Electric Power Assist Steering System problems of the 2015 Ford Explorer

I drove to a soccer tournament with my wife and 3 small kids over 2 hours away from my home. About 5 mins away I received an alert that my advance trac system was disabled. When I was pulling in the hotel parking lot I received a warning that I had a steering system failure and to stop the vehicle. At this point it the power steering was totally disable and I barely missed hitting a parked car due to lack of steering control. I was able to guide the Explorer to an open space in the hotel parking lot. I was totally frustrated and terrified because if the failure had happened just two minutes earlier I would have likely crashed at highway speeds! so I was stranded in a new town 2 hours away from home with no idea how I was going to get home or how to get my Explorer diagnosed. I had the Explorer towed to a nearby dealership. (midland Ford in midland michigan) to get it diagnosed. In the meantime I had to find away to get my kids and my wife back home 2 hours away before Monday morning (school & work) without a car and on a Sunday. I was able to to find a way home but we arrived very early Monday morning. I am now facing a repair job of $2600. I surely do not think that I should pay for what is apparently a common and known defect for my Explorer. A clear safety issue that put me and my family at risk while leaving me stranded 2 hours from home.

My son-in-law was driving our car with his family and the power steering went out while on the highway. The error message on the car was “steering assist fault service required’. He could barely control the car to get it off the highway and back home. My husband took it to the dealership the next day but the error message had disappeared. The dealer was unable to diagnose the problem because they couldn’t get the diagnosis code for the issue. Then I was out with my step daughter driving the car and the power steering went out, same error message along with a new error message that read “steering fault service now”. This has happened several times so we took the car back up to the dealership and they have told us that they can’t replicate the problem and can’t get the diagnosis code so they can’t fix anything. The car has been with them for five days. I explained to the service writer that this issue keeps happening and the car keeps giving us the error message. Are we supposed to just wait until it goes out again and we end up in a horrific car accident? I have read incidents on this site with the same year, make and model all talking about the same issue yet Ford hasn’t recalled the 2015 Explorer to fix this problem. We have photos of the error messages and showed the service writer yet as it stands now they can’t do anything.

Electronic steering assist gear failed and complete loss of steering was experienced. Driver was traveling at 45 mph at the time of failure which could have resulted in serious injury or death. Ford was contacted 72 hours ago and has failed to make contact.

The contact owns a 2015 Ford Explorer. The contact stated while driving 35 mph, the steering wheel became difficult to maneuver. The "steering assist fault service required" and "service advance track" messages were displayed on the instrument panel. The contact pulled into a nearby parking lot. The contact stated she turned off the vehicle and when she restarted the vehicle, the steering wheel was easier to maneuver. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The contact stated that the failure had been reoccurring while driving. The dealer was made aware of the failure and advised the contact to take the vehicle in for diagnostic testing. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 60,000.