turning onto a street which would eliminate all power steering to the vehicle. This would happen at anytime when driving. I had the vehicle (2013 Ford Escape) serviced on 7-18-18 at the dealership. The service center informed me that the error was caused by a faulty electronic assist rack and pinion and needed to be replaced. My vehicle has only 41000 miles. I feel this is a safety issue and should be noted for a recall.

I was driving to work last Friday and I suddenly heard the alert signal and dashboard light and then I couldn't turn the steering wheel. The error message on the dash said "steering assist fault service required". I was able to turn the wheel enough to get it off the road. Luckily I was only going about 35 mph on the highway. The power steering had failed as I was driving down the highway. There were many other cars around me, but luckily they avoided me. I have one repair quote for $2000 to repair the entire power steering rack and pinion system, of which we cannot pay. We took it to 2 other mechanics who reported that they were unable to fix it because it was an electric system and had to be reprogrammed by the dealership service dept. From my research, this is the same issue Ford had with their 2008-2011 Ford explorers.

The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. While the vehicle was operated on the highway, the steering column seized. In addition, the liftgate opened independently. The vehicle was pulled over to the side of the road and driven to the contact's residence. The steering assist fault warning indicator illuminated. The vehicle was taken to autonation Ford miami (16800 NW 57th Ave, hialeah, FL) where it was diagnosed that the electric power steering and rack and pinion were defective and needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was contacted and provided case number: cas 13322662. No further assistance was offered. The manufacturer referred the contact to NHTSA due to them stating that the federal agency was responsible for adding recalls. The failure mileage was approximatley 63,606.

Power steering fails without warning and displays the fault message "steering assist fault: service required". Failure makes steering very difficult and can result in loss of control. Dealership identified the cause as a internal failure of the pscm (power steering control module) and replaced the pscm and rack and pinion assembly to repair. Please note that earlier model year Ford Escapes have a similar problem and have been recalled under NHTSA campaign number: 14v284000 and Ford recall number 14s05. As this issue is identical to the prior recall, I strongly suggest adding the 2013 model year Ford Escape vehicles to the recall. The most common time for the power steering to fail was right after startup and maneuvering out of a parking spot on a city street or garage. At this low speed manual steering is difficult and aggressive braking is required to avoid an accident once the inability to setter is apparent to the driver. Once the steering fails and the fault message appears, it could be occasionally reset by shutting down the engine and restarting the car. Turning off a car on a public road to regain steering control is undesirable and unsafe. I spoke with both Ford customer service and the Ford dealership and both claimed that there are no tsbs or recalls describing the loss of power steering for the 2013 Ford Escape. The repair invoice (attached) shows that the dealership verified the failure of the power steering control module (as in prior recalls of earlier model years) and the need to replace the pscm and entire pscm/rack and pinion assembly. The mileage at the time of repair was 45281. The fault occurred intermittently at earlier mileages and became more frequent with increasing mileage up until the time of repair to to safety concerns.