Steering Is Tight problems of the 2016 Ford Explorer

Wife was shopping in another city and steering locked up when she started it after being parked in a lot ,warning signals came on . Turned Explorer off and restarted car and drove fine and drove home 50 miles . Went to hockey game at an arena , came out and started car and steering was hard to steer ( no power steering ) but managed to drive home 2 miles and put in garage . Looked for power steering resevour and there was none under hood thinking low on fluid . Looked in owners manual and saw -- all electronic ! drove it to dealership next day ( weekend ) and parked it even though it was hard to steer . Googled this problem and saw all the same problems that others had with this steering gear ! went to dealer Monday morning and they checked it out and called me to tell me it was the steering rack that needed to be replaced at a cost of approximately $ 2500 and part had to come out of detroit and would take a few days to get here and then repair it . Called me yesterday and car was done ( $ 2395. 91 ) why no recalls ???.

I was stationary in a parking lot and started the vehicle to find messages steering assist fault service required, hill start assist not available, service advance trac, and terrain management system fault all displayed on the instrument cluster. There was no power steering assistance and the steering wheel was incredibly hard to turn. In the days leading up to the failure I noticed on a few occasions the steering wheel would not center after exiting a 90 degree turn and I would have to provide input to straighten the wheels. The electric power steering rack has failed and there are not even any parts available for this, nor does it appear Ford has acknowledge they have a widespread problem. .

I took my 2016 Ford Explorer XLT on Dec 29th 2020 to get a oil change etc. They had the vehicle all day even though I took it in at 7am. I pick it up a 4:45 pm then drive it home because I work from home I did not drive it again until Saturday Jan 9th 2021, while driving it that morning I realized that the steering wheel was hard to steer and the truck would make noises when I turn the steering in either direction. I took it in to the dealership that morning and asked the service consultant to take a look at it. He told me while my father was on the phone that he believes it the rack and pinion and he can't take it because they are busy and it's okay for me to drive it. I also told him at that time I am supposed to drive out of town and I won't be back for awhile so if there is a problem I rather leave it so it can be fixed. I have damaged on my c5 vertebrae so I can feel the hardness in the steering. He assured or dismissed me but he said it's fine. A few hours later the steering wheel seized up and the dashboard started making noise and the warning lights and messages started to displaying. It almost killed both my mother and I on the highway. If you know nyc highway you know there is no shoulders. When I pulled of the road the steering wheel locked up and I could not move it. I had to pay for the truck to be towed and a uber for myself back to the dealership and then paid for me to get home. Now they are telling me that I have to pay $2719. 81 for the rack and pinion repair and the also pay for the strut bearing to be repaired which they haven't given me the price for it because "it was too much to give me both price at once. " OH by the way, this is the same service consultant that told me it was fine for me to drive and almost killed 2 generation of my family at the same time. I am pissed!! now I see other customers complaining about the same issue on there SUV!!.

The steering makes popping and grinding noise when turning left or right. Also at times the steering is hard, there is resistance . I have to use two hands force-ably to turn. At fist I thought this was an isolated indecent but realize its getting worse over time. Was roughly around 65,000 miles when I first noticed popping noise. The vehicle has approximately 80,165 miles on it. The majority is highway miles.