Steering Column problems of the 2006 Ford F-150

Drove F-150 normally during week. On weekend morning while pulling out of driveway steering wheel suddenly and sporadically began resisting effort to turn causing truck to sway unpredictably during turns. Resisting driver input. Was too dangerous to drive. After reviewing blogs online I realized a lot of other people who drive this era F-150 have the same problem. It turns out the lower steering column shaft containing the u-joints uses defective materials or has bad design. The u-joints are binding up during driving causing the driver to lose partial control over direction of vehicle. Temporary fix may be to spray with anti-corrosive spray, then lubricating spray, which I did. This lasts only a short time so the lower shaft with u-joints must be replaced. Ford knows of the defect for this era F-150 and has redesigned this lower shaft to eliminate the binding. This new design is what they sell you as a replacement, not the original design. If you try to buy one online it costs at least $245 for the o. E. M. Part. If you buy one of the 2 aftermarket knockoffs it'll set you back approx $125. The aftermarket shaft advertising touts the fact that it has a design that will not bind like the original Ford shaft does. This truck had approx 69,700 miles on it when the shaft began binding up.

The steering wheel freezes up in cold weather. My mechanic diagnosed a failed lower steering column that is exposed to roadway splash and corrosion. This is also a telescoping section of the steering column designed to protect the driver in case of frontal crash. So overnite it freezes up and slowly loosens. While driving becomes stif and results in difficult steering. 45,000 miles on odometer.

Last week I started noticing my steering starting to get stiff and the wheel does not recenter after a steer to the left or right. Ive had to do some quick muscling to recenter the wheel. I've just finished researching some other Ford forums for this vehicle and many owners have reported the same issue with the u joints on the steering column rusting or seizing. I will try spraying some anti seize on the u joints tommorow until I can get it to a garage. My truck has approximately 103,000 miles on it . This is dangerous and with the amount of complaints on this it should be recalled by Ford to correct.

Tl- the contact owns a 2006 Ford f150. The contact stated that while driving approximately 55 mph the power steering suddenly malfunctioned making the steering wheel difficult to turn and causing the vehicle to loose control and drive into on coming traffic nearly causing a crash. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and diagnosed that a lower joint in the steering column shaft had seized. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the defect. The failure mileage was 58,000. Jft.